Fueling Creativity in Education

Should social media content creation be part of K-12 education? Yes, but the answer is more complex than that…    In this episode of the Fueling Creativity in Education podcast, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood speak with Carrington Faulk, a high school marketing teacher, Google for Education Certified Trainer, and Founder of ‘skilltivity.’, an online education platform that seeks to advance your creative thinking skills. Carrington enjoys educating learners of all ages on how to master subjects in the realm of creativity, technology, leadership, marketing, and innovation.   Tune in to learn why video is such a popular medium for creative expression and how YouTube and TikTok play a powerful role in educating students and connecting them with the world. You’ll also learn the benefits and concerns of integrating video production and social media content creation in the classroom.   “I’ve never seen this many students want to be YouTubers in my life than they do right now. But the big thing that I try to tell them is it’s not what the popular platform [is] now, I tell them to think about what’s going to be popular later and what’s up and coming.” – Carrington Faulk   Carrington shares the tech tools and activities he uses to spark creativity in the classroom along with the real-life opportunities (and dangers) of encouraging kids to use social media to express their creativity. He also sheds light on the importance of teaching students about modern marketing, future trends, the metaverse, and creative leadership.    Plus… Carrington breaks down his strategy for facilitating the “question-asking” and critical thinking/reflection parts of the creative process, as well as how his personal creativity in music inspires his students’ creativity in the classroom.   “If we aren’t being creative leaders in the classroom, then  we will get left behind as educators.” – Carrington Faulk   Carrington’s Tips for Teachers and Parents: Everyone needs to ask more questions.  We are in the 4th Industrial Revolution, a workforce where AI and automation is changing the landscape of work every single day. So, students need to understand that the jobs and opportunities they see today may not be the ones they see in the future. Each district should have a Chief Creative Officer.   Resources Mentioned: Subscribe to the skilltivity. YouTube channel Listen to the episode with Jonathan Plucker   Subscribe to our monthly newsletter!   Eager to bring more creativity into your home or classroom?  Access various creativity resources and tools & listen to more episodes of The Fueling Creativity in Education Podcast by visiting www.CreativityandEducation.com.   What to learn more about Design Thinking in Education?  Do you want to build a sustained culture of innovation and creativity at your school?  Visit WorwoodClassroom.com to learn how Design Thinking can promote teacher creativity and support professional growth in the classroom.    Have a question? Email Dr. Burnett and Dr. Worwood at questions@fuelingcreativitypodcast.com!   You can also find The Fueling Creativity in Education Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, and PodBean! Make sure to rate, review, and share the podcast if you enjoy it!   About Carrington Faulk: Carrington Faulk is a high school marketing teacher and Google for Education Certified Trainer who enjoys educating learners of all ages on how to master subjects in the realm of creativity, technology, leadership, marketing, and innovation. He is the founder of ‘skilltivity.’, an online education platform that seeks to advance your creative skills. In his time away from education, Carrington is a musician (carringtonfaulk.com), owner of ‘MICAH3 - a video branding agency’ (micah3.com), and husband & father to his wife and 4 kids.   Connect with Carrington Faulk on LinkedInFollow him on Twitter

In this episode of the Fueling Creativity in Education Podcast, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood speak with Frances Valintine, Founder and CEO of The Mind Lab and Tech Futures Lab, two organizations providing learning pathways for educators and professionals to participate in and have a sustainable impact on our tech-driven future. Everything Frances does revolves around supporting people, business, and organizations to understand the impact of emerging technologies and the cultural adaptation required to embrace change and build that impact. So, how is that connected to creativity in education?   Tune in to gain insight into the type of future we can anticipate for our students, particularly with the rise in digital innovation, as well as the technologies that can help students make education more personal to them while building on their own unique strengths.    Frances breaks down the concept of compulsory education and the role of the educator in preparing students for non-traditional, more personalized careers and side hustles (think freelancing and entrepreneurship). She sheds light on how students are reacting to online learning and returning to in-person learning, along with how to effectively engage, motivate, and teach your students what they need to learn in order to thrive in a highly innovative, tech-driven future.   “What if we took away that need to lead every conversation and to set that tone and give the creativity back to the kids?”  – Frances Valintine   She also highlights the difference between cooperation and collaboration, the importance of embracing robots and cobots (collaborative robots) in and out of the classroom, and whether or not the future creative needs to develop the capacity and skills to operate outside of the algorithms.     Frances’ Tips for Teachers and Parents: Start with students asking the questions instead of answering them. Never use a learning opportunity to get the students to do the same thing.  Don’t be over-indexed by your own knowledge. Just because it was true at the time or place or in the group you hang out with doesn’t mean it’s representative of the real world or other people’s scenarios.   Resources Mentioned: The Mind Lab Tech Futures Lab Listen to the episode with Bea Leiderman Listen to the episode with Bryan Alexander Listen to the episode with David Cropley   Subscribe to our monthly newsletter!   Eager to bring more creativity into your home or classroom?  Access various creativity resources and tools & listen to more episodes of The Fueling Creativity in Education Podcast by visiting www.CreativityandEducation.com.   What to learn more about Design Thinking in Education?  Do you want to build a sustained culture of innovation and creativity at your school?  Visit WorwoodClassroom.com to learn how Design Thinking can promote teacher creativity and support professional growth in the classroom.    Have a question? Email Dr. Burnett and Dr. Worwood at questions@fuelingcreativitypodcast.com!   You can also find The Fueling Creativity in Education Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, and PodBean! Make sure to rate, review, and share the podcast if you enjoy it!   About Frances Valintine: A well regarded and recognised technologist and educator, Frances has been focused on the future of work and the development of human capability for the duration of her career. She has a life mission to uncover the potential in anyone she meets -  if you have a conversation with Frances you’ll come away buzzing with inspiration, confidence and optimism for what lies ahead.   In recent years, Frances has built up The Mind Lab (started in 2013) and Tech Futures Lab (2016) to provide learning pathways for educators and professionals to not just participate in but have sustainable impact for the technologically driven future. Everything she does is about supporting people, businesses and organisations to understand the impact of emerging technologies and the cultural adaptation required to embrace change and build that impact.   Connect with Frances Valintine on LinkedIn  

The month of June celebrates Father's Day, and this prompted Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood to produce a special episode on parenting for Creativity. In a slightly different format, Cyndi interviews Matthew about his parenting blog, Dads for Creativity, and discusses the need to monitor parental bias when celebrating Creativity in the home environment.  "We have to be mindful of how our biases, and our backgrounds, and what we're into, and what we know, is going to influence our children's creative behaviors and what the pursue in the early years." - Matthew Worwood Resources Mentioned: Visit DadsforCreativity.com   Subscribe to our monthly newsletter!   Eager to bring more creativity into your home or classroom?  Access various creativity resources and tools & listen to more episodes of The Fueling Creativity in Education Podcast by visiting www.CreativityandEducation.com.   What to learn more about Design Thinking in Education?  Do you want to build a sustained culture of innovation and creativity at your school?  Visit WorwoodClassroom.com to learn how Design Thinking can promote teacher creativity and support professional growth in the classroom.    You can also find The Fueling Creativity Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, and PodBean! Make sure to rate, review, and share the podcast if you enjoy it!

In part two of this “double expresso” discussion, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood continue speaking with creativity researcher, thought leader, and cognitive psychologist, Dr. Mark Runco, about the future of creativity research and his upcoming creativity conference.   Tune in to gain insight into the current creativity in education research and where Mark thinks this research is headed in the future. He also speaks on the misuses of divergent thinking tests, particularly in neuroscientific research, as well as how educators can promote creativity and originality in the classroom, even when they’re following a curriculum.    Then, Mark sheds light on what you can expect from the Southern Oregon University Creativity Conference (coming up on July 14th-17th, 2022) and why everyone could benefit from attending.   Mark’s Tips for Teachers and Parents: Be creative and appreciate creativity – whatever that looks like for you.  Depending on the age of your students/kids, work on building confidence, which is called “ego strength” in creativity research.  You don’t need to look for unambiguously creative behaviors in your students. Look for creative potential and look for things that enable and encourage originality, like self-expression. Self-expression is extremely important and leads directly to creativity.   “One of - if not the main problem with creativity among students has to do with social pressure and fitting in… This is really a huge problem in the middle and upper elementary grades… because a strict adherence to convention precludes creativity. It’s basically antithetical to originality.” – Dr. Mark Runco Resources Mentioned: Listen to the episode about inquiry-based learning with Dr. Frank LaBanca Listen to the episode with Jonathan Plucker Register for the Southern Oregon University Creativity Conference   Subscribe to our monthly newsletter!   Eager to bring more creativity into your home or classroom?  Access various creativity resources and tools & listen to more episodes of The Fueling Creativity in Education Podcast by visiting www.CreativityandEducation.com.   What to learn more about Design Thinking in Education?  Do you want to build a sustained culture of innovation and creativity at your school?  Visit WorwoodClassroom.com to learn how Design Thinking can promote teacher creativity and support professional growth in the classroom.    Have a question? Email Dr. Burnett and Dr. Worwood at questions@fuelingcreativitypodcast.com!   You can also find The Fueling Creativity in Education Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, and PodBean! Make sure to rate, review, and share the podcast if you enjoy it!   About Dr. Mark A. Runco: Dr. Mark A. Runco is a leading creativity scholar who is active in empirical research and has published cognitive, economic, genetic, historical, developmental, and educational books and articles on the topic. To help people fulfill their capacity for creativity, he has devised a battery of tests that measures creative potential and performance. He teaches a variety of graduate and undergraduate classes on creativity and innovation, and once each year he organizes an international creativity conference. Mark earned his Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from the Claremont Graduate School in California and has studied creativity ever since. He is currently the Director of Creativity Research and Programming at Southern Oregon University. Connect with Mark Runco on LinkedIn Visit his website

To kick off Season Four of the Fueling Creativity in Education Podcast, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood speak with world-renowned creativity researcher, thought leader, and cognitive psychologist, Dr. Mark Runco. In part one of this knowledge-packed “double expresso” discussion, Mark talks about the meaning of creative potential and divergent thinking as well as why creative potential is the REAL target of education.   “Creative potential is very frequently overlooked and that’s in part because it is so hard to see.”  – Dr. Mark Runco   Listen in to learn about the best indicators of creative potential and divergent thinking, the needs that students with creative potential have, and the difference between personal and social creativity. Mark also breaks down the difference between creativity and divergent thinking, the essential components of divergent thinking, and how educators and parents can teach divergent thinking to children.    Plus… Do we have the tools to assess for creativity and originality in the classroom? Tune in to hear Mark’s answer as he highlights his research on creativity assessment!    “One of the big things is just for an educator to think divergently him or herself and thereby, to model and value divergent thinking and originality.” - Dr. Mark Runco   Resources Mentioned: Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) Listen to the episode with Jonathan Plucker   Subscribe to our monthly newsletter!   Eager to bring more creativity into your home or classroom?  Access various creativity resources and tools & listen to more episodes of The Fueling Creativity in Education Podcast by visiting www.CreativityandEducation.com.   What to learn more about Design Thinking in Education?  Do you want to build a sustained culture of innovation and creativity at your school?  Visit WorwoodClassroom.com to learn how Design Thinking can promote teacher creativity and support professional growth in the classroom.    Have a question? Email Dr. Burnett and Dr. Worwood at questions@fuelingcreativitypodcast.com!   You can also find The Fueling Creativity in Education Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, and PodBean! Make sure to rate, review, and share the podcast if you enjoy it!   About Dr. Mark A. Runco: Dr. Mark A. Runco is a leading creativity scholar who is active in empirical research and has published cognitive, economic, genetic, historical, developmental, and educational books and articles on the topic. To help people fulfill their capacity for creativity, he has devised a battery of tests that measures creative potential and performance. He teaches a variety of graduate and undergraduate classes on creativity and innovation, and once each year he organizes an international creativity conference. Mark earned his Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from the Claremont Graduate School in California and has studied creativity ever since. He is currently the Director of Creativity Research and Programming at Southern Oregon University. Connect with Mark Runco on LinkedIn Visit his website

In this short episode, Drs. Cyndi Burnett and Matthew Worwood discuss the reasons why they renamed the podcast - Fueling Creativity in Education, and provide an overview of the upcoming guests in Season 4.    Subscribe to our monthly newsletter!   Eager to bring more creativity into your home or classroom?  Access various creativity resources and tools & listen to more episodes of The Fueling Creativity in Education Podcast by visiting www.CreativityandEducation.com.   What to learn more about Design Thinking in Education?  Do you want to build a sustained culture of innovation and creativity at your school?  Visit WorwoodClassroom.com to learn how Design Thinking can promote teacher creativity and support professional growth in the classroom.    You can also find The Fueling Creativity Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, and PodBean! Make sure to rate, review, and share the podcast if you enjoy it!

In this short Creativity Tip episode, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood offer advice on how to promote originality in the classroom. Matthew focuses his response on project-based learning at the higher education level. Cyndi offers advice for K-12 educators and how to facilitate originality in a test-driven culture.  Interested in more tips to help bring creativity into the classroom?  Check out Cyndi's Books, Weaving Creativity into Every Strand of Your Curriculum, and 20 Lessons to Weave Creativity into Your Classroom.   Episodes related to Asking Questions:   Listen to the episode with Frank LaBanca Listen to the episode with Eitan Buchalter Listen to the episode with Ron Beghetto   Watch short clip from the film, Creativity in Education: Exploring the Imbalance.    Subscribe to our monthly newsletter!   Eager to bring more creativity into your home or classroom?  Access various creativity resources and tools & listen to more episodes of The Fueling Creativity in Education Podcast by visiting www.CreativityandEducation.com.   What to learn more about Design Thinking in Education?  Do you want to build a sustained culture of innovation and creativity at your school?  Visit WorwoodClassroom.com to learn how Design Thinking can promote teacher creativity and support professional growth in the classroom.    You can also find The Fueling Creativity Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, and PodBean! Make sure to rate, review, and share the podcast if you enjoy it!

In this short Creativity Tip episode, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood offer advice on how to facilitate asking questions in the classroom. Matthew and Cyndi highlight the importance of prioritizing sufficient time for questions and planning for incubation.  Interested in more tips to help bring creativity into the classroom?  Check out Cyndi's Books, Weaving Creativity into Every Strand of Your Curriculum, and 20 Lessons to Weave Creativity into Your Classroom.   Episodes related to Asking Questions:   Listen to the episode with Frank LaBanca Listen to the episode with Natalie Nixon Listen to the episode with Ron Beghetto   Watch Cyndi describe how use questioning in the classroom Weaving Creativity into Every Strand of Your Curriculum   Subscribe to our monthly newsletter!   Eager to bring more creativity into your home or classroom?  Access various creativity resources and tools & listen to more episodes of The Fueling Creativity in Education Podcast by visiting www.CreativityandEducation.com.   What to learn more about Design Thinking in Education?  Do you want to build a sustained culture of innovation and creativity at your school?  Visit WorwoodClassroom.com to learn how Design Thinking can promote teacher creativity and support professional growth in the classroom.    You can also find The Fueling Creativity Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, and PodBean! Make sure to rate, review, and share the podcast if you enjoy it!

In this short Creativity Tip episode, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood offer advice on integrating the teaching of ambiguity in the classroom. Rather than focusing exclusively on ill-defined problems, Cyndi and Matthew highlight the connection to socio-emotional learning and why it's necessary to help students understand how they feel when presented with an ambiguous challenge or situation in the classroom environment. Interested in more tips to help bring creativity into the classroom?  Check out Cyndi's Books, Weaving Creativity into Every Strand of Your Curriculum, and 20 Lessons to Weave Creativity into Your Classroom.   Episodes related to Ambiguity:   Listen to the episode with Caroline Brookfield Listen to the episode with Monica Kang Listen to the episode with Wendy Ross Listen to the episode with Ron Beghetto   Subscribe to our monthly newsletter!   Eager to bring more creativity into your home or classroom?  Access various creativity resources and tools & listen to more episodes of The Fueling Creativity in Education Podcast by visiting www.CreativityandEducation.com.   What to learn more about Design Thinking in Education?  Do you want to build a sustained culture of innovation and creativity at your school?  Visit WorwoodClassroom.com to learn how Design Thinking can promote teacher creativity and support professional growth in the classroom.    You can also find The Fueling Creativity Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, and PodBean! Make sure to rate, review, and share the podcast if you enjoy it!

What were the biggest lessons learned during the last five episodes in Season Three of the Fueling Creativity podcast? In this final debrief, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood sit down and reflect on episodes that discussed the relationship between Innovation, Creativity, Entrepreneurship, breaking with habit-bound thinking, developing a sense of awe in students, and Inward and Outward Creativity.   Listen in as Cyndi and Matthew break down the following insights.   Major Takeaways from Season Two, Episodes 6-10:   Innovation, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship. What's the connection? Do different groups have increased value for one over the other? Or are we discussing similar things in a different context?  A sense of awe in students. Awe is a sense of considerable astonishment in a person or topic. How might teachers facilitate awe toward the curriculum or subject? Should that be an ambition for creative teachers?  Inward and Outward Creativity.  Sociocultural theory informs us that the actor engages in internal and external actions that include thoughts, ideas, and reactions in response to an environment. How do internal actions interact with other people inside a classroom environment? Does a sense of connection drive these actions, and is arts a bridge between inward and outward Creativity?   Resources Mentioned:   Listen to the episode with Anna Abraham Listen to the episode with Monica Kang Listen to the episode with Rachelle Archer   Subscribe to our monthly newsletter!   Eager to bring more creativity into your home or classroom?  Access various creativity resources and tools & listen to more episodes of The Fueling Creativity in Education Podcast by visiting www.CreativityandEducation.com.   What to learn more about Design Thinking in Education?  Do you want to build a sustained culture of innovation and creativity at your school?  Visit WorwoodClassroom.com to learn how Design Thinking can promote teacher creativity and support professional growth in the classroom.    You can also find The Fueling Creativity Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, and PodBean! Make sure to rate, review, and share the podcast if you enjoy it!