Pages

Monday, September 24, 2012

Thinking out of the box

http://www.rrrmusic.com/news/viral-entertainment

With over 20,000 companies generating over $95 billion, the entertainment industry is thriving. Even in a time when the economy is suffering, as in the Great Depression, it is the time when individuals seek entertainment to take their minds off of reality. 
 
In order for the entertainment industry to be the creative, driving force it is, it requires the talent and skills of hundreds and thousands of people. From directors and actors, writers and artists, to gaffers and editors, sound engineers and coordinators, there is a wide array of positions that are filled in each craft. 

The individuals that compose this growing industry are dreamers, creators, and innovators. They choose to enter an industry that is competitive and cutthroat in an attempt to leave an imprint of their talent behind for the world to see. While the majority never makes it to the point of stardom, the point is they try. These ambitions to pursue such a difficult industry stem from talent that was fostered to grow; whether it be through family members, art teachers, friends, or even a movie or program, at one point, they decided they had a shot at pursuing their dream successfully.

Unfortunately, support for the arts is not found within the educational system today.

With so many different types of learners, students that learn best in a more creative and visual environment are found frustrated and with a loss of focus in the traditional school environment and labeled with different learning disorders as a result, such as ADHD. Researches are now linking technology to this increasing "disorder"as shown in "The Rise of ADHD: Is Technology to Blame?"

These same students that are labeled and unable to “excel” in school, according to the regulations imposed by the educational system, are the same ones that typically thrive in creative environments.

TED speaker and visionary cultural leader, Sir Ken Robinson, led a wonderful TED talk regarding changing our educational paradigms, shown here:



Sir Robinson's focus on educating the masses about our educational system is phenomenal. 

Sir Robinson makes an interesting mention of a study done on kindergartener's and then every 5 years from that point. In that study, the results showed that 98% of those kindergarteners were geniuses. Then, the following test showed a decrease in that same genius. Why? They were "educated out of creativity". 

Art programs are at the lowest not just in the United States, but around the world. As Robinson so adamantly stated, "We shouldn't be putting [kids] to sleep, we should be waking them up to what they have inside of themselves." 

Unfortunately, that's not the model of our educational system.  

It’s time to think out of the typical educational box and realize that understanding the learning differences of individuals is not just important to spark their ingenuity and creativity, but to foster a learning environment that allows the upcoming generations solid education that merges with the growth of technology. 


Processing this knowledge from a business standpoint can be a great asset in assisting in social marketing endeavors. 

Businesses need to understand that technology plays a huge role in how the younger generations think, learn and create in order to market effectively to them and to see where the future is moving.

It's time to think out of the box…

2 comments:

  1. Hey Jenelle,

    Great post, Sir Ken Robinson is definitely a creative visionary to be listened to. It's encouraging to see that you are on the same track with this post regarding creativity, and more importantly how creativity is being siphoned away from our youth at a place where the creativity SHOULD be most encouraged. To me...creativity is where our true genius as human beings lies, mostly dormant through school as we know it, but never extinguished.

    I think that as a society, we HAVE to come up with something different in terms of education. If we are to remain a society based in capitalism, it is quickly becoming a necessity. Businesses have come to the conclusion that the clutter of advertisements and marketing blasted at us all 24/7 has simply made it easy for us to "turn off" the bombardment. My current blog post talks about this very issue, and I think that in order for the concepts I talk about such as gamification to truly be effective, we have to fix the root of the problem which is youth being dissuaded from expressing their inherent visionary genius.

    Thanks for this post!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Chris,

    As always, thanks for the feedback! I loved your post as well. I absolutely agree that creativity is where our genius lies...if we activate it and make sure that we don't let it die out in the monotony of our educational system and the corporate business world.

    Hopefully our educational systems will catch on to the changes in learning as well as technology. I know there are some (out of hundreds of thousands) that are testing these theories out, but not enough.

    Hoping for a better tomorrow in education! Thanks for the comment!

    Best,
    Jenelle

    ReplyDelete