Learning outside the box

A few days ago, someone asked me: how would you define innovation and creativity?

Though my mind immediately went back to Ed de Bono and his “parallel thinking” thing, I could not refrain from reflecting on how innovation and creativity is addressed nowadays in most schools. I decided to stop when my brain started offering me the following image.

Sunny weather, vintage classroom, tables close to the wall, 32 kids sitting on the floor watching their teacher who bashfully interacts with the brand new digital board exceptionally offered to their school by the local bank.

OK. Besides the catastrophic scenarios of imaginary school settings on the one side, and the excellent “iJokes” by “Les Guignoles” on the other side, we may all agree on the fact that innovation does not necessarily require technology, and giving old stuff a new shape is far from having a creative attitude.

Creativity and innovation require looking at things from a different angle. A consciously directed thought process in which individuals change and combine ideas in specific social conditions, with the clear aim of producing innovation.

In other words, rather than trying to define what “creativity and innovation” are, we should focus our attention on how creativity may help us producing innovation.

How may this drive learning and education strategies? For those who care we suggest having a look at the manifesto of EU’s creativity and innovation year (2009).