Daria Loi – RMIT University, Australia
Patrick Dillon – Exeter University, UK

Cambridge Journal of Education – Vol. 36, No. 3, September 2006, pp. 363–381

- Creativity, like any other human activity, is situationally dependent.

- Systems are characterized by both stasis and change. To give an ecological example, on a daily basis a woodland accommodates a myriad of small changes to its constituent plant and animal populations, but remains recognizably woodland unless the forces of change are so great that they override the mechanism that maintain the status quo (see below). A stimulus to change a system is called a ‘disturbance’ and the response of the system a ‘perturbation’: these are ecological terms and do not fit comfortably with sociocultural situations. We may however think of a disturbance as an ‘intervention’. Interventions may arise out of properties of the system itself, as part of its internal dynamics, such as day-to-day organizational and maintenance matters. Interventions may also be designed— deliberate interventions undertaken by one or more of the participants to trigger a particular outcome.

- interventions have to be profound enough to overcome negative feedback.

- For Deikman (1973) the active mode dominates the receptive mode due to the value placed on biological survival. The receptive mode is functional during infancy and the developmental preference for the action mode has made society consider it as the proper (or ordinary) mode, while there is a tendency to think that the more unusual receptive modes are pathological or regressive.

- This is personalization in the sense of individuals having greater influence over both choice and utilization of learning resources.

adaptive_education_enviroments_as_creative_spaces

It’s funny, I am having massive problems getting into homework over here and i was sure it was to do with the room im staying in and just before i read this email (i promise i don’t lie!) i took my laptop out to the balcony to read keith’s ‘readings’.

And i think the subject it much more defined. also good to research about and have a creative outcome for. What would the perfect environment involve?

jack, you said that an empty room is something that stimulates creative thought, how far is an empty room from creative thought? and how can you explain or prove to people that this will stimulate creative thought? Some people say they need music and others say they want images or external stimuli to help them get started or stimulate their thinking. maybe the perfect creative environment is a completely customisable space (bring up another point – what actually is a space? what defines a space?) maybe the word space should be avoided because it encloses an area? which is also funny because the word ’space’ means the complete opposite. (while i am on a roll i am just going to keep writing, i think possibly im feeling a little english deprived) Which is also something, can the creative  environment your surrounded in be affected by your ability to communicate with others? I haven’t had english as a comfortable (im looking for another word but can’t think of it) communicating platform all week, only for communication on a basic level, like yes i like this, no i don’t like that. (i have elaborated below) how can that effect ones thinking and ability for creative thought? or in a way can the lack of ability to communicate with others force you to think deeper into your own thoughts and therefore more highly conceptual. but then i only started thinking about any of this because of jack’s email so communication with others must be of some help.

In regards to communicating with others, it’s interesting what you can and can’t express with the constriction of language. for example i have to talk slower than i am typing when i speak in english and how does that effect what i think and say? and being limited to using ‘very well’ (muy bien) and ‘not well’ (no bien) to express your thoughts on something obviously will constrict your communication but also it makes one realise how many ways they have of expressing them selves.

try spending a whole day with the only thing you can say to express your thought is “thats really good” or “thats not good” there is some leeway with the ‘way’ it is said, for example with or with our enthusiasm but i find it really very frustrating. And i know that’s not the focus point of what jack was speaking aobut, but maybe it can lead to other ways of thinking aobut what does and doesn’t stimulate creative thought and for who? (sound, sight and kinesthetic)

hope i haven’t bored you both. if anything at least i think i have proved to myself that it was worth the effort of finding an accessible powerpoint and moving all my shit onto the balcony.

Cheerio,
Carla