Creating: Day 8, Term 3, 2025

Creating: Day 8, Term 3, 2025

Phew! We’re coming to the end of the RPI journey, but the speed and volume of learning does not slow down. Future learners, beware…

Today’s overarching theme was “Create.”

Dorothy spoke about the importance of giving learners the opportunity to create, as it engages and empowers them in their learning. I really liked this quote by James Gee (New London Group):

“Don’t empower people to just be consumers but empower them to be producers and creative thinkers.” This is such a great quote and so valid in todays society. My class and I just finished a piece on overconsumption/ fast fashion and how wasteful we are being. It makes you think of how wasteful we are in other areas of life as well. Create tasks help generate this sort of thinking. 

Dorothy also spoke about Sisomo, which stands for sight, sound, and motion. (Fun fact: the guy behind Toyota’s “Bugger” ads goes by SISOMO and uses it in his TV advertising.) With digital tools, we can now create like never before. For example, the podcasting tool in Adobe Express is another great way to support "create" tasks.

Professor Jonathan Neelands, Creative Fellow at Warwick University (England), had some really insightful messages in his video. I missed a few parts, but here’s what stuck with me:

• Mixing people is valuable—it brings variety and different ways of thinking and working.
• We need to do more in the arts, sciences, and technology areas to foster creative thinking and learning.
• This approach will help develop ambitious students—not just for themselves, but for society as a whole.
• STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) continues to play a key role in nurturing creative thinking.

(As the day gets on, there tends to be more create tasks so my note taking starts to look like bullet points instead, as seen below)

Creative thinking: 

• Not being passive about texts but being creative about texts.
• Because of AI- We need critical thinkers to navigate that space i.e. when to spot a fake, scam
• We need to produce and explore these areas so that they can be critical of what they see online
• Learners who have the opportunity to create are more likely to be engaged. 

Recap: 

• What do I need to change? More hands on create tasks and give the students more opportunity to be collaborative (My focus for the next three weeks).
• Engagement and empowerment= why create is so important
• Use looser and tighter ways to design create to learn 
• Opportunities for choice- and collaboration: feedback, co-construct, digital word walls, the chapter examples on a google site rather than on google slides like we are use to is useful for learners being able to work at their own pace. 
• One shot film- Here is my submission about a book title called, "Pitiera by Kiwa Hammond".
• Stencil designs- To go with work about a book for the Koroneihana (Coronation).
• Use remove background to put tamariki into spaces they won't get the opportunity to go to.

See you all on day 9. 

-Tiaira :)