Creative Collaboration: Trans-disciplinary Methods to Enhance Critical and Creative Thinking
Abstract: Students of the 21st century face challenges that require skills we might not have imagined just a generation ago, and knowledge of core content is no longer enough to succeed in today’s global society. As young people venture outside the walls of educational institutions and begin to make their mark in the world, they must possess critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity skills to succeed. The Integrated Design + Education + Arts Studio (IDEAS) team at Virginia Tech fosters these skills by funding collaborative projects that utilize creative technology and the arts to explore educational concepts. The process of collaboration fosters the critical and creative thinking of the collaborative teams, and the products can be used in the classroom to teach educational objectives while fostering these skills in our students.