Inspiring Creativity

We live in such an exciting age--with so many resources at our fingertips... Yet at some point, it seems that creativity is "lost" in many children. Many years ago I taught a group of middle-school age children at one of my first multimedia computer centers. We were working with awesome state of the art video editing computers and other exciting new technologies. I prompted them for their ideas for a new video project, and their answer was, "Well, what do you want us to do?" In the same setting, I held another class with younger primary-school age children, and I asked the same question. This time, however, I received answers with ideas ranging from stories of safaris with wild animated characters to interesting outer space adventures. This group was not afraid to share their creative ideas with me. The older children seemed more interested in finding the "right" thing to do as a project. This is probably fairly common, since the older children may have been taught through the years to conform their ideas--out of the need to do what is "right" or "correct" in school terms.
To prepare children with the skills they need to succeed in the 21st century, we are tasked with unleashing a new generation of out-of-the-box thinkers that can solve problems, and work with entrepreneurial spirit in a globally connected economy. Fundamental to this effort is finding a way to continue to enable creativity. Technology is already intertwined in work/school/home life, and is so much more than just a tool for working or connecting socially. It is a fantastic medium that can be used as a creative outlet, with products ranging from printed work, or videos, to online environments, apps, & games. Technology should be viewed as one of the most powerful tools for fostering creativity in our youth. Young children have very creative minds, and we need to keep the creativity flowing!