In Creativity: A New Era in Educational Technology, Riza (2002) suggests three terms describe creativity as a product: Discovery, Innovation and Invention. What better way is there to elicit creativity from our students than with Web 2.0 resources to discover, innovate and invent? Consider the endless creations they can collaboratively build upon and unveil as they take advantage of Bubbl.us, Edistorm, Glogster, Storybird, YouTube, Toontastic, etc. The options are limitless. How will you invoke creativity from your students today? Simply put some of these resources out to them and stop having them consume and start watching them produce!

References:
Riza, E. T. (2002). Creativity: A new era in educational technology. TOJET,
1(1)2: 8-9.

So, Gelb (2009) hails “Da Vinci’s life was an expression of the ancient classical ideal of ‘mens sana in corpore sano,’ a sound mind in a sound body.

Do I think it’s applicable? Gelb offers an activity to measure one’s investment into the body called Corporaltia. I enjoyed checking off all the elements. Is this a surprise? Let’s see… Yesterday I posted: Focus on “Mind, body & soul… & Lovin’ life!” on Instagram after running the paths of Kentucky, spending a day of knowledge consumption as a doctoral candidate and engaging the rest of my waking hours with an amazing MSU cohort  playing and praying. In the middle of my Master’s program, I ran my first marathon. When tragedy struck, my family went to Haiti to pay-it-forward and during the middle of my doctoral program I ran my second marathon… faster and stronger.
 
But, it’s not enough to reap the benefits alone. As an educator I brought students and teachers on board with DOE grant purchased Fitbits. This Get Fit to Persist design initiative was with the intention of  improving our students’ bodies and souls, increasing their retention to improve their minds in our program.  Pay it forward. Introduce it at your school to the concept and try it yourself!

‘Mens sana in corpore sano!' -Da Vinci’s
 
 
Gelb, M. J. (2009). How to think like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven steps to genius every day. (Kindle Locations 2635-2636). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

So, Michael Gelb (2009) offers us some cool assessments in his How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day. His Sensazione test for each of our senses makes us consider just how much we use each of our senses.  Have you seen the movie Limitless? A pill isn't the only thing that will help us fully utilize our brain. Some simple questions can make us realize if we're using our full potential or not also.

Because I'm the A Type personality, I had to take all the Sensazione tests. With a strong passion for design, from fashion to instructional to educational, I, of course assumed I would have a high aptitude towards visual design. Contrary to this believe, I found it to be my least used sense. I'm not 100% certain I know all my friends' eye colors, I don't look out into the horizon each day and I'm not a big fan of doodling or drawing. I'm a techie though, perhaps this isn't the only assessment that works in today's day and age (the book IS from seven years ago.) Does doodling on a computer count? Or scrolling through apps? Appears to me in this digital age, that's the visual question that needs to be asked in this era.

My hearing, smell, touch and synthesia score was above average though. Make sense to me.
A hum from a plugged in air freshener will drive me crazy;
the candle aroma has to be right depending upon my mood;
I don't want anything on my skin unless it's soft;
and, I can tell you what dot, dot, dot; foosah; and zip visually look like. 

So, perhaps our spirit of design or lack of design is not solely based upon one sense. Seems to me we can work to make use of all our senses to design the most aesthetically pleasing version of our world. The Limitless pill may just lie within our minds already.

Time to tap into it.

So as promised, let's talk about the benefits of how fitness and health relate to students’ academic performance and student persistence. We've captured data through wearable technologies!  
Here's how:

1. Research supports a direct correlation with fitness and improved grades (see results from Purdue University: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijWW8kgXDD0). Therefore, we hypothesized that if students could monitor their health with wearable technologies, they might just improve their health and increase student persistence in the classroom also. 
   
2. We began by having interested teachers explore various wearable technologies. The winner was the Flex Fitbit due to cost and functionality. 
3. We secured grant funding adding: "Innovative technology to support physical activity to promote increased retention and completion" to the budget.
4. Teachers experimented with their usage and were immediately excited about the possibilities. 
5. We introduced the concept to students during their regular orientation.  Those who were interested and applied became part of our pilot group of students. 
6. An orientation and weekly checkpoints discussing the tips of the trade and the science involved in fitness kept the buzz going.  Students impressively shared unexpected results of how they were drinking more water and monitoring their rest along with walking and exercising more to achieve their health and wellness goals. 
7. Specific results reported students having to say this about their experience:
   • "It helped me realize how inactive I was and that I need to do more exercise."
   • "I learned that science is improving our daily lives,and that we as a society will live longer and healthier if we maintain common sense also run,walk, sleep, and eat healthy."
8. But, the learning didn't stop when they left the classroom.  In fact, they shared it with their families, friends, and classmates.
9. Nine out of the original 11 (91%) completed until the end of term.  To date, seven of the current students completed the survey attesting to the following.  One graduated and is working on enrolling into college level courses.  Two passed some parts of the GED® exam with a few others scheduled to take the exam now.
10. Want to see more?  Take a look.  Make certain to scroll to the bottom to see our shining stars!  https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1uDnSNEixfH7lHFjHBGGDwn2KeKKd5MsWtIPKbtfPUuo/present#slide=id.p4

So, I’ve been asked to ponder how we’ve advanced with technology over the last ten years. 

Let’s take a step back into the last ten years. 

• A new phone taught us to use our thumbs to silently communicate before, after or during a meeting.  This flip phone is considered an antique according to today’s standards. 

• Facebook had just peaked over the one million mark.  Today they sit at over 1.35 BILLION active users monthly!

Source: http://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/  

All of these devices can now be streamed to a wearable device.  

So what does ten years into our future look like?  

I see ubiquitous computing for all everywhere, anytime.  Wearable devices with which we can control our homes and cars; read our blood pressure and monitor our heart-rate will be extensions at our finger tips and the norm, not just the luxury.  I want the James Bond watch which projects onto my arm for a larger screen to sync with the Google glasses for which I can nod to turn on and off or wink to take a picture.    

In the meantime, stay tuned here for blog posts to hear about the results of the wearable technologies our students will be piloting this term to increase their energy, efficiency level and academic performance. 

Ubiquitous computing will capture the analytics to measure and drive the future.  

Are you joining us for the ride?