Creativity in the 4th Industrial Curricula with Artificially Intelligent Technologies

8 pages•Published: November 24, 2022

Abstract

Artificial intelligence has become pervasive in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and is challenging traditional notions of what it means to be creative. This paper suggests newer and nuanced ways of conceiving creativity in the 4IR era dominated by artificially intelligent systems that are capable of creative outputs. An integrative literature review of the notion of creativity is done to ascertain what it entails to be creative in the 4IR learning context. The Actor-Network Theory is used to sustain a proposed framework for understanding creativity in the 4IR skills development context. It is argued that skills development in the 4IR is happening in an era where humanity is deeply entangled with intelligent machines. A proposal is put suggesting that creativity in learning contexts should go beyond the confines of the mind contrary to traditional pedagogical thinking. Creative learning in the 4IR should be driven by thought processes, human beings’ inherent crafting capabilities, and the computing power of artificial intelligence. Consequently, the design of learning programmes and skills development in the 4IR should occur in a framework that appreciates the fact that creative abilities have moved past capabilities of the human mind. In addition to mental acts, creativity involves the human beings’ manipulative abilities as well as the computing power of artificially intelligent systems. 4IR researchers are encouraged to develop newer lenses and paradigms of understanding and defining creativity in the 4IRskills development context taking into consideration the pervasiveness and creative capabilities of artificially intelligent technologies. The age of the machines has arrived, much of what is taught, and learned, and the creative approaches used to arrive at solutions is changing together with what it means to be creative. Research effort should be directed towards developing educational methodologies that shift skills development systems, so stuck in traditional pedagogies that prime the human mind as the custodian of creativity, to philosophies and theories that are compatible with the 4IR such as post-humanism and connectivism

Keyphrases: 4IR, creativity, pedagogy

In: Hossana Twinomurinzi, Nkosikhona Msweli and Tendani Mawela (editors). Proceedings of NEMISA Summit and Colloquium 2022: The Future of Work and Digital Skills, vol 4, pages 102--109

Links:	https://easychair.org/publications/paper/z6Wb
	https://doi.org/10.29007/pmns