Dimension Two
Creativity
Defining creativity within a media and digital literacy framework requires a shift in focus from previously established dual foci which include capital C creativity, describing uniqueness or originality in transformative performances and productions, and lowercase C creativity, concerning the value, usefulness or quality of novel solutions to relevant problems (Henriksen & Mishra, 2015; Schmidt, 2010). Creativity within MDL requires cognitive arrays of “intellectual, cultural, and aesthetic interests” (Hinriksen & Mishra, 2015, p. 7) involving media and digital contexts and topics that are grounded in social and environmental contexts.Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. Steve Jobs (n.d.)
From the research findings, I notice that creativity within the MDL of the TEd participants emerges from a creatively flexible and technologically fluent (CFTF) mindset (Henriksen & Cain, 2020), supported within an abundant personal and professional “micro-culture” (Henriksen & Mishra, 2015, p. 36). This CFTF mindset is grounded in disciplinary knowledge, technological knowledge, an experimental disposition with technologies, and a “willingness to push students to consider and re-consider what they know” (Henriksen & Cain, 2020, p. 177). This mindset and micro-culture is evident in the findings and includes a willingness to imitate and remake media (Hobbs & Friesem, 2019), as shared by Dorado, Leonis, Orion, and Vega; remix messages with diverse digital technologies as Polaris did in the digital artifact; and, integrating design thinking into technological applications within their OEPr as shared by Andromeda, Orion, and Perseus.
From the frameworks
Creativity is evident in most of the frameworks I explore for this discussion (see Table 4).- Hoechsmann and Poyntz (2012) identify creativity as one of the seven Cs, where reworking materials and applications is a key competence and that “creative practices are a powerful means for students to explore their emotional investments in the media” (p. 117).
- Although creativity is not explicitly mentioned in the MediaSmarts Canada digital media competencies, it could be encompassed under media representation, and making and remixing (McAleese & Brisson-Boivin, 2022).
- UNESCO (2013) identifies a media and information literate person as one who is able to “create/produce new information, media content or knowledge for a specific purpose in an innovative, ethical and creative manner” (p. 127) with ten specific performance criteria included within this element.
- Belshaw (2011) identifies creativity as the sixth of eight digital literacy elements with connection to ‘learning how to learn’ which involves risk-taking to redefine learning for both teachers and students.
- Martinez-Bravo et al., (2022) identify creativity as one of the elements within the cognitive dimension and relates this to cognitive processes as well as the production of creative artifacts which build knowledge through meaningful learning.
- DigCompEDU (2017) identifies creativity as one of the digital competencies and places it within the area of problem solving, content creation, and empowering learners where educators model and encourage the creative and critical use of digital technologies, fostering creative digital expressions. Creativity is also mentioned in the areas of learner engagement, self-regulated learning, and reflective practice (Redecker, 2017).
- Creativity is identified as one of the three levels that impact the eight areas of digital life in the DQ global standards and allows for problem solving within knowledge construction and content building with technologies (DQ website, n.d.).
Engaging students in digital media productions is suggested in the research as an effective strategy for developing MDL. As participants revealed in the design of their course work and evident in their OEPr, they actively engage in creative “praxis, error, analysis, and solutions, to which experience can be added … the keys to greater empowerment” (Sanchez-Lopez et al, 2021, p 112). For the participants and the TCs they teach, their “media-based narrative creation represents an opportunity to establish nodes between concepts, relational understanding, and the meaningful reconstruction of discourse and its appropriation” (Sanchez-Lopez et al., 2021, p. 112).
This creative multimodal and intertextual production and performance is echoed in the field of media education. Hoechsmann and Poyntz (2017) argue that “students need to engage with issues of production, language, representation, and audiences to address how meaning operates in the electronic media” (p. 7). Likewise the UNESCO (2013) global media and information literacy assessment framework identifies that the literate person is able to “create/produce new information, media content or knowledge for a specific purpose in an innovative, ethical and creative manner” (p. 127) and “become independent, critical and reflective thinkers as well as effective, creative knowledge workers” (p. 36). MDL are evident in the shared stories by the participants when remix and problem solving become creative acts. For example, Dorado’s lived experiences with students creating assignments on global and urban perspectives in education using Padlet technology, Merak’s story about students creating critical analysis of technologies, and students in Andromeda, Izar, Orion, Polaris, and Perseus' lived experiences when creating digital portfolios.