Conveying New Learning though Workshop Collection

　Like a fashion show, isn’t learning in the digital era conveyed by visual display? That was the genesis of the workshop collection. There were 500 participants at the first meeting in January 2004. Attendance at the ninth, in March of 2013, numbered 100,000 people, a 200-fold increase.
　We feel that parents who wish to nurture the creative and expressive abilities of their children are becoming more common, and demand for activities radically increases every year.
　
　Due to the creativity and originality of the people involved, the workshop collection continues to evolve every year. One year, a meeting was held with a great number of special projects. Tosa Nobumichi of Maywa Denki held the exhibit “Let’s make a Chihuahua Whistle!” Lily Franky taught an illustration course. Masahiko Sato Lab of the Tokyo University of the Arts offered “Flipcard Animation,” a seminar on how to make cartoons that can be seen in the palm of your hand.Uruma Delvi, the creator who made “Bottom Biting Bug” a great hit, spoke on “Making Cartoons for Parents and Kids!”　Recently-resigned Prime Minister Hatoyama Yukio participated by video letter, and a special election was held which parents and children could vote in.
　Hoping to create a mecca of creative and expressive activities for children, they also invite programs from overseas. South Korea’s Noridan, who tour places around the world, such as the US, UK, Russia, and Hong Kong, as a performance group,promoting innovative public performances, creative educational activities, and community design projects, gave a performance with musical instruments made from recycled materials and held a creative workshop.
　Percussion and wind instruments were arranged in a car made out of scrap wood with a whale motif and on a fish-shaped bicycle, and, while they moved around, a percussion performance began. An enormous, ghost-like puppet also joined in the performance, and expanded to fill the fantastic space in the middle of the parents and children who sat in a circle watching. After the end of the performance, the children played the percussion instruments and personally experienced the world of Noridan.
　Bologna, Italy’s mobile personal experience theatrical troupe “Laminarie” also participated. Laminarie produces various art projects and plays across the world, as well as workshops for children. As the children experience various things like sound and color, expressing themselves with simple body movements and gestures they were able to join in the exhibit“Coreografia infinita – Choreography Without Limits.”
　As they combined their own movements with those of other children, the possibilities increased and changed into something new. By clapping their hands and stomping their feet, they increased the amount of sound. Combining the children’s noise with the Italian speech, they encountered a kind of expression they had not yet experience.
　
　The Kids’ Workshop award, which chooses and publicly commends great, original workshops which stimulate children’s creative and expressive power, began with the goal of spreading and developing children’s workshops.
　Excellent workshops are acknowledged yearly based on three criteria: the creativity to strengthen children’s creative and expressive power, the timeliness to cultivate abilities and points of view which will be vital to children in times to come, and the originality to adopt previously-unseen new ideas.
　Artist Kiri; Japanese Television’s Tsuchiya Toshio, familiar as T Producer on “Advance! Radio Boys”; Yoshimoto Kogyo company executive Nakai Hidenori, who served as the manager of Akashiya Sanma and “Downtown”; NHK commenter Nakaya Hide, familiar for, among other things, being a caster for Digital Stadium; Kayac, Inc. representative director and CEO Yanasawa Daisuke; and Keio University professor Nakamura Ichiya served as judges.

　A symposium on the question “Can we establish a position from which to research ‘Creative Education,’ which increases creative power?” with professor Sherry Goldman of Stanford University, was also carried out.
　We think this grew until gathering domestic and foreign attention as a global event.
　And we feel that repeating year by year generally accounts for the increasing proportion of digital projects. This proves that the practical usage of Children’s ICT is increasing. So with participation from the conference for building peace of mind on the internet, ICT Literacy Zone was established two years ago. Companies such as NTT Docomo, KDDI, Y! Mobile, Emobile, Softbank Mobile, Yahoo, DeNA, and GREE all participated. All kinds of workshops and net security symposia which make practical use of personal computers, mobile phones, internet, and tablet computers are held.
　
　”Make it together.” That is another theme of the workshop collection. They make a giant rainbow dragon out of scrap wood. They make a big rainbow to decorate a tunnel.They put up vinyl tape to make a corridor dedicated to childlike mentality.
　Projects made by everyone in attendance are spread throughout the exhibition hall.
　To begin with, the workshop collection itself is a project built by everyone together School teachers; university faculty; museum staff; artists; all kinds of researchers and engineers; internet, television, newspaper, education, and game writing businesses, administrative staff, students, mothers, fathers, grandmothers, and grandfathers. And the children at the head of it.
　Exhibitors and attendees and about 1000 volunteer staff all built one space. The workshop collection is a place for children’s creativity and expression, and at the same time is a place for all the people who are concerned with the workshop to come out and meet each other.
　We want to connect activities that are scattered everywhere, and we want to make an environment where all the children in Japan can participate in creative and expressive activities! This “play space,” where people who have those kind of deep feelings can freely use traditional, analog means of expression and cutting-edge digital technology, is filled with their enthusiasm every year.