An Instrument for Creativity Potentiation - Remote Experiment

Abstract

Kolb and Fry (1975) showed that experiment – based learning is a good way to improve the accumulation of knowledge. The concept succeeds to direct attention on the fact that education is a conservative system based on routines and habits. Creative thinking is not manifested in this environment, so the question is the following: is it necessary to renounce at these routines and habits? Ancient Greeks said that “…from nothing is born… nothing…” encouraging knowledge accumulation. The knowledge base is formed using convergent thinking which introduced learning routines and habits that eliminate possible variations and, step by step, to reach the final point of the demonstration. But creativity is based on divergent thinking. This paper does not aim to cover the entire educational landscape and principles, but wants to illustrate the manner in which a piece of technology, that began to support more and more learning by experience, can increase creativity potential. It is about remote experiment. Analysis of the relationship between remote experiment, as a tool to stimulate creativity, and the classic learning shows that this instrument represents a good connection with the real world in spite of the fact that it is manifested in the virtual environment. The effects of the experiments in virtual environment, positive in general, are limited by the problems of the Internet connectivity and by the laboratories unequally endowment.