Utilizing Technology to Design Learning Environments That Enhance

The Creativity of Gifted Learners

Gabriella J. Ducamp

It is my mission to positively impact local, state, and national policies regarding

experimental and innovative approaches to teaching.  Creativity is what makes life so amazing;

the ability to solve problems and improve situations allows people to be resilient emotionally and

to grow socially.  However, children’s creativity is being stifled in academic settings, at

increasingly younger ages.  This is evident in personal experience in the classroom, and research

pointing to decreasing scores on common measures of divergent thinking.  Many of the activities

that teachers are provided with in their coursework and in textbook packages are repetitive and

disjointed.   I prefer to examine how ideas relate to each other, rather than involve myself in

inefficient teaching.  Creativity is a potential each person has inside of himself, and I explicitly

teach and nurture creativity whenever possible for the benefit of my students and society.  Not

only do I ask my students to come up with varied ideas, but I help them select and implement

good ones.  When children act on their creative ideas, their unique skills and strengths are

validated.   A population motivated to reach their goals mitigates complaints by employers

regarding workers who lack problem-solving skills, making businesses more globally

competitive.  This benefits our culture by improving individuals’ self worth and building on our

economy’s strength, innovation.   

After I began pursuing grants and joining leadership organizations like the North

Carolina Science Leadership Fellows Program, I experienced a convergence of my professional

and personal interests.   The enthusiasm I felt as I collaborated with local and national leaders on

television show pilots, at conferences, and performing hands-on projects with my students, was

infectious and reflected in the quality of my students’ work.  I found that my students grasped

innovative ideas more readily when they completed experiments.  Channeling their creative

energy toward their natural talents encouraged academic growth, as well as social and emotional

growth, in terms of confidence and kindness.  I want to learn more about human developmental

theories and the psychology of creative people so that students can experience this increased

passion, efficiency, and quality in their lives and eventually in their careers.  I hope to share

strategies to expand creativity in individuals, as well as to use technology to monitor creative

development and to provide feedback so people may reach their potential.

As an elementary school teacher, I have demonstrated excellence in teaching across all

academic areas and made a conscious effort to round out my content area knowledge - I studied

science as an undergraduate, completed my Master’s Degree in Language and Literacy, attended

summer history workshops for teachers, and lead staff development in math and gifted

education.  Although I spent the first five years of my career working in an at-risk school, I have

spent the last four years teaching a self-contained class in the Highly Academically Gifted

Program.  I have become increasingly interested in the unique academic, social, and emotional

traits of these two groups – surely their intellects are not as mutually exclusive as their

enrollment demographics.  The imbalance of naïveté and precociousness within these

populations is striking, but can be moderated.  Students from all backgrounds can benefit from

enriching experiences and the development of talent is the ideal way to support students.  In

order to respond to the demographic shifts occurring in our schools, new education delivery

models need to be created to help learners grow in their given strengths.

Low grades and test scores get attention and funding, yet we reward excellence with

apathy.  Tutors are hired when a student is not getting good grades, and low-performing schools

have their class sizes reduced.  Schools devote so much time focusing on shortcomings, yet

cultivating strengths is the key to success.  Talent development programs are misunderstood as

elitist and are therefore underfunded.  People assume gifted students will automatically be

successful because they are smart, but they need to be taught skills, too.  Gifted students have

unique social and emotional needs.  They are aware of adult issues that are complex, painful, and

disturbing, yet they have little power to change them.  Study and organization skills are

undeveloped, as they have not needed them to succeed.   I want my students to learn to struggle

so that they will have the resilience to work through challenges when they eventually encounter

them.  As a life-long learner I value the process of learning as much as the outcome, and work to

continuously improve my understanding of the world.  I hope to model this for my students so

they find their strengths.  

I would like to develop reliable, affordable identification measures so that the creativity

and giftedness of all students can be assessed.  Many districts rely on teacher nominations to

identify gifted students due to the high costs of testing, leaving many who have potential

unidentified. Sometimes bright children act out in school because of boredom or they do not

have the background knowledge to behave in ways that appear “smart” to teachers.  I would like

to research performance assessments that are less academically and culturally biased. They

should incorporate motivation and creativity as components in identifying the talent of students

so that these strengths can also be fostered.  I believe the earlier that identification of student

strengths are made, the more support can be given to build upon these strengths, and would like

to conduct research on the possible correlation between the age at which students first receive

gifted services and their long-term academic, social, and emotional growth.   

Cutting-edge computer software and multimedia technology allow people from all walks

of life access to information once available only to those with wealth or power.  I feel the

educational establishment has the responsibility to create a culture of social justice where the

arts, humanities, and moral inquiry interact with science, technology, and math. I wish to study

how technology can be used to tie all subject matter together through its interdisciplinary ability

to connect people within a school and around the world.  If strong personal and communication

skills are encouraged, technology has the potential to increase exponentially the amount of

productive work students can accomplish in school and later in life. It allows students to interact

with professional mentors that may not have the time or may be too far away to meet in person.

It allows teachers to monitor student progress, gather data, and provide timely and substantive

feedback.  Technology also plays a role in talent development because it can be tailored to

students’ individual needs and interests.  

There is a confluence of factors that compel me to attend North Carolina State

University. The evolving population that schools serve requires changing how educators

develop young minds, and the ever-changing global marketplace requires shifting what we teach.

The image of students sitting in rows behind open textbooks does not match the learning styles

or the future job requirements of today’s children.  The prospect of designing curricula that

incorporate all subject areas, fosters creativity, and utilizes technology has become my teaching

vision.   Classrooms and digital environments need to reflect the increasingly complex network

of information and skills students require.  Common Core Standards will help make the content

of public education more consistent, altering the focus to how and where these concepts are

taught.  I would like to design curricula and classrooms using technology.  Increased attention on

certain topics can greatly improve the quality of resources available by creating competition

among service and material providers.  Currently, two-thirds of my science textbook goes unused

because my grade level in my state does not teach weather, the human body, or plant growth.  If

the entire nation is focused on teaching rocks and minerals at the fourth grade level, then there

should be a greater variety of quality resources available for every fourth grade teacher to choose

from.  

I would like to ultimately serve as a consultant for schools to better identify gifted

students, systematize existing resources, and use technology to develop new materials that are

more accessible for all students.  My work as a staff developer allows me to present complicated

topics and communicate them because I easily pull together ideas, accumulate facts, and gain

insights on data.  I have the stamina and work ethic to accomplish this and get satisfaction from

productive work.  I want to partner with people who are talented in areas that I am not, and

support people with different interests or skills than I have.  I expect to work as part of a research

and implementation team at a complex educational organization, possibly a university,

government department, or private educational media developer.  Wherever I work, I envision

my career navigating and managing a group that conceptualizes and implements programs based

on reflective intra- and inter-institutional research.  I foresee designing and teaching challenging

courses that train educators, employers, and policy-makers about ways to promote creativity and

engage students.  I plan on conducting relevant research studies and surveys that lead to effective

decisions regarding educational policy, planning, and leadership, and hope to work as a member

of your institution to accomplish these goals.