Engaging Mind - Guest Speaker- Ben Hill.

Guest speaker.

Today we were given a lecture by Ben Hill who teaches in an autistic school called Ashgrove in Penarth. He was a great, down to earth guy who achieved a lot with his pupils. By the end of the lecture, I thought that I would definitely enquire and like to volunteer in his school and would really enjoy it. The following notes were taken during his lecture. 

Creativity defined by Sir Ken Robinson:- "I would define creativity as the process of having original ideas that have value".

Why is Creativity important? 

• It is a tool to enable individuals to express themselves and by doing it through creativity, it is a method of communication.
• When someone receives recognition for something they have created, it increases self esteem.
• Especially in today's climate, employers are looking for individuals that can think for themselves.
• Creativity is important as it creates new ideas to solve new and old problems. 

How can we create an environment that fosters creativity?

•  Creating an environment where individuals have freedom to experiment and make mistakes. 
• Important that there is time to think. 
• Essential to have space to move and make a mess.
• There needs to be opportunities for conversation, discussion and debate.
• Relaxed and friendly staff promoting good working practices.
• Access to a wealth of media on a multitude of subjects.
• Allow pupils access to resources while teaching them and show them how to use them effectively.

I thoroughly enjoyed Ben's lecture. I learnt a lot and found some of the things that he practiced with his pupils incredible and never knew that these things even existed. One piece of equipment that he used in his classroom was a device called 'Makey Makey'. 

"The Makey Makey uses a USB cord to connect its circuit board to the computer. The circuit board takes over the functionality of certain keys on your keyboard or the mouse click.  That is where the fun begins. Using alligator clips you can connect the space bar function of the Makey Makey controller to the end of the banana, or a pencil, or a piece of Play-Doh, and make the object the keyboard or mouse input.Just touch your 'banana' and you control the functionality of the space bar on the computer" 

                                                                                                                             (www.thinkgeek.com).

Ben also mentioned 'Somantics' which he said he used within his classroom. 

"The Somantics concept is a suite of applications that use touch, gesture and camera input to encourage, capture and amplify the interests of young people with Autistic Spectrum Conditions and other related communication difficulties. The overarching goal of Somantics is to promote the greater self-awareness, confidence and independance"

                                                                                                                   (www.somantics.org/about).

Here is a picture of the Makey Makey in action.