Companion website: http://createtolearn.online When you create to learn, you make important strategic decisions that are essential for an effective and high‐impact project. Digital and media literacy is a process that involves accessing, analyzing, creating, reflecting, and taking action. The creative process starts with discovery. It’s a process that can be best supported by providing creative constraints. Educators and employers may structure goals and expectations for your creative work. To develop a plan of action, there’s real power in composing a creative brief, a document that helps you prepare what you expect you will be learning when working on a creative multimedia project. Visualize how to begin the creative journey by assembling ideas, information, and evidence that you will eventually synthesize into one of nine different media formats.

1. CREATE to
LEARN
Renee
Hobbs@reneehobbs
Introduction to Digital Literacy
Chapter 2
Getting Creative
Pages 15 - 28

2. How do people generate, develop and express creative ideas?
Hobbs, R. (2017). Create to Learn. NY: Wiley.

3. Create to Learn: Introduction to Digital Literacy, Renee Hobbs. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Hobbs, R. (2017). Create to Learn. NY: Wiley.

4. Born Creator or
Not?
How do people
generate,
develop &
express creative
ideas?
Hobbs, R. (2017). Create to Learn. NY: Wiley.

5. Hobbs, R. (2017). Create to Learn. NY: Wiley.

6. Hobbs, R. (2017). Create to Learn. NY: Wiley.

7. Hobbs, R. (2017). Create to Learn. NY: Wiley.

8. Creators take their inspiration from the world
around them
Hobbs, R. (2017). Create to Learn. NY: Wiley.

9. Create to
Learn:
A Five-Step
Process
(AACRA)
Access
Analyze
Create
Reflect
Act
Hobbs, R. (2017). Create to Learn. NY: Wiley.

10. THE AACRA MODEL
Access: You gather resources that are relevant to the task at hand. This will require
a strategic process of search, exploration & discovery
Analyze: You are invested in the process of meaning-making, not just by
understanding the content but by examining the motives, assumptions &
worldviews of the authors you encounter
Create: You compose content using creativity and self-expression, selecting a
format and deciding on what messages to emphasize
Reflect: You use external evaluation to test the validity and quality of your work
through critique and use internal evaluation to consider the potential implications
of your work
Act: As you share your work, you consider its impact and value by noticing
audience response and documenting the impact of a message
Hobbs, R. (2017). Create to Learn. NY: Wiley.

11. Hobbs, R. (2017). Create to Learn. NY: Wiley.
Every person is born
ready to be creative
Creativity is a normal
part of human
cognitive functioning
The capacity for
creative thought is
the rule rather than
the exception
Everyone
is
Creative

12. Media PLUS Life Experience
Fuel the Creative Process
MEDIA: Your choice of what to read, watch, play, and listen
become the building blocks for what you create
LIFE EXPERIENCE: Ordinary day-to-day experiences (nature,
work, sports, leisure, family & friends) fertilize the creative
mind
Hobbs, R. (2017). Create to Learn. NY: Wiley.

13. Key Insights of Creative Process
1. Fill Your Head with Stuff
2. Spend Some Time with the Mess
3. Collaborate in Nonjudgmental Brainstorming
4. Don’t Fear Fear
Hobbs, R. (2017). Create to Learn. NY: Wiley.

14. • In supporting students, some educators
may give students a lot of creative
freedom, allowing students to select
the content, format, genre, or
medium.
• Other educators may give very specific
rubrics & expectations, using creative
control to provide with precise
directions about the creative product
to be produced.
Hobbs, R. (2017). Create to Learn. NY: Wiley.

15. Limited or Limitless?
Newspaper Blackout by Austin Kleon
 Creative work builds upon other
creative work
 Boundaries or limitations
promote creativity
 Time deadlines unleash
creativity and productivity
Hobbs, R. (2017). Create to Learn. NY: Wiley.

16. GRAHAM WALLAS: Stages of the Creative Process
Preparation: The problem to be solved is carefully considered and resources
are gathered in order to confront the task.
Incubation: The task is set aside and the mind makes connections more
freely and abundantly as creative connections are under development.
Illumination: Possible solutions to the problem spring into awareness along
with a burst of creative energy.
Verification. Ideas and solutions are tested and work is modified if shown to
be viable.
Hobbs, R. (2017). Create to Learn. NY: Wiley.

17. Creativity is an Act of Intellectual Freedom
In a democratic society,
while all people are free
to create freely, with this
freedom comes
responsibility.
Hobbs, R. (2017). Create to Learn. NY: Wiley.

18. Activity: Get Started by
Building a Creative Brief
WHAT FOR
A creative brief is a kind of
mind map that serves as
the framework or
foundation for your work.
GOAL
Identifying the target
audience, message
purpose, key ideas, tone/
voice, and point of view.
ASK YOURSELF
1. What is this project? What form will it take?
What’s the task at hand?
2. Why are we doing it? What is the problem or
opportunity?
3. Who is it really for? And why should they
care?
4. Where and how will it be used? When?
5. Who will become engaged with it directly and
indirectly?
6. How will it be remembered and retold?
7. What needs to be done? By whom? By when?
Hobbs, R. (2017). Create to Learn. NY: Wiley.

19. Key
Ideas
• Creators take their inspiration from the world around them
• Media exposure plus life experiences fuel the creative
process
• Creativity is a process that benefits from a mix of freedom
and controlled limits
• Creating to learn prioritizes the learning process, not the
finished product or outcome
• When creating to learn, digital authors must make many
important strategic decisions about the content, purpose,
format and audience for their work
• Composing a creative brief helps authors identify the
overall goals and purpose of a project
Hobbs, R. (2017). Create to Learn. NY: Wiley.