... a wavy roof that seems to hover over the Connecticut Science Center like a silver magic carpet. . . my curiosity was piqued upon entering the six-story, light-filled atrium with open-structured elevators and a wall of glass overlooking the Connecticut River.Murphy goes on to describe the 150 exhibits and all their technologic advances that were designed and developed by adults in an effort to encourage children to learn through hands-on interaction, a gallery scientist, a computer that creates a 3-day weather forecast, exploring space — you get the picture.
But Murphy shows surprise with the setup at the LEGO Imagination Zone, describing it as “really just a table with LEGO blocks that was surprisingly popular.”
“That’s no surprise to me,” counters C. J. Ellis of KidsReadUs.com. “LEGO sets, Erector sets — even Wiffle Ball — help children develop their own imagination. Hands-on joysticks might take a child on a ‘tour’ of the known or unknown, but really, is the child creating anything? To me, creativity is at the heart of imagination and there is no better way to do that than letting the child actually use his or her hands — and not just on a joystick.”
Sometimes kids know better than adults what captures their imagination and keeps their attention and minds occupied.
Not that Internet technology can’t be channeled to encourage creative thought, Ellis adds. On that same day — July 26 — the Dallas Educational Technology Examiner ran a story by Elaine Plybon. The approach was a bit different than the Murphy piece. Plybon shows how teachers can use their technologic savvy to promote a child’s imaginative spirit.
Take, for example, Wordle — a free website that takes kids’ words and creates a graphic that represents those words. How can having a website create an image for the child encourage creative thought?“You can then ask each child to print the graphic created and expand on it, making one that reflects his or her own creative images,” Ellis says. “LEGO blocks stored in a container do nothing to create imagination. But once the child opens the container and removes some blocks, that’s when the creative process begins. Using Wordle effectively can have the same effect.”
Plybon also suggests that teachers take advantage of Google Earth. Here children can create a virtual trip showing where they went on vacation or where they visited their cousins or where they want to go next year. By creating placemarks at each location, the child can then add images, text, video or audio. Again, Ellis says, there is no reason that parents can't use Google Earth the same way in a home setting.
But, Ellis insists, the best technology lesson Plybon describes might be the power of storytelling — digital storytelling, that is.
“Although Plybon describes how the teacher can break the classroom into groups of four,” Ellis explains, “there really is no reason you can’t have individual children in the family be involved in digital storytelling because the catch is the same — using Photostory 3 [free Windows program] to create a picture — it’s the same picture for everyone. Then each child writes a story about the picture. No two stories will be alike and the kids can enjoy sharing their unique with family and friends.”
An offshoot of this can be having a round-robin sort of storytelling event at the dinner table, Ellis adds.
It sure beats staring at a computer screen! What do you think?
