Creativity and digital literacy : skills for the future

Abstract

Educators prepare students for the future, however, due to the exponential and constant rate of change, it is difficult to predict which jobs will still be around for them or whether the profession of their choice will remain a valid option. Students today spend hours daily on their devices and the question which arises is: How can educators capitalise on the manner in which students are motivated by their digital devices in order to enhance their creative thinking skills? This paper argues for the view that creativity is a skill and that everyone has the possibility to improve their creative thinking skills. It links creativity to digital literacy, which involves elements of embodiment, and this enables the transfer of skills learnt to real life situations. It introduces the CREMO ‘Academy for Creativity’ e-platform (https://academyforcreativity.com/) which is the result of work by academics from five countries over three years. The platform incorporates games which enable students to acquire transferable skills, including creativity and digital literacy. Although creativity and digital literacy have been studied extensively as key skills for young people, there is limited literature on how they are related, and on how digital technology can be used to enhance creativity among young people. This paper contributes to the literature on creativity and creative education by linking creativity to digital literacy, and by introducing the ‘Academy for Creativity’ e-platform which incorporates both creativity and digital literacy as skills for the future.