Creativity, Innovation, and Culture

In this final reflection, you are asked to describe a set of skills you acquired over the years that allows you to be creative in some way. This might be musical instrument skills, cooking, knitting, writing, model-building, gardening....anything you consider yourself "good at" that encourages you to experience "...the process of having original ideas that have value" (Robinson, 2011, p. 151). By analyzing these skills in light of the culturally relevant context in which they were learned, you may realize an even deeper understanding of the skills facilitated within this course.

Initial Post: Post a response that addresses each of the following eight items:

o What is something you do or have done in your life that is creative?

o Describe the skills you needed to learn in order to feel comfortable and competent creating the things, ideas, or concepts that result from the creativity you described.

o Describe the types of learning experiences that contributed to you learning and developing the skills indicated in the previous question (e.g., formal classes, apprenticeships, independently in your room/home).

o Describe some of the macrocultural factors you believe contributed to your decisions to keep practicing and participating in the creative endeavors described.

o Describe some of the microcultural factors you believe contributed to your decisions to keep practicing and participating in the creative endeavors described.

o Do you feel the things you were expected to learn throughout your K-12 education were influenced by the same microcultural factors? Why, or why not?

o How was learning the skills that define your creative endeavors different from or the same as the manner in which you learned academic skills?

o Optional: If you have any pictures, sound files, or videos of your creations, feel free to share and/or provide a link.