The national advisory committee on creative and cultural education’s 1999 report, All Our Futures (www.dfee.gov.uk naccce), suggests that teachers can use ICT to encourage innovation.But this rarely happens.

Some claim that computers kill creativity. The Alliance for Childhood, a US agency, is typical. Its recently published report, Fool’s Gold: a critical look at computers in childhood, argues that the use of computers in education hinders the development of children’s creative powers (www.allianceforchildhood. netprojectscomputers). Its research suggests that children’s reliance on technology blights their cognitive and social skills - not to mention their physical health.

A UK website, CreativeNet (www. creativenet.org.uk), dismisses such arguments, saying instead that we risk losing sight of the importance of creativity in education, business and politics.

It suggests that the national curriculum for information and communications technology is “useless” because it does not allow the curriculum to be the “real vehicle for creative IT work”. It also notes that although the Government is eager to provide schools with hardware, it does so without providing the “mindware” or training to get the most out of computers.

Contributors to the CreativeNet forum say the government fails to promote creativity because its education initiatives revolve around “accountability, measurability, hitting the targets and delivering on promises”. Policy-making tends to be “safe and predictable”. One contributor urges: “If you want to promote creativity, just do it.”

So what can teachers do? Here are a few starting points.

The Becta site (www.becta.org.ukteaching) publishes details of many creative ICT initiatives. It is promoting a digital video pilot, to measure ICT’s potential to inspire pupils using digital video editing. Other initiatives include using ICT to promote home-school links, and the eSchola project, which “provides an opportunity for schools, teachers and pupils from all over Europe and across the globe to learn together, collaborate and innovate”. Details of forthcoming events can be found at www.eun.org The Teachers’ Online Project (www.top.ngfl.gov.uk) also promotes innovative practice. Its forthcoming free online conference, “ICT in Practice”, is on November 20 - 22, with seminars, workshops, online exhibitions and discussion forums (www.top.ngfl.gov. uk featureweek16.php3).

The project’s September newsletter focuses on creative use of new technology. Information about its recent Creativity Week, including several case studies of creative work in schools and other online projects and expeditions in which you can take part, is still available.

Its events page contains links to all forthcoming ICT events, soon to include the “Creativity in Question” conference at Edinburgh University on March 22-24, 2002.

Claire Johnson teaches English and ICT at King’s school, Winchester, Hampshire