Final Assignment

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnwnGKn3pi9sdEgyMm1CaGx3eEU3dTJJc2NzSUZIdGc#gid=0

Final Curr316

When I think about creating lesson plans for my own class in the future, I usually am always trying to think of ways to integrate other subject areas into art projects. For this project, “Elements of Art in everyday life, around the world, and in history” was a great way to integrate many subjects into the assignment.

For this art project, I decided to incorporate a brief presentation using either a slide projector or a computer, most likely a Mac, to show students how to search for relevant resources and references before they actually start their project.

Students will start off the same as they would any other art project, with research, brainstorming, and of course sketching. They can use the computer, for access to the internet and using websites such as Google, and YouTube, just to name a couple, to help get them inspired.  Using the internet in a computer lab, will give students the opportunity to find references of how elements of art are used in artwork around the world and in other cultures, in present day and throughout history.  If students are focusing on a tradition or have been inspired from something of another culture, other forms of art are appropriate for a major reference in this assignment. For instance, music, lyrics, poetry, and even different styles of dance are a valid for elements of inspiration for visual artwork that we be created on the computer.

Before having to integrate technology into this lesson, I made the decision to have students use music from their own personal collection or a favorite poem to be used to create a visual artwork, using artistic materials, most likely acrylic paint. But now with the integration of technology and the opportunity to expand out of their own personal range and research art forms of other cultures of other times in history, students have the chance to not only learn something new to express through art, but also to use Adobe Photoshop and/or Adobe Illustrator to create a graphically aesthetic piece.  Using these programs, students can take patterns from other cultures such as the colorful line work in Mexican blankets, or geometric patterns seen throughout Islamic Art and use it as a base for their artwork.  Using music and poetry from other cultures can be shown on their designs using symbols and visuals to help reflect their expression of the beauty they took from learning about a particular culture.

After completing their artworks using different Adobe programs, they will be required to type up a short description of their artistic choices in color and design, as well as why they chose a particular culture to work from.  At the end, a group critique of the entire class will be a large show of different cultures throughout the world from different periods of time, and students can learn a lot from critiquing their peers.

Everyone knows that using the internet gives countless options and access to knowledge about anything. Using computers and technology in schools lets students go beyond and explore new things each and every day. It would be the ultimate dream for every school and school district throughout the country to have enough computers in each school to be shared between all the classes. Unfortunately, in some schools, that isn’t the case, but integrating technology into classrooms would only benefit the students and there are endless possibilities.

Interactivity #5

High School Art Teacher in Old Bridge Township.  This in particular teacher was not familiar with the official National Education Technology Standards for both Students and Teachers.  She mentioned how in the school, computer labs are available for all classes to use upon request, but a computer technology class isn’t a requirement for all the students in the school.  Although she had never heard of the NET Standards, she did mention that there is one computer within her art classroom that is there for students to use for printing out or searching for references for their work.  She also stated that computers don’t play a huge role in her classes and other art classes because of the lack of computers that the students have to share with other classes throughout the school.  After telling her a brief summary of the standards for students, she said that she knew technology was only going to grow more and more as time goes on, and thought that it was interesting that it is now an official standard. Being that she is in her mid fifties in age, she laughed as she mentioned how all the students she has had in the past few years and the students she currently has now can all operate and navigate through computers and technology better than anyone she knows.  In the teacher’s perspective, being that this information was new to her, she was interested in how the school district might implement this into the curriculum of the high school students.

I was not surprised with the teacher’s reaction about the NETS, because she mentioned about the fact that this specific school doesn’t have a computer class requirement nor is there enough computers to make it a requirement. She has also been teaching for twenty-six years and although she is open to new teaching methods, she said that for her this would be a very different adjustment, just now putting this into the curriculum.  She said that each year she is still learning new things and reads her students well enough for feedback to continue to grow and change her lesson plans, but that she has rarely thought about changes through the technology perspective.

As a future teacher, I am still unaware of so much within the Board of Education and wouldn’t know where to start with implementing the NETS into a school or school district. But after being a Montclair State Student, I now have a very diverse perspective on how to approach lesson plans, and technology is one of them. The only factor that might effect it would be a lack of computers and technology within a school.

Interactivity #4

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnwnGKn3pi9sdFBJSzFuYXVVaHM0TUN0TlNiTVNpRkE#gid=0

I chose this lesson plan because it gives students the freedom to express themselves through the use of collage and lets them experiment with the basics of computer art. Adobe Photoshop is a very broad program that has millions of possibilities, but can take some getting used to, so this is a good project to get students more familiar with the program.  I chose to tweak the lesson plan in the fact that the students would get to choose their own theme, but will have to explain their choices and ideas to their classmates through a critique as well as a short artist statement to hand in for part of the final grade of the project.  I felt that this would be a good way for students to have freedom with this project and to see how many different fascinating ideas the students would come up with and how different all the themes are from each other. In group critiques, students can learn a lot about their own work through talking about it to others as well as learn a lot from classmates. I don't believe these chosen strategies and standards had many gaps, if any at all, I feel as though they were linked directly to the assignment well. It reflects the ways in which artwork can communicate a theme or idea and also the importance of the artist's proficiency.  This project is also appropriate for the way it reflects and affects the role of technology in society and on a smaller scale, art classrooms.  For this lesson plan, technology is essential for achieving this goal. Students will use digital cameras and scanners to collect images at first, but the main part of the project is to be done on photoshop and experiment with collaging using different brushes, blending methods, and different opacities to achieve a well crafted collage on the computer.

Interactivity #3

After collaboratively creating an inventory of technologies and programs used in art education, I’ve noticed that a few technologies help aid students find and edit references, scanning their work to computers, cameras to document their work and also do editing on the computer. There are also many programs such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and Sketchbook Pro for the Apple iPad that are probably some of the top programs used by artists and students all over. In high school, I took a class that was specifically used to teach us all about Photoshop and Flash. It was a computer art class and even though I didn’t become a Photoshop expert, I learned a lot of techniques within the program that I still use when editing references or creating original artworks. I think the only reason I have trouble thinking of the technologies in art classrooms is because in my high school we didn’t have on campus access to these all the time.  I was surprised to see the final list on the Spreadsheet that my group created and has helped me realize some of the influences that these play in art classrooms and college art classes daily.

Technology in Fine Arts?

I get so frustrated with having to think of ways to integrate technology into art & art education. Besides graphic design, I don't see technology being a major role in fine arts. When I think of art, I think of self-expression and being focused on painting and drawing what is in your mind. Technology doesn't seem important to me when it comes to fine arts. Besides computer programs such as Photoshop or Illustrator, can you think back to a time in your art classes where technology played an important role?

Interactivity #2

Projectors & Art history slides have helped art teachers & students analyze historical art on a larger scale.