1. Utilizing Technology to Design Learning Environments That Enhance
The Creativity of Gifted Learners
Gabriella J. Ducamp
It is my mission to positively impact local, state, and national policies regarding
experimental and innovative approaches to teaching. Creativity is what makes life so amazing;
the ability to solve problems and improve situations allows people to be resilient emotionally and
to grow socially. However, children’s creativity is being stifled in academic settings, at
increasingly younger ages. This is evident in personal experience in the classroom, and research
pointing to decreasing scores on common measures of divergent thinking. Many of the activities
that teachers are provided with in their coursework and in textbook packages are repetitive and
disjointed. I prefer to examine how ideas relate to each other, rather than involve myself in
inefficient teaching. Creativity is a potential each person has inside of himself, and I explicitly
teach and nurture creativity whenever possible for the benefit of my students and society. Not
only do I ask my students to come up with varied ideas, but I help them select and implement
good ones. When children act on their creative ideas, their unique skills and strengths are
validated. A population motivated to reach their goals mitigates complaints by employers
regarding workers who lack problem-solving skills, making businesses more globally
competitive. This benefits our culture by improving individuals’ self worth and building on our
economy’s strength, innovation.
After I began pursuing grants and joining leadership organizations like the North
Carolina Science Leadership Fellows Program, I experienced a convergence of my professional
and personal interests. The enthusiasm I felt as I collaborated with local and national leaders on
television show pilots, at conferences, and performing hands-on projects with my students, was

2. infectious and reflected in the quality of my students’ work. I found that my students grasped
innovative ideas more readily when they completed experiments. Channeling their creative
energy toward their natural talents encouraged academic growth, as well as social and emotional
growth, in terms of confidence and kindness. I want to learn more about human developmental
theories and the psychology of creative people so that students can experience this increased
passion, efficiency, and quality in their lives and eventually in their careers. I hope to share
strategies to expand creativity in individuals, as well as to use technology to monitor creative
development and to provide feedback so people may reach their potential.
As an elementary school teacher, I have demonstrated excellence in teaching across all
academic areas and made a conscious effort to round out my content area knowledge - I studied
science as an undergraduate, completed my Master’s Degree in Language and Literacy, attended
summer history workshops for teachers, and lead staff development in math and gifted
education. Although I spent the first five years of my career working in an at-risk school, I have
spent the last four years teaching a self-contained class in the Highly Academically Gifted
Program. I have become increasingly interested in the unique academic, social, and emotional
traits of these two groups – surely their intellects are not as mutually exclusive as their
enrollment demographics. The imbalance of naïveté and precociousness within these
populations is striking, but can be moderated. Students from all backgrounds can benefit from
enriching experiences and the development of talent is the ideal way to support students. In
order to respond to the demographic shifts occurring in our schools, new education delivery
models need to be created to help learners grow in their given strengths.
Low grades and test scores get attention and funding, yet we reward excellence with
apathy. Tutors are hired when a student is not getting good grades, and low-performing schools

3. have their class sizes reduced. Schools devote so much time focusing on shortcomings, yet
cultivating strengths is the key to success. Talent development programs are misunderstood as
elitist and are therefore underfunded. People assume gifted students will automatically be
successful because they are smart, but they need to be taught skills, too. Gifted students have
unique social and emotional needs. They are aware of adult issues that are complex, painful, and
disturbing, yet they have little power to change them. Study and organization skills are
undeveloped, as they have not needed them to succeed. I want my students to learn to struggle
so that they will have the resilience to work through challenges when they eventually encounter
them. As a life-long learner I value the process of learning as much as the outcome, and work to
continuously improve my understanding of the world. I hope to model this for my students so
they find their strengths.
I would like to develop reliable, affordable identification measures so that the creativity
and giftedness of all students can be assessed. Many districts rely on teacher nominations to
identify gifted students due to the high costs of testing, leaving many who have potential
unidentified. Sometimes bright children act out in school because of boredom or they do not
have the background knowledge to behave in ways that appear “smart” to teachers. I would like
to research performance assessments that are less academically and culturally biased. They
should incorporate motivation and creativity as components in identifying the talent of students
so that these strengths can also be fostered. I believe the earlier that identification of student
strengths are made, the more support can be given to build upon these strengths, and would like
to conduct research on the possible correlation between the age at which students first receive
gifted services and their long-term academic, social, and emotional growth.
Cutting-edge computer software and multimedia technology allow people from all walks

4. of life access to information once available only to those with wealth or power. I feel the
educational establishment has the responsibility to create a culture of social justice where the
arts, humanities, and moral inquiry interact with science, technology, and math. I wish to study
how technology can be used to tie all subject matter together through its interdisciplinary ability
to connect people within a school and around the world. If strong personal and communication
skills are encouraged, technology has the potential to increase exponentially the amount of
productive work students can accomplish in school and later in life. It allows students to interact
with professional mentors that may not have the time or may be too far away to meet in person.
It allows teachers to monitor student progress, gather data, and provide timely and substantive
feedback. Technology also plays a role in talent development because it can be tailored to
students’ individual needs and interests.
There is a confluence of factors that compel me to attend North Carolina State
University. The evolving population that schools serve requires changing how educators
develop young minds, and the ever-changing global marketplace requires shifting what we teach.
The image of students sitting in rows behind open textbooks does not match the learning styles
or the future job requirements of today’s children. The prospect of designing curricula that
incorporate all subject areas, fosters creativity, and utilizes technology has become my teaching
vision. Classrooms and digital environments need to reflect the increasingly complex network
of information and skills students require. Common Core Standards will help make the content
of public education more consistent, altering the focus to how and where these concepts are
taught. I would like to design curricula and classrooms using technology. Increased attention on
certain topics can greatly improve the quality of resources available by creating competition
among service and material providers. Currently, two-thirds of my science textbook goes unused

5. because my grade level in my state does not teach weather, the human body, or plant growth. If
the entire nation is focused on teaching rocks and minerals at the fourth grade level, then there
should be a greater variety of quality resources available for every fourth grade teacher to choose
from.
I would like to ultimately serve as a consultant for schools to better identify gifted
students, systematize existing resources, and use technology to develop new materials that are
more accessible for all students. My work as a staff developer allows me to present complicated
topics and communicate them because I easily pull together ideas, accumulate facts, and gain
insights on data. I have the stamina and work ethic to accomplish this and get satisfaction from
productive work. I want to partner with people who are talented in areas that I am not, and
support people with different interests or skills than I have. I expect to work as part of a research
and implementation team at a complex educational organization, possibly a university,
government department, or private educational media developer. Wherever I work, I envision
my career navigating and managing a group that conceptualizes and implements programs based
on reflective intra- and inter-institutional research. I foresee designing and teaching challenging
courses that train educators, employers, and policy-makers about ways to promote creativity and
engage students. I plan on conducting relevant research studies and surveys that lead to effective
decisions regarding educational policy, planning, and leadership, and hope to work as a member
of your institution to accomplish these goals.