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Creative Explorer

Creative explorer awakens wellsprings of creativity

CWA New Media developed Creative Explorer for Creative New Zealand in 1997 to inspire young New Zealanders to express their own creative spirit. The interactive CD-ROM explores the lives and influences of six New Zealand artists in English, te reo Māori, and Samoan.

The need

New Zealand art teachers needed interactive learning resources to support new curriculum developments and give students hands on experiential learning opportunities connected to the practice of professional artists.

The innovation

Students can find out about the lives of the artists and explore six different interactive areas where they can write music, compose a still photograph, edit a film from a series of clips, create a storybook and choreograph a dance.

A millennium edition was released in 2000 with online support material including a collection of unit plans, an updated online gallery of students' work using the CD-ROM and a discovery kit that introduces Creative Explorer. Unit plans are based on use of the CD-ROM in implementing the arts in the New Zealand Curriculum and integrating the arts across other curriculum areas. Commissioned by Creative New Zealand, with funding from the Lottery Grants Board, and produced for Learning Media Limited, the target audience for the resource is 8–13 year old school students.

In recognition of its place in enhancing arts education, Creative Explorer was recently redistributed to all New Zealand schools.

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