The award of a PhD requires a doctoral scholar to produce something new. Most often this is couched in terms of making an orginal contribution to knowledge, something sometimes referred to as being the defining characteristic of a doctorate. Making such a contribution requires the student to engage in an act of (or in the process of) creativity. We know that, while creativity sometimes comes about as the consquence of a carefully planned process in a carefully planned setting, it can also be the result of serendipity – something that happens at the intersection of the coming together of chance and the prepared mind.

This talk explores the integration of technology in educational settings, emphasizing the limitations of traditional design approaches. The speakers argue that relying solely on structured design processes can overlook the complexities of real-world teaching environments. They propose "tinkering"—a more flexible, exploratory approach—as a valuable complement to formal design methods. Different types of tinkering encourage educators to experiment and adapt technologies in their classrooms, promoting a more responsive and personalized learning experience.

This talk focuses on a case study of the game Le Grand Jeu (LGJ), which extends into a general analysis of the potential of games in the diversification of the economy, in particular with regard to money. Further, we explore LGJ’s capacity to expand the horizon of the possible, as is often called for in theories of degrowth and related literature. (Rescheduled from Seminar 3)

From the 4E Cognition approach, creativity in technological educational environments is conceived as an emerging phenomenon and historically condensed in skillful practices of material engagement, which opens up unprecedented possibilities during the coupling of person, materials and tools. In this presentation, the case of STEAM education is presented to students who attend a summer school for two weeks to address the generation of a smart garbage dump through project-based learning.

How often do you search and browse information online and by chance find something you did not even think you were looking for but that you find useful, inspiring, or surprising? This kind of information encountering (Erdelez & Makri, 2020) is at the basis of my talk. I will present the details of a pedagogical practise that taught master students of the Digital Humanities (DH) programme at the University of Groningen how to research their peers’ experiences of serendipitous information encountering as they explored a large digital audio-visual archive for materials to create audio-visual stories.

Creativity has been central to our education since the inception of Fontys Academy for the Creative Economy. For the communication course, since two years, we have been experimenting with a non-guided form to work with the unexpected. During so-called Press & Play sessions, we try to prepare the student minds to be open for serendipity by offering a choice program that revolves around inspiration, incubation and creation.