Creativity is essential for the sustainable development of both individuals and organizations. The constant permeation of technology into everyday life is expected to facilitate the cultivation of creativity. To date, no consistent answer has been reached regarding the effect of technology on creativity. This study conducted a three-level random-effects meta-analysis to explore this question. An examination of a sample of 50 studies with 322 effect sizes yielded a moderate positive effect (g = 0.59, 95% CI [0.38, 0.81]). Moderation analysis revealed that the effect was moderated by human–computer interaction, domain, measures of creativity, study design, intervention time, and randomization. Specifically, technologies requiring human–computer interaction led to a greater effect size than those requiring only passive watching. A larger effect was found for creativity in math than in other domains. Effects on originality, elaboration, and overall creativity were greater than those on fluency and flexibility. The effect was larger for studies using a pretest–posttest control group design than those using a posttest control group design. Experiments using a quasi-experimental rather than a randomized experimental design resulted in a lower effect size. Technology interventions spanning a medium or long period displayed a greater positive effect than short-term interventions. These findings confirmed the positive effect of technology on creativity, providing practical implications for creativity educators and researchers.
Notes
“Over the last few years, there have been continuous calls for more research examining the intersection between these two trends and more practices that fuse creativity and technology in education.”
On the introduction, it contextualizes through time the changes in technology regarding media and education.
“For example, Loveless (2003, 2007) suggested that creative activities enhanced by technology include idea generation, connection making, creation, collaboration, communication, and the evaluation of creative products.”
There is a lot of calculus in this article. I got a little bit lost in all the math but I thought it interesting to use exacts and data science to analyze creativity. I had not found something like this before.
hird, the moderating role of creativity aspects indicates that technology use benefits elaboration and originality but not fluency or flexibility. Therefore, when integrating technology into creative training, the type of technology, domain, and desired achievement should be considered in advance. Moreover, it is not advised to use technology to replace conventional teaching; technology has been found to be the most effective when supplementing rather than replacing conventional instruction in practice – key of discussion.
Reference
Liu, M., Pang, W., Guo, J. et al. A Meta-analysis of the Effect of Multimedia Technology on Creative Performance. Educ Inf Technol 27, 8603–8630 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-022-10981-1
