Imagination, our greatest learning tool

On Saturday I presented at the Autumn Arts Research Seminar at Victoria University....wow... quite a few...over a hundred... turned up to my workshop. Great to see so much enthusiasm for imagination.

Imagination is our greatest learning tool.

Imagination is our greatest learning tool.
Imagination in IT is suffocating. It is suffocating because the software developer is in control. This is not a place to explore. This is not a place to make mistakes. If a child heads off down their own discovery path a road block appears, a warning about this course of action. Do as the software demands or delete.
If you do the right thing, the thing that the software demands of you, there are all sorts of bells and whistles to tell you you have been good, that you are the most fantastic, amazing individual. You did what you were told. Now you get to move on. Too bad if you liked that activity and would like to try it again.... NOOO!  Move on. No repetition is allowed.
Good luck at finding an adult to join you in these mind numbing tasks. Content is deemed to be "good" if it requires no teacher input. If you the child can do it all day, everyday without assistance. What happened to support for learning, extension and motivation. What  happened to integration....and what happened to imagination.

My presentation didn't complain on and on about these things in a downward spiral, it offered some solutions. Like the opportunities for integration for hands-on learning that our  resources  promote. The openness of these resources that let children think, create and imagine.

Learning is fluid, dynamic and limitless. It is an art. Let's open up the digital space to imagination and  spark the greatest possible learning.