World Creativity and Innovation Day 21.4. 2023
How do you face daily life problems? For example, your computer stops working. Some people ask for help, some try to fix the problem by themselves and some might just get stressed and leave the task without trying. How would you like your students or children to act if you are an educator or a parent? What skills do the students or children need to solve the situation?
In the education field, 21st-century skills are a hot topic. The students should be prepared for the future and working places that do not even exist at this moment. Learning and innovation skills are one of the key areas of 21st-century skills and under that, there are critical thinking, problem-solving, creativity, innovation, communication, and collaboration. As an educator, it is important to think about how to create learning environments, activities, and learning situations that make it possible for the students to practice these skills. If the teaching and learning is only the teacher talking and students making notes, can these skills develop?
The United Nations designated 21 April as World Creativity and Innovation Day to raise awareness of the role of creativity and innovation in problem-solving but also to advance the United Nations’ sustainable development goals. There may be no universal understanding of creativity, but we face situations where we need to solve problems not only on a personal level but globally as well. A good example of solving global problems is the development of online teaching tools and platforms during the past few years.
The Council for Creative Education has been celebrating World Creativity and Innovation Day in April since April 2020 by organising the International Symposium and Conference on Creative Education. Through this symposium, CCE Finland aims to provide a common global forum for researchers, students, and educators to present their research or innovation on how creativity plays an essential role in designing new teaching-learning solutions. This year, the symposium is especially focusing on creative education technologies. One activity during the symposium will be a hackathon. Hackathons are events where like-minded people come together to ‘hack’ innovative ideas and build realistic tech solutions to implement those ideas. The goal of a hackathon is to solve challenges throughout the event and create a fully functioning usable software or hardware product or prototype by the end of the event.
Happy World Creativity and Innovation Day!
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