Sowing the Seeds for a More Creative Society

In today's rapidly changing world, people must continually come up with creative solutions to unexpected problems. Success is based not only on what one knows or how much one knows, but on one's ability to think and act creatively. In short, people are now living in the Creative Society. Unfortunately, few of today's classrooms focus on helping students develop as creative thinkers. In addition, the proliferation of new technologies is quickening the pace of change, accentuating the need for creative thinking in all aspects of people's lives. In this article, the author discusses two technologies developed by his research group at the MIT Media Lab with the explicit goal of helping people develop as creative thinkers. The two technologies, called Crickets and Scratch, are designed to support what the author calls the "creative thinking spiral." In this process, people "imagine" what they want to do, "create" a project based on their ideas, "play" with their creations, "share" their ideas and creations with others, and "reflect" on their experiences--all of which leads them to "imagine" new ideas and new projects.