Will using a computer make my students more creative?

Yesterday as we were sharing some thoughts about the progress of our inquiries within our mentor group, I shared my student Karl's work (see blog from earlier). I then stated that I hoped our computers would soon be working well enough that I could get the students to do some creative work on there...after all, I am taking a "learning and teaching with technology" course! After each person presented their work, the rest of us in the mentor group was encouraged to come up with a thoughtful response. I was flattered by most of mine, but one in particular caught my attention. "Do you think the students will be more or less creative when you transfer it to the computer?" Hmmm, I think my initial reaction is "Of course!" But now I wonder.

The students have only been able to touch the computers once this year, and that was not a very pleasant experience for most as there were more glitches in the system than notebooks that worked. I do know that last year they never touched the computers at all. I don't think any of my students have used kidpix before. I don't know how literate the kids are with computers. For most of them, logging on using first and last name is a big accomplishment. Will my students then be able to use the computer in any creative way? Do they first need to learn the basics of how these work? I'm sure most of them, although not all, have had some experience on home computers playing games and things, but is that going to transfer over? I guess what I'm wondering is what skills (literacies) do my students need to have before they are able to be creative? What will I judge as being creative? How can I assess this, if it is different from producing a picture?

Any ideas out there? what has worked for you in your class? Does having computers increase creativity?