Bryant’s article, A 21st
Century Art Room: The remix of creativity and technology, discusses in detail,
several steps of creative problem solving. The article is mainly based on applying those
steps to technologies in the classroom today. While I agree with what she is
saying, I believe this article is a little outdated. The article written in
2010 suggests that creative problem solving is not being taught in conjunction
with new technologies, I would beg to differ. My high school years took place
from 09-12 and I would have a hard time remembering a day when creative problem
solving was not a driving force in our art room. Reading this article was like
reading the rule book on how my art teachers conducted class; there was no
difference in whether we were focusing in traditional Medias or exploring
digital Medias, creative problem solving had a hand in it.
You
would be hard stretched today to find an art classroom where projects didn’t follow
the steps that Bryant described. For an example of her study she used a stop
motion film project. The first step in her process was creating an open ended assignment;
you cannot get much more open ended than “tell of a period of personal
transformation in your life.”1 This allowed students to create a
project based on their own personal growth. I once had a project in my
photography class in high school that followed the exact guidelines that Bryant
puts forth. The project was to tell a story of who you are in 8 photos.
The way
our project was laid was very similar to Bryant’s; the project was of course
open ended, but before we even began we followed Bryant’s second rule of mind
mapping. We had to lay out photo shoots and make thumbnail drawings of the
shots for approval. We had to take these pictures and develop them ourselves,
but we could not be in them; so of course Bryant’s third rule of using symbolism
was included. We had to create symbols for who we really were that could be
easily conveyed. This was probably the hardest part of the whole project; you
never truly realize how much you do not know yourself until you try to describe
yourself without using you.
The
actual work of this project took place in our photography classroom or in the
courtyard for outside shots. The feel of our classroom was relatively laid
back, and there was a lot of constructive discussion between students. So this
of course tied in Bryant’s fourth rule of using “peer conversations” to help
form and develop our work.
Once we
had finished developing our photos we mounted them and displayed them on a
wall. For the next class period our teacher put a response sheet under each collection
of photos and we played musical chairs. Using Bryant’s last step we critiqued each
other’s work. Our goal was to describe on the sheet what we thought the person
was like based on their photos; through this process we learned if we had
actually accomplished our goal of showing our personality through pictures.
This project took place in 2009; while I do believe in the merit of creative problem
solving, I by no means believe it is a new concept in conjunction with technology.
Creative problem solving has always been around in the art classroom and always
will, it is up to the individual art teachers to implement Bryant’s steps on
some level, whether it is obvious or not.
Notes
Bryant, C. (2010). A 21st Century Art Room: The
Remix of Creativity and Technology. Art Education, ProQuest Social Sciences
Premium Collection. Pg 43.
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