National and Regional Creativity Policy Initiatives

[Robert Alan Black]

Let's use this space to list and describe significant regional and national policy initiatives that aim to advance and champion innovation and creativity.

Please describe the initiative and include any information on leadership and a link to the relevant web site. If you have personal knowledge of the program, please tell us what you can.

[Liz McCormick]

Thanks Tom for the prompt to post something about our curriculum project here...I am not sure I would call it a policy initiative, but certainly in West Michigan with the receipt of federal grant dollars from the US Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, (WIRED) there is a growing collection of people and programs focused on revitalizing our region through innovative design and collaborations. While there are several pilot projects that were funded with WIRED $$, the one I am closely aligned with is creating a body of study that helps individuals understand innovation and their own capacities and capabilities to be effective in innovation process. This concept for a national body of study to serve as a foundation for "innovation literacy" has taken initial form in a learning environment called INTER - Innovate Now Through Education and Retraining...it focuses on 23 skills, and those skills are presented to learners in a new learning platform: one that offers a combination of social networking, content, and course management. We are only at the pilot stage of this work, but do feel this is only one component of a much larger systemic movement to infuse the full capacity of creative and critical thinking skills into our learners, leveraging new technologies, and teaching and learning methodologies....there are still more questions than answers, but we are on the path - anyone who has thought, opinion, advice, etc. to offer - please, by all means share!

[Robert Alan Black]

Great - here's the link: http://www.doleta.gov.

Liz McCormick said:

Thanks Tom for the prompt to post something about our curriculum project here...I am not sure I would call it a policy initiative, but certainly in West Michigan with the receipt of federal grant dollars from the US Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, (WIRED) there is a growing collection of people and programs focused on revitalizing our region through innovative design and collaborations. While there are several pilot projects that were funded with WIRED $$, the one I am closely aligned with is creating a body of study that helps individuals understand innovation and their own capacities and capabilities to be effective in innovation process. This concept for a national body of study to serve as a foundation for "innovation literacy" has taken initial form in a learning environment called INTER - Innovate Now Through Education and Retraining...it focuses on 23 skills, and those skills are presented to learners in a new learning platform: one that offers a combination of social networking, content, and course management. We are only at the pilot stage of this work, but do feel this is only one component of a much larger systemic movement to infuse the full capacity of creative and critical thinking skills into our learners, leveraging new technologies, and teaching and learning methodologies....there are still more questions than answers, but we are on the path - anyone who has thought, opinion, advice, etc. to offer - please, by all means share!