Fostering creativity in online collaborative learning environments Francesca Pozzi 1, Michela Ott 1 1 Istituto Tecnologie Didattiche – CNR Via De Marini, 6, Genoa ITALY {pozzi, ott}@itd.cnr.it Abstract. The present contribution tackles the issue of creativity in educa- tional contexts and in particular in online collaborative learning environ- ments. The contribution proposes a model to evaluate collaborative learning activities oriented to the development of skills and attitudes underpinning the creative expression. The model is used in this study to evaluate two real online activities, based on two different collaborative techniques (namely the Role Play and the Discussion), so that it is possible to make some con- siderations about the two techniques and their ability to foster those skills and attitudes underpinning creativity. Keywords: creativity, cognitive, affective, meta-cognitive, online learning context, collaborative technique, Role Play, Discussion, evaluation. 1 Introduction The debate around the concept of creativity is quite recent and has even recently received a new impulse given the fact that 2009 has been declared Year of Crea- tivity 1 1 http://www.create2009.europa.eu/ . Usually, when one considers the “creative act”, one thinks at ideas or dis- coveries which have had an impact on the human history. Shneiderman (2000) re- fers to such kinds of episodes by defining them as “revolutionary” and in doing this he stresses the extemporaneousness of the creative act, as well as the un- predictability of the innovative discovery. Nonetheless, Shneiderman refers also to another kind of creativity, namely an “evolutionary” act resulting from the ri- elaboration of existing parts/data into a new, coherent whole. Obviously, this latter kind of creativity may spring out of a single mind, but – even more frequently – may stems out from interactions among people while working together, sharing paradigms and know-how (Fischer, 2005; Fischer et al., 2005). Thus, nowadays there is a growing tendency to consider creativity also as a result of a social activ- ity, by recognizing that the creative process may well take place thanks to the inte- ractions of an individual with the environment and with others as well. Thus the complex concept of creativity can be placed in between evolutionary and revolu- tionary creativity, individual and social creativity, where all these terms should not