Creativity

Creativity

Traditionally, creativity is more considered in the art design and music composition. Although it is not easy to find the research about creativity in the educational field, in fact, creativity is the one of main considerations in the multimedia project.

What is creativity? Sternberg and Lubert (1995) proposed that novelty must be coupled with appropriateness for something to be considered creative. Although creativity can be seen in the products, it can also be considered in terms of the process. Weisberg (1986) proposes that creativity can be defined by the novel use of tools to solve problems or novel problem solving. From this point of view, our multimedia project involved creativity not only during the design process and also the applications which were used to apply for the content.

The most famous creativity model is Graham Wallas’ model. Wallas (1926) proposed that creativity involves four consecutive stages: preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification.
1. Preparation. The person expecting to gain new insights must know his field of study and be well prepared. This fits what we have experienced that people get ingenious ideas mainly in their own fields - poets in poetry; scientists, in science. In the preparation stage we define the problem, need, or desire, and gather any information the solution or response needs to account for, and set up criteria for verifying the solution's acceptability.

2. Incubation - Wallas noticed many great ideas came only a period of time spent away from the problem. Many ideas come to us when we are away from the problem, usually after actively engaging with the problem. This could be explained in Weisberg (1986) that the creativity was thought to stem from unconscious thought processes. In the incubation stage, we step back from the problem and let our minds contemplate and work it through. Like preparation, incubation can last minutes, weeks, even years.

3. Illumination. It's a mysterious phase. Resting the mind by doing other activities was the only suggestion Wallas could offer about how creative ideas form., like a “click” or “flash.” In the illumination stage, ideas arise from the mind to provide the basis of a creative response. These ideas can be pieces of the whole or the whole itself, i.e. seeing the entire concept or entity all at once. Unlike the other stages, illumination is often very brief, involving a tremendous rush of insights within a few minutes or hours.

4. Verification. In this final step, efforts are made to see if the "happy idea" actually solves the problem. Since "great" ideas don't always work out in actual situation, this final step is vitally important to the success of any project. In verification, the final stage, one carries out activities to demonstrate whether or not what emerged in illumination satisfies the need and the criteria defined in the preparation stage. From this point of view, Gabora (2002) pointed out that creativity transforms and evolves a collection of old ideas into new ones rather than just unconscious procedures, which might imply that the creativity could be trained.

Moreover, Poon Teng Fatt's (2000) emphasizes the gathering of ideas in groups and the fostering for the free flow of ideas. By encouraging group discussion, brainwave will be encouraged along with the sharing of ideas and experiences.

Our traditional creative thinking only focuses on the brainstorming stage, however, the creative process involves purposeful analysis, imaginative idea generation, and critical evaluation – the total creative process is a balance of imagination and analysis (Plsek, 1996).

In Appreciation of Professor multimedia project, the design group create a unique multimedia project by considering the culture, community and historical perspectives. The ability of the creativity could be analyzed from the content, the design procedures and the final product, which could be integrated into the other projects in the multimedia learning and teaching environment.


References
Gabora, L. (2002). Cognitive mechanisms underlying the creative process. In T. T. Hewett & T. Kavanagh (Eds.), Creativity & cognition: Proceedings of the Fourth Creativity & Cognition Conference (pp. 126-133). New York: ACM Press.

Plsek, Paul E. (1996). Working paper: models for the creative process. Retrieved from http://www.directedcreativity.com/pages/WPModels.html

Poon Teng Fatt, J. (2000). Fostering creativity in education. Education, 120, 744-757.

Sternberg, R. J. & Lubart, T. I. (1995). Defying the crowd: Cultivating creativity in a culture of conformity. New York: Free Press.

Wallas, G (1926) The Art of Thought. New York: Harcourt Brace.

Weisberg, R. W. (1986). Creativity: Genius and other myths. New York: Freeman.