Creativity is a term that is difficult to define and measure. Nevertheless, creativity, according to Ken Robinson (2015) is connected to imagination and innovation. Recently (2016), the International Labor Organization (ILO) reported that the majority of new work opportunities in the last decade had been generated in the informal and digitally-based economy while the World Economic Forum argued that creativity is one of the top three skills workers will need in the near future. Experts claim that, due to the break of new products, new technologies and new ways of working, workers are going to have to become more creative in order to benefit from these changes. Accordingly, the ISEC project aims at creating a Strategic Partnership to exchange knowledge and experience on how creativity and digital technology interact in the educational environment and can contribute to enhancing Social Innovation. Partners will create a model of the multiple dimensions of creativity as well as they will develop an educational framework for promoting creativity in Digital Social Innovation (DSI) scope. Indeed, over the last two years, DSI has grown significantly while DSI projects and initiatives have multiplied, catching the attention of policymakers, governments, and civil society organizations alike (Stokes, Baeck, & Baker, 2017). With the break of new products, new technologies and new ways of working, workers are going to have to become more creative in order to benefit from these changes. For this purpose, Partners will consider the following four primary layers: • The role of educational computing in education classes; • The use of creativity to improve educational processes; • The purpose of technology as a means for stimulating/supporting creativity; Creativity as key factor of success in DSI. Furthermore, they will also focus on issues such as: • Why some individuals seem more creative than others? • What are the factors underlying creativity? Finally, the ISEC project will investigate and discuss the following questions: • Digital technology and creativity; • Creativity in innovation; Social educators are the primary target group of ISEC. The secondary target groups are: • Educational Institutions; • NGOs engaged in adult learning; • Social enterprises who are interested in DSI and aim at improving their current services; • Social Services who are interested in modernizing their services.
The ISEC project aimed to develop a Strategic Partnership to exchange knowledge and experience on how creativity and digital technology interact in the educational environment and can contribute to enhancing DSI. By implementing the project, partners wanted to achieve the following results:: - analyze and discuss the multiple dimensions of creativity. - define a preliminary educational framework for developing creativity in the DSI scope focusing on the education of social educators. - compare the educational practices adopted to enhance creativity. Partners also addressed the questions: - machine creativity. - creativity and autism.
Partners applied the ISEC project to exchange practices and experience on how creativity and digital technology can interact in education and enhance social innovation. Nowadays, creativity is a topic of considerable interest, especially in educational and psychological research. The advent of digital technologies and the spread of social networks have hugely affected the notion of creativity and changed the perspective in which it is seen. Indeed, Experts consider creativity an important soft skill, and An influential and expanding stream of literature in innovation research claims that, for economic growth, a creative approach is essential. Creativity and innovation are considered strictly connected. "Creative industries" and "creative entrepreneurship" represent specific scopes in organizational management and economics studies. With the ISEC project, partners addressed the following needs: - Supporting Digital Social Innovation (DSI). - Using creativity to improve educational processes. Indeed, experts' opinion is that creativity can improve learners' capability to acquire new competence while DSI is essential to meet the current social problems and lead to new or improved use of assets and resources.