Monday, March 28, 2011

What Creative Education Could Look Like ...

Check this out - The Independent Project!

Watch it ...


And read the New York Times piece about it ...

Listen to John Seely Brown on Cultivating the Imagination, Learning and Innovation - Creativity in Play - 3/29 at 3EDT

Our guest on Creativity in Play will John Seely Brown, co-author of A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change. We'll explore the role of creativity and imagination in change, learning, work and innovation, as well as the importance of play. John is a visiting scholar at the University of Southern California and the independent co-chairman of the Deloitte Center for the Edge. He is the author of The Power of Pull and The Social Life of Information. Previously, John was the chief scientist of Xerox and director of Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC).

A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant ChangeThe Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in MotionThe Social Life of Information

Friday, March 18, 2011

Creativity in Pi(-ku)

Check out several pi-inspired, modified haikus about creativity, written by members of my "Creativity + Social Change" course at the University of Connecticut this week -- in celebration of Pi Day. And don't forget to leave YOUR creativity in pi-ku in the comments below! [18 March 2011 - Creativity + Social Change]

Pi Pi T-shirt, LargeLife of PiPi Symbol Ice Cube TrayMen's PI to The 50th Decimal Silk Tie by Wild Ties in Green

Thursday, March 10, 2011

A-Ha! The Neural Mechanisms Of Insight

Although it is quite common for a brief, unique experience to become part of our long-term memory, the underlying brain mechanisms associated with this type of learning are not well understood. Now, a new brain-imaging study looks at the neural activity associated with a specific type of rapid learning, insight. The research, published by Cell Press in the March 10 issue of the journal Neuron, reveals specific brain activity that occurs during an "A-ha!" moment that may help encode the new information in long-term memory. "In daily life, information that results from moments of insight is, almost by definition, incorporated in long-term memory: once we have realized a new way to solve a problem, or to perform a task better and faster, we are not likely to forget that insight easily," explains senior study author, Dr. Nava Rubin, from the Center for Neural Science at New York University. "We were interested in determining the neural basis of this long-lasting nature of insight." [9 March 2011 - Neuron/Cell Press via redOrbit - More]