Creativity scores have been on the decline in the United States for the last 20 years, yet creativity is the #1 leadership trait of the future*. In 2013, No Right Brain Left Behind and Green Dot Public Schools launched an award-winning project to revive underused school libraries and transform them into 21st century learning spaces.  The project piloted with at-risk students in Watts, Los Angeles. Pull was invited to develop a new learning technology that would inspire and enhance learning, creativity and innovation. How can education leverage creativity? Through research, and cross-disciplinary workshops, we created archetypes to begin to understand our users. After developing a low-fidelity prototype, Pull engaged high school students across Los Angeles to reveal their opinions, ideas and insights. Letting users inform our refinements and decisions, we created a modified and fully functional prototype and use cases, which we tested with the same students. Our user-driven approach revealed that creativity in education meant, quite simply, to learn more by doing. Introducing the SMRTKT.

 

Leveraging maker culture and principles of embodied learning, SMRTKT is a multi-sensory, collaborative and creative learning toolkit that redefines the way that students interact with computers. It can seamlessly integrate into existing lesson plans by simply replacing traditional student/computer interaction. Stimulated by its environment and users, the SMRKT responds to sound, movement, distance and color. It can be used as a software controller on computers, as a tool to build circuits, and even as an interactive art installation. We believe that redesigning certain components of the educational experience can keep kids creative, enthusiastic, and more aware of their potential. With creative thinkers graduating from schools, we hope to be better able to solve the complex problems facing the future.