Cultivating Creativity: Best Practices for the Art Classroom

As a high school teacher, I have had numerous conversations with parents about their disengaged teen with parents noting, “They just game non-stop” or “If they only stopped gaming, they might do better in school.” There is definitely a more negative attitude towards gaming on the internet. A blog post on the Harvard Health Medical School in 2020 discusses how two-thirds of Americans are gaming, and that there are implications that follow them. One example was gaming injuries – something I wasn’t even aware was on the radar. You can receive a gaming injury from the repeated use of muscles and tendons to the [point that pain and inflammation develop. This can worsen with numbness and weakness developing. The term we know more about is “carpel tunnel syndrome” which is most often seen in office workers, when the nerve in the wrist become inflamed, causing numbness and pain. This same syndrome is becoming more common in those who game too much. You can read more about this information here: https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/the-health-effects-of-too-much-gaming-2020122221645 

But is there some good in there too? Often we want to look at the sweet despite the salty. I’ve grown up as a female gamer; from Commander Keen to Crash Bandicoot and even now as a 36-year-old, I’m a sucker for World of Warcraft and pretty much anything that is created by Ubisoft. For me personally, I see no issue with gaming. I find it relaxing, while mentally challenging, I find that my fine motor skills are strong as are my reaction skills. I even have found that my posture is much better (hear me out…) due to me sitting literally on the edge of my couch as I pursue quests items and difficult oppositions. 

I’m getting off topic here…A few years ago, I posted on an old blog of mine about how gamification in education is something that should be considered. By no means do I feel that every student should sit and play fortnite during class time. Although let’s be honest, the majority of the students I teach would love that… What I mean is utilising an area of interest and combining it with education. I know there can be studies that follow this and the data would be worth my time. 

So let’s consider.  

You are teaching History – I’ve taught it from Years 7 to Ten, and although I find much of the Industrial Revolution fascinating, about 50% of my class won’t agree. I’ve tried so many ways to engage them. I even stood in front of them, hand mixing cream to turn it into butter, passing the bowl to each student to “help me out” so I could make my point about the importance of the industrial revolution, and how it benefits us…Did they complain? Yes! Did they understand the point I was making? I hope so…  

Know how I learned History? I mean it began originally with the Wally’s World Magazines that I religiously collected the newsagent; but it wasn’t from my history teacher who, bless his soul, literally read from a textbook and then screamed the room down if anyone made a peep…No I learned from opening my cereal box one morning and finding a CD-ROM of Age of Empires. Playing this game, I began to learn about the various empires that once ruled the world and fought for it, the different building types and the way people lived and even about their militaries and what they wore. I feel I literally levelled up when Age of Mythology dropped and I could control actual gods and goddesses of the Ancient and Mythological world. 

In 2007, Ubisoft released a new sand-box style action-adventure-stealth video game (this excellent description comes from the Assassin’s Creed Wiki page). In a nutshell, the game series involves a stealth character (the Assassin) fighting for good against the enemy (A cult-like order). What makes this game a success, is not just the ability to swan-dive off a precariously high building gracefully into a pile of leaves, but the fact that we follow these Assassin’s throughout history. See…linking! 

So back to the Industrial Revolution…In Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate, the player is placed within 1868 London, just as the Industrial Revolution is at it’s peak. You play as a combination of two characters, a brother and sister unit allowing the player to immerse themselves amongst inequality, poverty and a world moving forward in technology. The player wanders through the various streets or boroughs of London, this allows them to see the world, talk to its NPC (non-playable characters) occupants and also engage with technologies of the age. There aren’t any crazy car chases, no, you have to somehow control a horse and carriage, while also being mindful of the others using the road. Your horse can become spooked and injured. If there is a fire, a relic of a fire truck will enter the scene. The player also, as part of the fictional story, meets historical figures. Allowing further immersion into only the time, but those who lived and influenced it. Again, in Assassin’s Creed: Origins, you walk the sandy streets of Ancient Egypt, riding camels, driving delicately woven fishing boats, and exploring the ancient world where characters speak the original language. It’s thanks to Assassin’s Creed: The Ezio Collection that I picked up some Italian. 

Across the series of these games, the player meets historical figures from Pericles (the father of democracy), Alexander Graham Bell, Florence Nightingale, even Leonardo Da Vinci and The Sons of Ragnar Lothbrok. Although much of the game is fictional, creating that link to historical figures, time, and locations is a fantastic learning tool. 

Could it be that we ask these disengaged students to give the game a whirl and then ask for examples of new technologies that the Industrial Revolution brought us? Could they tell us what a Borough is? Or what the original names of the lands of England were called while the Vikings spread across Europe?  

It’s food for thought.