Fostering the creative development of computer science students in programming and interaction design

This study explores the enhancement of creativity in undergraduate students studying computer science. We assume that everybody has creative potential. As a teacher, we can explicitly encourage creative thinking, providing space to let students collaboratively discover and explore their creativity. This paper presents a dialogical framework to help the teacher fostering creativity among students of computer science in programming and interaction design. The framework presented here involves underlying dialogic processes from seven collaborative and creative dimensions that allow students to develop creativity. The use of the pedagogical framework makes it possible to teachers create significant interaction design and computer programming experiences to students, motivating them to activate mental processes underlying creativity. Students can simultaneously activate two or more ideas, images, or thoughts and have them interact, prompt thought experiments, change cognitive perspectives, raise new points of view, and risk category mistakes. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Selection and peer review under responsibility of the organizers of the 2013 International Conference on Computational Science