The DaVinci Creativity Code

An interesting look at how to be creative, from 'Da Vinci' himself. Interesting points he brought up...especially on the part about knowing so much because he took the time to draw! An interesting food for thought...

Do schools kill creativity?

A little bit late for me to realise the enormity of the message, but nonetheless still as inspiring as ever. Perhaps there could be many more Gillian Lynne that have slipped pass by us...if we don't do something about it.

Harnessing the power of our creative and innovative youths

Why are children more creative and innovative than adults? Would this lead on to a systemic way of being more creative/innovative?

The oxymoronic thinking would be that because we know a lot more things as adults...the structures and the methods of being creative, we tend to look down and scoff on some of the ideas given by our children. But the truth of the matter perhaps is that, they could be the ones that have an edge in terms of coming out with these more creative ideas. Perhaps it is this environment of 'not knowing' that provides the catalyst for creativity to bloom. Perhaps...

Designing for the elderly...

I was pretty impressed with some of the thoughts put up by some of my students when I did a group-think sort of exercise on designing a calculator and a mobile phone specifically for the elderly. I thought that perhaps this is something that I would like to showcase immediately, given that they have done and put in some depth and criticality in their thoughts/ideas/comments. Here's the embedded information:

Wall wisher 1

Wall wisher 2

Update: as an update to compatibility issues that I have when viewing on my iPad, I've decided to just put in the URL link instead of embedding the wall wisher in my blog post.

The gift of Giftedness

I have always been tickled by the idea that one is defined as gifted (or not) by virtue of an IQ test, and the resultant score that he or she obtains from that test. During one of the training sessions that I had recently, I can't help but concur with the trainer on how superficial this type of indices is...and like what the trainer mentioned, so what if you have an IQ of 120? What is the maximum score that one can score for this? Does getting such a score, over say a theoretical value of 200 necessarily make him gifted, over say, someone who scores 119? Hmmm...

And the idea that tickled me most was the scenario that educators like me always get from some parents, and giftedness proponents, that in order for one to know that a child is gifted, he or she would have to sit for a test. So lets say the qualifying score for 'being labelled gifted' is 80%, would a child scoring 78% be any less 'ungifted' than one who scores, say 81%. Wouldn't it be even funnier if, say the former scenario happens, the parent were then to ask the child to sit for the test again? And if the child passes the mark, he or she would then be qualified to be called gifted!

So then, is giftedness just about making and reaching that particular number?


On the other hand, I do believe in the existence of natural flair, talents, abilities...but then, if this was just subsumed and labelled under a particular number, it would be such a sad state of affairs for mankind, wouldn't it?

And now just a little something for that comic relief...