Using Social Network Analysis to gain insight into social creativity while designing digital mathematics books

Abstract

Analysing the processes and products of creativity to better understand and support individuals and teams, is a difficult and elusive challenge despite years of research in creativity. In this article, we are particularly interested in social creativity in communities of interest. Building on Guilford's classic model of Divergent Thinking of fluency, flexibility, originality and elaboration, we employ Social Network Analysis to model the creative design process. The creative process in the current study takes place in a technological environment called the ‘MC-squared platform’, in which members of a community of interest collaborate in a social, co-creative process for designing digital, mathematical textbooks. Both the technological environment and the methodology are exemplified through two case examples, one on the design process of a digital book about a bioclimatic amusement park and one on the design process of a digital book about fractions. We conclude that, for these examples, both the technological tool and the data analysis approach provide insight into the social creativity process of the community of interest.