MSU Creativity Initiative

Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend the MSU Creativity Initiative Kick Off.  This is an amazing new interdisciplinary project that has the potential to be interinstitutional as well as involving community partners (wonder how TFA could use empirical data on creativity and creative pedagogy).  As it centers around creative processes across disciplines, there is a potential for Serious Games to get in the mix

Overview:

Creativity Initiative Website
Twitter:  msu_creativity
Facebook Group: The Creativity Initiative

There is also a hash-tag list.  #msucreativity
This program is innovative.  They want it to be decentralized and act as a hub (which is why it is an initiative, not a center).  The areas of research are arranged in clusters, but these are not silos and collaboration and movement between clusters is both expected and encouraged.


Creative Processes
Here are some processes mentioned at the event for possible study:
*connecting traditional creative arts with one another and the social/natural sciences.
*creativity in approaches to teaching.
*teaching creativity, including to at risk students, groups, and communities.
* creativity in everyday decision making, in multimedia composing and digital gaming
*creativity in preventative health practices
(the list goes on)


Clusters

Creative Processes and Entrepeneurial, Group, and Community Activities

This group is led by Prof. Jeff Grabill (AL, WRAC) and Mr Vincent Delgado (RCAH).  It has already begun meeting and brainstorming the direction of the cluster.  They noticed little research has been done on creative processes in groups (as opposed to individuals).

Creative Processes and Teaching

This group is led by EdTech's Prof. Punya Mishra and Prof. David Sheridan (RCAH).  I spent time during break-out in this cluster.  This group is very concerned with developing ways to assess creativity in order to prove creative pedagogies are effective.  They are also interested in developing creative ways to teach, which includes new technologies.  One of the goals is to develop information technologies for learning "including gaming."  Watch this cluster!

Creativity Processes, Digital Composing, and "At Risk" Students

This is led by Prof. Mark Sullivan (MUS, RCAH) and Prof. Pennie Foster-Fishman (SocSci, Psych).  Another exciting group that will likely share research and researchers with the previous cluster.  It looks at the potential of Digital Composing (stories, poetry, music, games, etc) to catalyze other skills in at risk learners.

Creativity Processes and Health

This cluster is lead by Prof. Marsha MacDowell (AL, Art ArtHist), Prof Laura Apol (ed, TchEd), and Prof Clare Luz (HumMed, FamMed).  It initially wants to connect arts faculty with med faculty.  The idea is to explore how the arts can facilitate patient help, physician education, and community health knowledge as well as implications for policy.
Dr. Peng expressed interest in this cluster last night in class.

Creativity, Social Knowledge Platforms, and Forms of Scholarly Inquiry 

This group is led by Prof. Dean Rehberger (SocSci, MATRIX, WRAC) and Prof Ethan Watral (SocSci, MATRIX, Anth).  This group is designing the software in order to help academics adjust to the changing structure of universities and research.

Final Comments and Take Aways

MSU really wants to get this off the ground in one year, and it will  include development of Folio software for scholarly collaboration and interdisciplinary dialog, as well as the launching of a new academic journal and possibly a conference.  Keep a close eye on this and be ready to get involved.  They are talking about funding for large scale projects and lots of interdiscplinary action that Dr. Carrie Heeter has pointed out helps found (and fund) many Serious Games!