Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

My Favorite Failure: Using Digital Technology to Facilitate Creative Learning and Reconceptualize Failure

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
TechTrends Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

How might digital technologies (DTs) support creative expression and, in the process, reframe failure as a productive feature of creative learning endeavors? The purpose of this conceptual article is to provide a way of approaching this question. More specifically, the article opens with a brief discussion highlighting how DTs have the potential to support creative learning and adaptive conceptions of failure. The discussion focuses on the importance of recognizing how educators and students use technologies is more important than what particular technologies are used in support of creative endeavors. Next, the article provides an example of a particular creative curricular experience, called My Favorite Failure, which serves as a context for how educators and students can experience the positive reframing of their own and other’s failures through digitally supported narratives. Considerations for how educators and students might use digital technologies to support this particular type of creative experience as well as creative learning more generally are also discussed. The article closes by outlining next steps for educators, students, and researchers.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. I’d like to thank an anonymous reviewer for raising the point about agentic aspects of technology and the connection to posthuman conceptualizations of technologies.

References

  • Anderson, R. C., Haney, M., Pitts, C., Porter, L., & Bousselot, T. (2019). Mistakes can be beautiful: Creative engagement in arts integration for early adolescent learners. The Journal of Creative Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1002/jocb.401.

  • Baert, P. (1991). Unintended consequences: A typology and examples. International Sociology, 6(2), 201–210. https://doi.org/10.1177/026858091006002006.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ball, D. L. (1993). With an eye on the mathematical horizon: Dilemmas of teaching elementary school mathematics. The Elementary School Journal, 93(4), 373–397. https://doi.org/10.1086/461730.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. Freeman.

  • Beghetto, R. A. (2009). Correlates of intellectual risk taking in elementary school science. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 46, 210–223.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beghetto, R. A. (2016). Creative learning: A fresh look. Journal of Cognitive Education and Psychology, 15, 6–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beghetto, R. A. (2018). Taking beautiful risks in education. Educational Leadership, 76(4), 18–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beghetto, R. A. (2019). Beautiful risks: Having the courage to teach and learn creatively. Rowman & Littlefield.

  • Beghetto, R. A. (2020a). Creative learning and the possible. In V. P. Glăveanu (Ed.), The Palgrave Encyclopedia of the Possible (pp. 1–8). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98390-5_57-1.

  • Beghetto, R. A. (2020b). Uncertainty. In V. P. Glăveanu (Ed.), The Palgrave Encyclopedia of the Possible (pp. 1–7). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98390-5_122-1.

  • Beghetto, R. A., Karwowski, M., & Reiter-Palmon, R. (2020). Intellectual risk taking: A moderating link between creative confidence and creative behavior? Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000323.

  • Beghetto, R. A., & Kaufman, J. C. (2007). Toward a broader conception of creativity: A case for mini-c creativity. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 1, 73–79.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beghetto, R. A., & Schreiber, J. B. (2017). Creativity in doubt: Toward understanding what drives creativity in learning. In R. Leikin & B. Sriraman (Eds.), Creativity and Giftedness (pp. 147–162). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-38840-3_10.

  • Beghetto, R. A., & Schuh, K. L. (2020). Exploring the connection between imagination and creativity in academic learning. In Creativity and the Wandering Mind (pp. 249–267). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-816400-6.00011-0.

  • Beghetto, R. A., & Yoon, S. S. (2021). Change through creative learning: Toward realizing the creative potential of translanguaging. In C. A. Mullen (Ed.), Handbook of Social Justice Interventions in Education (pp. 1–20). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29553-0_3-1.

  • Brackett, M. A., Bailey, C. S., Hoffmann, J. D., & Simmons, D. N. (2019). RULER: A theory-driven, systemic approach to social, emotional, and academic learning. Educational Psychologist, 54(3), 144–161. https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2019.1614447.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Breakwell, G. M. (2014). The psychology of risk (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.

  • Byrnes, J. P. (2011). The nature and development of decision-making: A self-regulation model. Psychology Press.

  • Clifford, M. M., & Chou, F. (1991). Effects of payoff and task context on academic risk taking. Journal of Educational Psychology, 83, 499–507.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Conner, T. S., & Silvia, P. J. (2015). Creative days: A daily diary study of emotion, personality, and everyday creativity. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 9(4), 463–470. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000022.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Corazza, G. E. (2016). Potential originality and effectiveness: the dynamic definition of creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 28(3), 258–267.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eco, U. (1986). Semiotics and the philosophy of language. Indiana University Press.

  • Franco, M., & Unrath, K. (2014). Carpe diem: Seizing the common core with visual thinking strategies in the visual arts classroom. Art Education, 67(1), 28–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/00043125.2014.11519255.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glăveanu, V. P., & Beghetto, R. A. (2020). Creative experience: A non-standard definition of creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2020.1827606.

  • Glaveanu, V. P., Hanchett Hanson, M., Baer, J., Barbot, B., Clapp, E. P., Corazza, G. E., Hennessey, B., Kaufman, J. C., Lebuda, I., Lubart, T., Montuori, A., Ness, I. J., Plucker, J., Reiter-Palmon, R., Sierra, Z., Simonton, D. K., Neves-Pereira, M. S., & Sternberg, R. J. (2019). Advancing creativity theory and research: A socio-cultural manifesto. The Journal of Creative Behavior, jocb.395. https://doi.org/10.1002/jocb.395.

  • Goundar, S. (2014). The distraction of technology in the classroom. Journal of Education & Human Development, 3(1), 211–229.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grant, A., & Coyle, D. (2018). The process of building trust works in the opposite way that you think it does. https://work.qz.com/1241911/daniel-coyle-author-of-the-the-culture-code-says-building-trust-works-in-the-opposite-way-you-think-it-does/?mc_cid=015ae0d31b&mc_eid=427e2dccd0

  • Henriksen, D., Mishra, P., & Fisser, P. (2016). Infusing creativity and technology in 21st century education: A systemic view for change. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 19(3), 27–37 http://www.jstor.org/stable/jeductechsoci.19.3.27.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoel, A. S. (2018). Technicity. In R. Braidotti & M. Hlavajova (Eds.), Posthuman glossary. Bloomsbury.

  • Hoffmann, J. D., Ivcevic, Z., & Maliakkal, N. (2020). Emotions, creativity, and the arts: Evaluating a course for children. Empirical Studies of the Arts, 027623742090786. https://doi.org/10.1177/0276237420907864.

  • Kallinikos, J., Aaltonen, A., & Marton, A. (2013). The ambivalent ontology of digital artifacts. MIS Quarterly, 37(2), 357–370 http://www.jstor.org/stable/43825913.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kapur, M. (2008). Productive failure. Cognition and Instruction, 26(3), 379–424. https://doi.org/10.1080/07370000802212669.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kapur, M. (2016). Examining productive failure, productive success, unproductive failure, and unproductive success in learning. Educational Psychologist, 51(2), 289–299. https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2016.1155457.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Karwowski, M., & Beghetto, R. A. (2019). Creative behavior as agentic action. In Psychology of Aesthetics, creativity, and the Arts.

  • Karwowski, M., Lebuda, I., & Beghetto, R. A. (2019). Creative self-beliefs. In J. C. Kaufman & R. J. Sternberg (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of creativity (2nd.). Cambridge University Press.

  • Kaufman, J. C., & Beghetto, R. A. (2009). Beyond big and little: The four C model of creativity. Review of General Psychology, 13, 1–12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lambert, J., & Hessler, H. B. (2018). Digital storytelling: Capturing lives, creating community (fifth edition, revised and updated). Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

  • Manalo, E., & Kapur, M. (2018). The role of failure in promoting thinking skills and creativity: New findings and insights about how failure can be beneficial for learning. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 30, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2018.06.001.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marchand, J. S. (2018). Non-human agency. In R. Braidotti & M. Hlavajova (Eds.), Posthuman glossary. Bloomsbury.

  • Merton, R. K. (1936). The unanticipated consequences of purposive social action. American Sociological Review, 1(6), 894–904.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moran, S. (2016). Ethical ripples of creativity and innovation. Palgrave Macmillan.

  • Mumford, M. D., Blair, C., Dailey, L., Leritz, L. E., & Osburn, H. K. (2006). Errors in creative thought? Cognitive biases in a complex processing activity. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 40, 75–109.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Orlowski, J. (2020). The social dilemma. Netflix.

  • Robin, B. R. (2008). Digital storytelling: A powerful technology tool for the 21st century classroom. Theory Into Practice, 47(3), 220–228. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405840802153916.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosiek, J., & Beghetto, R. A. (2009). Emotional scaffolding: The emotional and imaginative dimensions of teaching and learning. In P. A. Schutz & M. Zembylas (Eds.), Advances in Teacher Emotion Research (pp. 175–194). Springer US. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0564-2_9.

  • Roth, B. (2015). The achievement habit: Stop wishing, start doing, and take command of your life (first edition). HarperBusiness, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers.

  • Runco, M. A. (1996). Personal creativity: Definition and developmental issues. New Directions in Child Development, 72, 3–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Runco, M. A., & Beghetto, R. A. (2019). Primary and secondary creativity. In Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences (Vol. 27, pp. 7–10).

  • Sawyer, R. K. (2004). Improvised lessons: Collaborative discussion in the constructivist classroom. Teaching Education, 15, 189–201.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schuh, K. L. (2017). Making meaning by making connections. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-0993-2.

  • Sefton-Green, J., Thomson, P., Himly, K., & Bresler, L. (Eds.). (2011). The Routledge international handbook of creative learning (0 ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203817568.

  • Stein, M. I. (1953). Creativity and culture. The Journal of Psychology, 36, 311–322.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • von Thienen, J., Meinel, M., & Corazza, G. E. (2017). A short theory of failure. Electronic Colloquium on Design Thinking Research, 17, 1–5.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, Arizona State University, AZ, Phoenix, USA

    Ronald A. Beghetto

Authors
  1. Ronald A. Beghetto
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ronald A. Beghetto.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Beghetto, R.A. My Favorite Failure: Using Digital Technology to Facilitate Creative Learning and Reconceptualize Failure. TechTrends 65, 606–614 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-021-00607-7

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-021-00607-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation