Challenges for Future Research Activities and
Projects focused on
“Software Tools and Socio-Technical Environments to Enhance Creativity”
Gerhard
Fischer, University
of Colorado
The
goal of this summary statement is to provide initial objectives for stimulating
scientific research and education projects focused on creativity. The challenge for the educated knowledge workers of the
future is “not to work harder, but to
work smarter”. As intellectual work based on routine cognitive skills is
distributed and outsourced around the world, the challenge will be to raise the
level of creativity contributions.
The
challenges for future research activities and projects focused on “Software
Tools and Socio-Technical Environments to Enhance Creativity” include:
- evolving existing and
developing new theories of creativity (incorporating social, technical,
and organizational dimensions) grounded in a deep understanding of creativity;
- identifying the fundamental
role of creativity in all
disciplines (science, design, engineering, art, business, education..);
- radically new creativity support tools that facilitate and
enhance the development of creative thinking and creative expression
grounded in the ongoing technology
changes that will impact creativity;
- exploration and impact of these
new creativity support tools in a broad spectrum of intellectual
activities, including: problem framing and problem solving, decision
making, collaboration, composition, visualization;
- design of processes supporting creativity (based on what enhances or
hinders creativity) including: the development of organized approaches to
creativity that are grounded in the multi-dimensional character of
creativity; the importance of end-user development for creativity; the
impact of creativity on new divisions
of labor;
- design of socio-technical environments to support and enhance
creativity;
- systematic foundations for the design, assessment, and wide-spread
distribution of creativity support tools;
- development of new assessment approaches (what
should be measured and what can be measured) including: differentiation
between quantifiable and qualitative dimensions; identification of
qualitative dimensions such as: personally meaningful activities,
mindsets, relevance; evaluation techniques applicable to ill-defined,
open-ended problems;
- exploration and use of
assessment and evaluation
frameworks from different disciplines including: formal user studies,
ethnographic studies analysis of social impact, cultural meaning;
- frameworks to educate the creative minds of the
future by integrating knowledge about creativity into educational
curriculum and professional training;
- new inter- and transdisciplinary collaborations focused on
creativity including social and technological infrastructures to identify
common ground and to create a
shared understanding;
- understanding the role of diversity and distances (spatial, temporal, conceptual, technological) in
creativity;
- studies of creative people and creative
artifacts;
- creating repositories of creative artifacts to be studied and further evolved;
- understanding the importance of creativity in
knowledge work, lifelong learning, and integration of working and
learning.
Exemplary
Research Activities
The
following are illustrations of research activities that might be incorporated
into a project:
§
Empirical studies of creativity, creative people, and
creative artifacts
o
study of exemplary successes and
best practices;
o
novel methodologies for empirical design research;
o
understanding the relationship
between individual and social creativity.
§
Integrating research and education
o
development and documentation of knowledge relevant to
all aspects of creativity, e.g., principles, experiences, guidance, and problem-solving processes;
o
a
strong emphasis on education and learning by exploring questions such as: how
can we help people (across their whole lives) learn to think and act more
creatively? How can we help people develop the "habits of mind" or
"dispositions" (e.g., willingness to take risks, persevere when
things go wrong) that are key to creativity?
o
formulation of teachable creativity
knowledge, experiences, and best practices
§
Creativity enhancing socio-technical environments for
specific communities
o
creation and study of design
environments supporting specific communities;
o
creation and study of design
environments supporting inter- and transdisciplinary communities.
§
Centers of Excellence for Creativity Research, Practice, and
Education
o
exploring and creating the necessary
conditions for such centers in the 21st century;
o
creation of test beds for creativity research