20 Of The Best Tools For Creativity In The Classroom (2024)

contributed by Mike Acedo

In my last article, I discussed the inherent benefits of and ways of using digital images in the classroom, including strategies in which teachers can use them to promote student thought and performance.

With technological revolution infiltrating classrooms across the country, teachers must be on top of their game when faced with students whose attention spans are limited to the length of a twitter update or Instagram post.

Fortunately for those beleaguered teachers, hope is not lost. There happens to be a plentiful bounty of tools and resources that teachers can utilize to reign in wandering minds. Many of these tools are free and easy to use, making it even more convenient for teachers to close the digital gap.

As discussed in my previous article, images can be a very useful tool in promoting student growth and achievement. By using images in the classrooms, students and teachers have the opportunity to use visual representations of class materials, insight thoughtful discussions, and enable digital story telling.

See also 10 Essential Tools For Better Project-Based Learning

Truth be told, images can be used in an infinite amount of ways that allow students to exercise their creativity and critical thinking skills. And because students necessarilycreatethings with digital tools and images, the resulting creative expression is inherently student-centered. Unless you muck it up with an overly-rigid rubric that strangles the creativity right back out of it. : )

Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop, And Photoshop Express

Prisma

VSCO: Photo and Video Editor

Procreate

The aim of Procreate is to recreate the natural feel of physicaldrawing while utilizing the practical advantages of a digital platform. It offers over 130 customizable brush presets, multiple layers,blend modes,masks,4K resolutionexport of processvideos,autosave, and many otherdigital arttools.

Art Set 4

Developer Description: Exclusive artistically created brushes, from real-world art mediums through to the purely digital for all styles of artwork. Watch fluid Watercolor flow and run as you paint. Express your strokes in 3D giving thick gloopy paint you can even etch back into.

Infinite Arcade

Developer Description: Infinite Arcade is a game construction kit. It’s the fourth app in Tinybop’s Digital Toys series which includes the iPad App of the Year, The Robot Factory. Digital Toys apps are designed to let kids create anything they can imagine.

codeSpark Academy: Kids Coding

Also consider Hopscotch and Tynker.

Pico Virtual Reality Set

Pixelied

Glogster EDU is a global education platform that allows students and educators to create interactive online posters that include text, photos, videos, graphics, sounds and much more.

Students and teachers have the opportunity to use Glogster as a vessel for creative thought, critical thinking, and problem solving by using images and other media to initiate student participation.

Students can tap into their inherent innovation and collaboration skills, all while having fun though this easy to use platform.

Everything Machine

Minecraft

Assemblr EDU

Autodesk Sketchbook

Prezi is a fantastic tool that uses a visually stimulating, moving canvas that spices up any classroom presentation.

Students and teachers can implement images into presentations using Prezi’s easy-to-use platform, as they combine all the standard components of a normal presentation with visually stunning effects.

The variations of presentations are endless, encouraging students and teachers to customize presentations and find creative ways to highlight and use images.

Storybird

Storybird is a fantastic site whose mission is to help students improve their reading, writing, and creative skills. Storybird gathers visually stunning artwork and images from artists and illustrators around world and invites students to turn those images into creative stories.

Additionally, Storyboard offers a number of features that incite student participation and creativity. Students can instantly receive and give feedback regarding their stories, and can even publish them on the site to be shared with thousands of other students.

Badges and rewards are also issued to recognize accomplishments and encourage students to continue to advance their writing and reading skills.

Tiki-Toki

Tiki-Toki is a free web-based software that allows anyone to create interactive and visually stimulating timelines.

Students and teachers can implement images and other effects to customize either personal timelines, or ones that focus on educational subject matter.

This tool gives students the opportunity to use images as a way to tell a story of their own history or of a historical event. Students can use their resourcefulness to find appropriate images and add complimenting captions.

Pixton

By using an innovative click-n-drag technology, Pixton gives students the opportunity to create amazing comic strips with just a few clicks of the mouse.

Students can create characters, comic panels, props, speech bubbles, and every other aspect of a comic strip to create a customized and fun-to-read story.

This is a great way to draw out the creative ability of students and makes it easy to create and share customized stories.

Picsart

Picsart is a free mobile app that enables anyone to find, edit, and create images via a mobile art studio.

Students are able to take pictures, draw them, or use images in the Picsart library. Images can be edited and shared with the Picsart community and can be a good way for students to exercise their image editing skill, shape their creative eye, and showcase work they have created.

BigHugeLabs

Big Huge Labs is a fantastic resource for students and teachers to create a number of cool items with images.

A number of activities and how-to instructions are provided through the site that can be easily implemented in the classroom.

Some activities include: creating movie posters, pop art, magazine covers, jigsaw puzzles, maps, calendars, name badges, CD covers, trading/flash cards, and much more.

Additionally, teachers can request a free Educator account that will allow them to sign up their students without requiring their email addresses. It also allows teachers and students to review content created by students and provide instant feedback.

ThinkLink

Better yet, ThinkLink allows students to transform those images into interactive and educational stories by allowing students to add music, videos, and text to the images they select.

ThinkLink not only encourages students to explore beautiful images on the web, but also allows them to utilize those images to educate peers in an engaging and entertaining way.

Tools For Student-Centered Creative Expression

20 Of The Best Tools For Creativity In The Classroom (2024)

FAQs

20 Of The Best Tools For Creativity In The Classroom? ›

Mind Mapping/Brainstorming

The key to mind mapping is to take note of every idea that comes up. Don't neglect anything, no matter how far-fetched it may seem. Save the critical selection process for later. Generate as many ideas as possible; the more you jot down, the bigger chance of finding that golden ticket idea.

Which of the tools are used for creativity? ›

Mind Mapping/Brainstorming

The key to mind mapping is to take note of every idea that comes up. Don't neglect anything, no matter how far-fetched it may seem. Save the critical selection process for later. Generate as many ideas as possible; the more you jot down, the bigger chance of finding that golden ticket idea.

How can I add creativity in my classroom? ›

How can you encourage creativity in the classroom?
  1. Choose a flexible classroom layout. ...
  2. Follow a classroom theme. ...
  3. Create a classroom library. ...
  4. Visualize ideas and goals. ...
  5. Create opportunities for reflection. ...
  6. Display inspirational quotes. ...
  7. Enliven your virtual classroom. ...
  8. Take your teaching outside.

What technology promotes creativity in the classroom? ›

Design tools such as Adobe Suite, Microsoft PowerPoint and 3D structural building programs enhance creative thinking skills by providing wide-ranging design features for learners to develop their original ideas (Han, 2011; Mokaram et al., 2011; Saorin et al., 2017).

What are examples of creative lessons in the classroom? ›

Here are 14 creative ways to engage students in discussions, problem-solving, critical thinking, and more:
  • Assumption Busting. ...
  • Brain-sketching. ...
  • Brainstorming. ...
  • Concept Mapping. ...
  • Exaggeration. ...
  • Fishbone. ...
  • Laddering. ...
  • Negative (or Reverse) Brainstorming.

What are creativity support tools? ›

Creativity support tools is a research topic with high risk but potentially very high payoff. The goal is to develop improved software and user interfaces that empower users to be not only more productive but also more innovative.

What are the 5 method of creativity? ›

The 5-Step Creative Process
  • Stage One: Preparation. The preparation stage is the brainstorming stage. ...
  • Stage Two: Incubation. ...
  • Stage Three: Illumination. ...
  • Stage Four: Evaluation. ...
  • Stage Five: Verification.
Apr 2, 2021

Which activity promotes creativity? ›

Nowadays, schools are incorporating STEM-based creative activities to promote problem-solving skills and innovations in students. Students who engage or immerse themselves in these activities such as storytelling sessions, poetry writing, dancing, sculpting, designing and many others develop invaluable skills.

What are the three pillars of creativity? ›

Three core traits sit at the foundation of creativity: awareness, confidence and enthusiasm.

How do you measure creativity in the classroom? ›

To assess creative thinking, an assessment should do the following: Require student production of some new ideas or a new product, or require students to reorganize existing ideas in some new way. Juxtaposing two different content areas or texts is one way to do this.

What are the techniques for fostering creativity in the classroom? ›

Give Feedback. Giving creative feedback is one of the simpler ways to stimulate creative thinking, which can make it easy to overlook. Students with enormously creative solutions may not realize the value of their creativity unless a teacher articulates why their solutions are so effective.

Which of the following technique helps to develop creativity in students? ›

Hence, we conclude that brainstorming is a useful technique to promote creativity in children.

How to inspire creativity in the classroom? ›

Here are ten tips on how to increase creativity in your classroom.
  1. Learn by doing. Explore, discover and develop. ...
  2. Encourage curiosity. ...
  3. Allow failure. ...
  4. Ask open questions. ...
  5. Embrace creativity within the everyday learning. ...
  6. Respect each child's input. ...
  7. Not everything needs to be evaluated. ...
  8. Support one idea to lead to another idea.
May 1, 2022

What is the 30 circles challenge? ›

It's called Thirty Circles, and you can do it on your own or in a group. The goal is to push people to test their creativity by turning circles into recognizable objects in a very short period of time.

What activity encourages creative thinking? ›

Creative exercises stimulate students' innovative thinking skills. Amidst rigorous curriculum schedules, activities like open-ended questions, creative team-building exercises, brainstorming sessions, and discussions encourage inventive responses to challenging questions.

What tools measure creative thinking? ›

What are the most popular creativity assessment tools?
  • Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT)
  • Guilford's Alternative Uses Test (AUT)
  • Runco Ideational Behavior Scale (RIBS)
  • Creative Achievement Questionnaire (CAQ)
  • Creative Self-Efficacy Scale (CSES)
  • Here's what else to consider.
Dec 15, 2023

What is used to measure creativity? ›

Personality trait assessments

Self-report measures are also used, such as the Creative Personality Scale (CPS) of Gough's Adjective Check List. Such frameworks include traits associated with creativity—such as resourcefulness, self-confidence, etc. —to quantify a person's creative capabilities.

Which is the technique of creativity? ›

For project management purposes, group creativity techniques are creativity techniques used by a team in the course of executing a project. Some relevant techniques are brainstorming, the nominal group technique, the Delphi technique, idea/mind mapping, the affinity diagram, and multicriteria decision analysis.

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