Creating your own images is also an excellent tactic for re-purposing text-only content into enticing images. Here are some examples: Turn quotes into an interesting slideshow, post an event announcement on a pretty picture, place stats onto eye-catching graphs, give a blog post title some pizzaz, create an infographic about the history of your biz, create a catchy, custom featured image for a video, etc. The possibilities are endless.
To help you create images that get BuzzFeed-worthy engagement, here are 13 of our favorite and easy-to-use visual content creation tools....
A picture speaks a thousand words - some good resources here for visual content and creation to add a visual dimension to your messages, which tend to perform much better for opens and clicks than text alone.
Creativity is a skill that is often hard to teach but using apps to engage students with creative thinking and production is a fun and useful way of engaging children.
Infographics, when used correctly, appropriately, are powerful tools for conveying a lot of pertinent information plus they support visual learning and thinking. I curate a Scoopit on Infographics...
Beth Dichter's insight:
Jackie Gerstein shares her top picks for education infographics this year. Some of these have been shared in this Scoop.it but many are new. The list of infographics includes:
* The Internet Access Gap in Education
* The Past, Present and Future of Education
* State of Creativity in Education: An Adobe Survey
* The Gamification of Education
* Tapping into Mobile Learning
* Investing in Girls' Education Pays Off
Many of these would be useful as topics for discussion or to use to teach students why infographics are useful in displaying data.
Jackie Gerstein shares her top picks for education infographics this year. Some of these have been shared in this Scoop.it but many are new. The list of infographics includes:
* The Internet Access Gap in Education
* The Past, Present and Future of Education
* State of Creativity in Education: An Adobe Survey
* The Gamification of Education
* Tapping into Mobile Learning
* Investing in Girls' Education Pays Off
Many of these would be useful as topics for discussion or to use to teach students why infographics are useful in displaying data.
My creativity comes in the form of using my unique contribution to serve those around me whose lives I can touch. Or it may be in supporting those who can touch the lives of others that I cannot reach. How do I help share my love of humanity.
The Kalama Sutra shares in closing:
However, after thorough observation, investigation, analysis and reflection, when you find that anything agrees with reason and your experience, and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, and of the world at large; accept only that as true, and shape your life in accordance with it; and live up to it.
These words, the Buddha went on to say, must be applied to his own teachings.
Feel like you lack imagination? Know this: Everyone can be more original--it just takes practice.
by Christina Desmarais
"You might think of creativity as something clever marketers or copywriters whip out when they need to come up with a compelling ad, or a personal trait only certain people, such as successful serial entrepreneurs or brilliant improv actors, naturally possess. But according to Keith Sawyer, research psychologist and author of "Zig Zag: The Surprising Path to Greater Creativity," everyone can be more creative just by taking eight incremental steps, but not necessarily in linear order. His path to creativity is more back and forth, a process in which the steps to greater imagination and originality build on and feed off each other.
"The book is a gem, chock full of fascinating findings from research studies and a deep well of tactics that will get you thinking differently. In fact, Sawyer advocates what is likely a radical shift in mindset for most people. Coming up with good ideas isn't something we leave until there's a pressing need. Rather, it's is a skill that can be practiced daily to solve life's problems as well as discover its opportunities.
"Here are his steps for cultivating creativity, along with a sampling of tips that can help you along the way."
"In 1926, thirteen years before James Webb Young’s Technique for Producing Ideas and more than three decades before Arthur Koestler’s seminal “bisociation” theory of how creativity works, English social psychologist and London School of Economics co-founder Graham Wallas, sixty-eight at the time, penned The Art of Thought— an insightful theory outlining the four stages of the creative process, based both on his own empirical observations and on the accounts of famous inventors and polymaths. Though, sadly, the book is long out of print, with surviving copiessold for a fortune and available in a few public libraries, the gist of Wallas’s model has been preserved in a chapter of the 1976 treasure The Creativity Question (public library) — an invaluable selection of meditations on and approaches to creativity by some of history’s greatest minds, compiled by psychiatrist Albert Rothenberg and philosopher Carl R. Hausman, reminiscent of the 1942 gem An Anatomy of Inspiration.
"Wallas outlines four stages of the creative process — preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification— dancing in a delicate osmosis of conscious and unconscious work. These phases, which literary legend Michael Cowley would come to parallel in his 1958 model of the four stages of writing, go as follows:"
For the past 30 years creativity coach Eric Maisel, Ph.D, has worked with a variety of individuals, everyone from artists to authors to musicians to scientists
Jim Lerman's insight:
Some good tips here. I like the ones about a starting ritual, create every day, and thinking about devotion rather than discipline.
"David Lynch meditates, and he meditates hard. Beginning his practice in earnest after it helped him solve a creative problem during the production of his breakout 1977 film Eraserhead, he has continued meditating assiduously ever since, going so far as to found the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and Peace and publish a pro-meditation book called Catching the Big Fish. It might seem nonsensical to hear an artist of the grotesque like Lynch speak rapturously about voyaging into his own consciousness, let alone in his fractured all-American, askew-Jimmy-Stewart manner, but he does meditate for a practical reason: it gives him ideas. Only by meditating, he says, can he dive down and catch the “big fish” he uses as ingredients in his inimitable film, music, and visual art. You can hear more of his thoughts on meditation, consciousness, and creativity in his nine-minute speech above."
Jim Lerman's insight:
More videos and additional resources at this site.
"I recently came across an article that suggests that to be creative, we must get good at deconstructing challenges and situations into their elements. In so doing, we will reveal the bits and pieces that may be turned to creative advantage. Here’s how the author explains it:
“To get good at creativity, you’re going to have to cultivate the ability to pay attention to details. We talk about ‘close reading’ frequently in literature, art history, and architectural criticism—it’s the process of looking at a single work incredibly carefully. Imagine looking at a few hundred words of a novel and examining it for context, tone, literary references, structure, intent, etc. In a way, for the moment, we treat those few hundred words as more valuable and with more intensity than the entire novel itself. We treat details of problems with the same level of regard and intensity when we’re being creative.”
"It’s sort of like peeling away the layers of an onion. And this kind of deconstruction is exactly the kind of thing that mind mapping – by hand or with software – is incredibly good at. One way to do this is by dividing your creative problem or challenge into its attributes and arranging them in a mind map, similar to the one shown above. Once you’ve done this you can think about each one separately, and think of ways to change or improve it. One advantage of utilizing a mind map for listing attributes is its strength in the area of word association. As you record the attributes of your challenge, you’ll discover that your brain is generating other related keywords. Record those, too."
"At the age of 20, Lorenzo the Magnificent was the most powerful and wealthiest man in 15th century Europe. His father, Piero di Cosimo de' Medici, had recently died and left him the Medici bank along with the reins of the Florentine government.
"By exploring Lorenzo’s patronage we can learn not just about generosity and sponsorship, but about how to inspire real creativity and talent.
"Here are four ways, drawn from the experiences of Lorenzo, that you can get the best out of your ‘creatives’"
What a great discussion starter for kids. Lots of opportunities for classroom teachers as tool for writing prompts, class meetings or evaluating information.
"I want to share with you some of the articles I have curated and read about creativity, a topic of much relevance to us in education. I have collected these articles probably over a period of 6 or 7 months but they are some of the best reads you can find online and I enjoyed reading every single line of them. You can bookmark them too and read them when you have time. Enjoy."
The answer: in more ways than you could imagine. While Skype was not designed as an educational tool, it’s quickly becoming one as teachers discover the many ways it enriches their lessons and the lives of their students. Even something as simple as hosting a guest speaker through a video call can add excitement to a lesson.
As with any tech tool, it can seem daunting to introduce this into your classroom at first. If you don’t know where to start, try one of these five creative ideas.
Skype is a great tool to use in learning as it provides real time engagement with experts. This a great article with ideas about thinking outside of the box when integrating Skype.
Microsoft recently showcased a new Skype feature that allows for real-time, two-way, voice translation! This feature will make the Skype Cultural Exchange even more extensible and will allow those who use Skype for non-native language acquisition to have in-depth conversations, in their own languages, about their progress and issues in their learning.
Rescooped from Sarah Kozlowski. This make distance learning possible for virtual classrooms. While this setup up isn't ideal for a lot of virtual classroom setups, it can work as a low-tech solution.
Buncee is fun and easy web tool for educators and students to create and share engaging multimedia presentations, interactive lessons, digital stories, and more
Beth Dichter's insight:
Buncee is a new tool that allows you (or your students) to create presentations...think of it is a digital canvas. There is a free version and it allows you to create a 2 slide presentation. There is also an edu version available for a cost. To read a post that provides additional information check out http://ilearntechnology.com/?p=5230
Buncee is a new tool that allows you (or your students) to create presentations...think of it is a digital canvas. There is a free version and it allows you to create a 2 slide presentation. There is also an edu version available for a cost. To read a post that provides additional information check out http://ilearntechnology.com/?p=5230
Looks like a great presentation tool with plenty of possibilities for classroom and school library use. However, the free educators' account only offers two slides... Not so great!
How to make the most of your creative mind Tony Buzan, Author, educationalist and the creator of Mind Mapping (R) Very few people can claim to have invented ...
Dennis T OConnor's insight:
I used to teach Tony Buzan's techniques to my 8th graders (way back before the turn of the century). Great ideas for idea generation during the writing process, and for researching and notetaking.
Presented by Carolyn Skibba, Technology Coordinator and Apple Distinguished Educator
"One of the most compelling benefits of classroom technology is that it enables students to share their ideas and knowledge in powerful new ways. Effective, thoughtful integration of mobile apps can empower students to create quality, meaningful work for a worldwide audience. Ultimately, this leads to true engagement that transforms how students see themselves and their learning. Through this webinar, you will learn how to integrate some of the best apps for student creativity and publishing. You will also gain practical tips that will support you and your students in creating authentic content and sharing it easily with others."
"It's a long term, unwritten rule: We get our best ideas in the shower. Why does this happen? Here is an exploration of the science of creativity:
“We think what we see is a relaxation of ‘executive functions’ to allow more natural de-focused attention and uncensored processes to occur that might be the hallmark of creativity,” says Braun.
"So, the areas in our brain, that we use to make decisions is largely inactive. The “medial prefrontal cortex” area, which is responsible to learn association, context, events and emotional responses however was extremely active on the other hand. This graphic of brain activity probably describes it best (see graphic above):
A little science to ponder! We are not born creative or non creative. The skills of creativity can be taught. It is a different way of thinking. It is a different way of looking at the world. It is slowing down and asking questions. It is giving yourself permission to take the time. It is....
"We do not need to teach creativity, but rather inspire its daily practice. Somewhere along the way, we simply forgot to honor this innate gift and how to access its power. Our role as educators is to encourage learning experiences that increase the ability to recognize and listen to our inner voice.
"Let us begin by shifting emphasis from finding the right answer to creating school cultures that encourage risk-taking and embrace ambiguity. Psychologist Carl Rogers believed that we repress and even hide creative talent if our working environment is not psychologically safe or grounded on unconditional acceptance and empathy. Building a culture of trust is the first essential ingredient for an innovative community of thinkers to emerge. In order for innovation to breed, we need to feel safe enough to get out of our comfort zone, embrace uncertainty, take chances, and effectively collaborate with others. Together we can build ways to enhance rather than undermine creative thinking. No app, nor piece of technology, can produce this. It grows from the hearts, hands and guidance of a caring community."
You are so correct! Many of my students simply want 'the" answer and don't realize that it is through their own creativity and ingenuity that is truly the right answer.
Building a culture of trust is the first essential ingredient for a community of creative thinkers to emerge. There are many different things were students can embrace and collaborate effectively. Educators can build ways to enhance rather than undermine creative thinking.
"The latest findings from the real neuroscience of creativity suggest that the right brain/left brain distinction is not the right one when it comes to understanding how creativity is implemented in the brain. Creativity does not involve a single brain region or single side of the brain.
"Instead, the entire creative process– from the initial burst of inspiration to the final polished product– consists of many interacting cognitive processes and emotions. Depending on the stage of the creative process, and what you’re actually attempting to create, different brain regions are recruited to handle the task.
"Importantly, many of these brain regions work as a team to get the job done, and many recruit structures from both the left and right side of the brain. In recent years, evidence has accumulated suggesting that “cognition results from the dynamic interactions of distributed brain areas operating in large-scale networks.”
"For as long as I can remember — and certainly long before I had the term for it — I’ve believed that creativity is combinatorial: Alive and awake to the world, we amass a collection of cross-disciplinary building blocks — knowledge, memories, bits of information, sparks of inspiration, and other existing ideas — that we then combine and recombine, mostly unconsciously, into something “new.” From this vast and cross-disciplinary mental pool of resources beckons the infrastructure of what we call our “own” “original” ideas. The notion, of course, is not new — some of history’s greatest minds across art, science, poetry, and cinema have articulated it, directly or indirectly, in one form or another: Arthur Koestler’s famous theory of “bisociation” explained creativity through the combination of elements that don’t ordinarily belong together; graphic designer Paula Scher likens creativity to a slot machine that aligns the seemingly random jumble of stuff in our heads into a suddenly miraculous combination; T. S. Eliot believed that the poet’s mind incubates fragmentary thoughts into beautiful ideas; the great Stephen Jay Gouldmaintained that connecting the seemingly unconnected is the secret of genius;Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press embodied this combinatorial creativity; even what we call “intuition” is based on the unconscious application of this very mental faculty.
"The concept, in fact, was perhaps best explained by Albert Einstein, who termed it “combinatory play.” (Einstein famously came up with some of his best scientific ideas during his violin breaks.) From his Ideas and Opinions (public library) — the same invaluable volume that gave us the beloved physicist’s timeless wisdom on kindness and our shared existence — comes Einstein’s single most succinct articulation of how his mind works, driven by this powerful combinatorial creativity. The 1945 letter was written in response to French mathematician Jacques S. Hadamard’s survey of the mental processes of famous scientists, inspired by polymath Henri Poincaré’s famous meditation on the subject and published as An Essay on the Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical Field, with Einstein’s missive included as a “testimonial”:
"Some really inspirational quotes have power to introduce major change in our life. Quotes from famous people can significantly change our mind about a particular thing. However it depends on you that which types of quotes you like the most to get inspiration. But whatever you like, it’s acknowledged that without creativity life seems boring. So today we comes with a collection of some really inspiring and most admired quotes on creativity that will surely help you to get inspired. Enjoy!"
Toronto-based designer Scott Wise has illustrated the ‘creative process’—imagining it as abstract illustrations.
In the series, the elements commonly-known to those in the creative industry—‘core idea’, ‘brainstorm’, ‘ideation’, ‘iteration’, ‘refinement’, and ‘feedback loop’—are visually summarized.
Creativity is defined as the ability to create, but sometimes, we seem to lose that ability all of a sudden.
Luckily, Jordan-based art director Islam Abudaoud has created a useful infographic that teaches us ways to stay creative.
Titled ‘29 Ways To Stay Creative’, the infographic illustrates the “creative process and methods to keep a person moving forward and motivated to keep doing more”.
For more information, check out the infographic at designtaxi.com...
"Educators are always striving to find ways to make curriculum relevant in students’ everyday lives. More and more teachers are using social media around lessons, allowing students to use their cell phones to do research and participate in class, and developing their curriculum around projects to ground learning around an activity. These strategies are all part of a larger goal to help students connect to social and cultural spaces."
A look at Henry Jenkins work on participatory learning and PLAY (Participatory Learning and You). So what is PLAY? "...'a mode of experimentation, of testing materials, trying out new solutions, exploring new horizons,' Jenkins said. It’s how kids interact with games – throwing themselves in without reading the rules, testing the limits and feeling free to try and fail."
This post provides a number of examples, discusses assesement and play, and provides links to additional articles on the subject.
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A picture speaks a thousand words - some good resources here for visual content and creation to add a visual dimension to your messages, which tend to perform much better for opens and clicks than text alone.
Content is shared in many forms. These tools make it pretty easy to get creative.