Creativity, Visualisation, Collaboration and Communication

Abstract

The central question of this book is: What critical issues do teachers need to know in order to help them make better decisions in the classroom? Specifi cally, in helping develop answers to this question, this chapter focuses on creativity, visualisation, collaboration and communication and will encourage readers to understand the opportunities they present. While this chapter also refers to the Australian curriculum, readers are encouraged to transfer the key messages to their own contextual settings, wherever they might be preparing to become teachers or are already practising teachers. This is important to understand because curriculum differences are likely. Therefore, the examples used in this chapter are not prescribed examples, but used for illustrative purposes to glean deeper understandings in response to the chapter’s intent. The key knowledge and skills in using digital technologies are now often integral to contemporary educational policies and curriculum, such as in the Australian curriculum. To illustrate, the Australian curriculum’s technologies learning area ‘encourages students to apply their knowledge and practical skills and processes when using technologies and other resources to create innovative solutions, independently and collaboratively, that meet current and future needs’ (ACARA, 2014a , p. 1). In addition, information and communication technology (ICT) capabilities is one of the general capabilities of the Australian curriculum, which ‘encompass the knowledge, skills, behaviours and dispositions that, together with curriculum content in each learning area and the cross-curriculum priorities, will assist students to live and work successfully in the twenty-fi rst century’ (ACARA, 2013 , p. 1). Importantly, digital technologies, which have become increasingly pervasive, present exciting challenges and opportunities for teaching and learning to promote creativity, and to enable visualisation, collaboration and communication. It is important that pre-service and practising teachers are able to design and implement meaningful learning experiences for their students so they can successfully develop and demonstrate these capabilities. This necessitates an understanding that the development of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) (see Mishra & Koehler, 2006 ; 2008 ) capabilities is required, so that digital technologies can be used to support teaching and learning to develop these skills within and across learning areas. In this way, capabilities are developed which enable technological knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and content knowledge to be drawn upon to enable young people to become ‘successful learners, confi dent and creative individuals, and active and informed citizens’ (MCEETYA, 2008 , p. 7).