Light Bulbs, Bill Evans, and Cat Hair: Exploring Representations of Creativity and Education in Images, Videos, and Blogs

This article reports on the findings from three studies that explored the question of: How is creativity and education represented in online images, videos, and blogs? Insights into this question are of particular importance, given that educators and parents interested in learning more about the nature of creativity are likely to turn to the Internet as a primary source of information. Results of Study 1 indicate that product-based images and images that metaphorically "point to" creativity were most prevalent, potentially reinforcing product bias and conceptually fuzzy conceptions of creativity. Results of Study 2 indicate that videos most frequently focused on teaching with creativity (as opposed to teaching for or about creativity) and were educationally based. Results of regression analysis indicate that the videos with the most "views" focused on producing creative behaviors, demonstration of techniques, environments that suppress creativity, and appeared earlier in the search results. Finally, the results of Study 3 indicate that blogs were equally likely to be written from the perspective of a teacher as from the perspective of a nonteacher, tended not to define creativity, and tended not to include citations. Interestingly, however, results of regression analysis indicated that the most "liked" blogs were those written from the perspective of a teacher and defined creativity. Implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are also discussed.