Final Blog

Well......

This is the final blog for EDU 610 and I think I'm feeling a bit sad. It has been a long ride, sometime treacherous, sometimes maddening and other times enlightening. If ever there was someone who has changed as a result of a class, I am that person. Going from a frightened, sarcastic, opinionated older student to a more confident, open-minded but sadly still older student (though one who feels a least ten years younger), it is a real transformation! No, I have not become proficient or even knowledgeable about technology, but I am open to it which is a huge accomplishment. And I feel we did it together, you the teacher and with the wonderful support and commraderie of the class. I now feel that technology is like a living thing, patience is vital in getting to know it. My future students will benefit from the lessons learned here, not necessarily specific lesson plans or websites but they will thank me for my willingness to listen and explore. That's what I learned here -to have a sense of wonder about technology rather than seeing it as the enemy.
Have a wonderful break and thank you.

Web Site address

Here's my website address: CAFastucaportfolio.weebly.com

Copyright

I read the Diigo article on copyrights and watched the great video and came away with an enormous sense of responsibility as a teacher to enforce copyright and be an example to my students. The law is very complicated and Fair Use is very involved and specific. Most importantly, I know that I need to know the law, not just to protect myself, but to be a role model. It is a very teachable moment when handing out material for students to read that is not textbook based. I believe that from early on, children should know what it is to make something and that when it is made and put out in the world, other people will respect it by asking to use it if they want to. What a compliment that would be for someone who has written or composed a work, to have a classroom study it!

When I was teaching at the college level, all of my graduate students were involved in appropriating "things" from cyberspace. They incorporated music, beats, photos, images, movie clips, sounds, soundtracks and anything and everything they could dig up to make their work more interesting and exciting to look at. Artists are always getting into copyright trouble for "stealing" some piece of another's work. There were some of my grad students who were very responsible (not because of me!) and were aware of the laws and wrote letters and emailed for permission. But the vast majority of student artists use at will, anything they can find. A lot of art is made spontaneously and the thought of arresting that process is ridiculous for some. Upon reading more about copyright for teachers and the severe consequences is not just a bit scary but a lot scary.

The answer is simple - be aware that there are copyright laws and follow them. From what I understand, teachers are given a long rope when it comes to using information for a short period of time and just using bits of a piece rather than the whole. As an art teacher, the best place to teach young artists about copyright is in the classroom. This will sensitize them to the issue for future projects and to pass the word to other students.

Well.....I am reflecting on the video project while I'm sitting in the media lab in the library, one hour before class, trying to find my video. Apparently, when Chris and I saved the video while edit ting, we only saved it to the computer. Then while editing, the computer froze and we had to shut down so there went our video. Now that happened in the last phase of the project and it had clouded my view of the entire thing, so let me retrace my thoughts.
The project was very exciting and a bit overwhelming at first since I had never made a movie on the computer before. The video camera was not an issue, only the Movie maker program that I was totally unprepared for. But I dove in and the project was a lot of fun.
Chris and I brainstormed for about two hours about the scope of the project, the audience, the shots and the sequence. We also included the audio ideas in the first session. Then I went home and drew the storyboards which, as usual, took me a lot longer than most people. But they were done, I emailed them to Chris and then with her approval and with the permission of her friend to film her, we we ready to shoot.
Shooting was fun and really not a big deal. We had in our minds not to film too much so we kept to that idea. We filmed what we could on campus then Chris did the rest of the shooting at home for our domestic scenes.
The editing took place on-campus and all was well. We had to import one final audio and then the computer froze and we were/are back to almost the beginning. It has been a real learning experience. Most of all not to panic, to hope for the understanding of the professor and then dive in again. That's where we are now - all wet.

Digital Video as a Tool

Stories are one of the ties that bind all humans together. They provide information that can lead to empathy among people, which fosters understanding and ultimately makes people be a little bit kinder to each other. Students love to tell stories - its a way of being heard and respected. They also love images, so movies, videos, pictures all tell stories and seem to be a wonderful opportunity for a kid to reach out and communicate.

As a painter, most of the stories I have told or have taught are still images, yet stories can be told that way too. Gertrude Stein once said that all humans strive for meaning. The juxtaposition of images, even in a painting can tell a story that spans time. This is nothing new to this generation who have experienced a proliferation of images. They understand how in advertising, one image put next to another can push a meaning one way or the other. Most of all, though, these kids know about moving images: how sound can effect a meaning, how speed and light can mean certain things and how emotion can be portrayed in a close-up.

I think a way to introduce videos to a class is to emphasise the importance of storytelling and to break down the components of the story. This can be as much fun as using the actual equipment. Storyboards are a very serious business and all of the art elements can be taught through this kind of project: line, value, texture, shape and color. Each one of these elements have meaning and are meant to be manipulated by the artist/student. The student should be hyper-conscious of these "tools" while filming. Then the equipment facilitates the students ideas. It's always the same message: its about ideas.

I think I just digressed a lot: let me jump down from my soapbox. I think a great idea for painting and drawing students could be to make one of their still projects into a video - to expand the story line or push the reader in a direction. Storyboards are the fist step and a great way to use the students visual vocabulary as well as thinking about time and the transitions between images as another "new" tool in making a story. Another aspect is sound and a wholly new element from painting. I think that going from a painting to a video and then back to a painting could be a wonderful project to see how the original idea could morph and as a visual documentation of the students' idea. The video could be used as a magnifying glass that uncovers the underlying motivations of the painting and expose the student to their own thoughts. It could be a terrific tool in conjunction to painting.
In the classes I have taken, video can focus an audience for a presentation. Sometimes while speaking, the presenter has to do quite a bit of drama to keep the audience focused. Video can change the format as well as give information in another way which is always a strategy for presentations. Sometimes video is not appropriate; for instance, I am giving a presentation on a 19Th century person and the goal is to embody her and present as if I was her. I thought a lot about using digital images and video to show some of her experiments but in the end, the insertion of digital imagery would be inconsistent with her time period. So I have to rely on drama and pacing to keep their attention (wish me luck)!.
The technical parts of the readings were really informative and consistent with many of the visual elements taught in art classes. The use of the camera and its components seem like they might have a learning curve and patience is required. I can't wait to start.

I remember when I was young, after dinner my parents and my siblings (I have 9 of them) would go into the living room and study. We would all spread out on the floor with our homework, pouring over encyclopedias and asking questions of my mother and father. (it sounds like a TV moment; actually it was loud and often broke out into fights!) To me it was wonderful and fun. It was an embodiment of an interactive experience, peer-to-peer teaching and truly collaborative. Yet because of so many siblings in the house, I also found refuge in the closet - the only quiet place to read on my own. So what does that say? (please reserve any judgements about life-long therapy!) I think my early experiences as a learner mirrors the authors point that both kinds of experiences are important for real learning. Today, the sprawling out on the floor is the equivalent of being part of a socal networking site or blogging with classmates on a certain topic. It is interactive and collaborative. The author talks about IT as a way to enrich traditional forms of learning and to act as a link between the individual and the group, active and passive(reading in the closet) in the transmission and generation of knowledge.

Students need to be engaged in their learning - not just through a question and answer environment, but actually finding the information that they will ultimately question and then analyze. I am convinced that the group is as valid as the individual. For so many years, a practicing artist has been the stereotype of a lone individual in a studio "making something from nothing". Then the work, having a life of its own would go into the world via an exhibiiton and the artist would move on to other projects. Yes, I believe that that studio experience is still an important experience for the artist but as the world has changed and actually become smaller, the audience has become more intimate. I never really thought of it that way before. The feedback, the questions, the learning about the making of the work can be as useful to the public as it is for the artist.

I am intersted in teaching kids how art is important and present in there lives. One way of doing that is to make them into artists, which by the way they already are, and to break down the process of making, almost to micromanage creativity. Another way is to just make, make , make, and to witness the evolution of the process. Both of these strategies can be facilitaed through technology. Even the making can be interrupted using technology, saved and remembered for further discussion later (not unlike the film of Jackson Pollack painting). Once again, not to replace the traditional experience but to enrich it. I beleive that kids need to touch things, but there are some aspects of technology that can only be gained on that front. One of them is the amount of multiples that can happen when using technology. There are countless ideas that stem from making variations on a theme, easily gained from digital media. Also, the mixing up of different media has been a favorite tool for asrtists for decades - now digital media is added to the list of materials for the artist/student to manipulate.

I think students who are already comfortable with digital media can move around it as potential for art with great ease and fluency. It's getting the teachers onboard - that's another matter! The author states at the beginning of the chaper that Motivation is the key factor in learning. From K all the way to 12, the teacher will always be the one to inspire and to show what is possible.

I Wish I Still Had Netflix

In an attempt at a little levity (my blogs have been very dry and academic), I'm starting with the title: it refers to the connection made between how RSS works and Netflix vs the video store.In fact, I cancelled my Netflix when I started back to school, and truly I miss the convenience. This is a great sequey into the RSS application. It really does seem simple and direct and extremely useful for the unorganized type (like me). Some ways I thought RSS might be useful for art students could be to subscribe to the NYTimes and the LATimes for current information on the gallery scenes in their respective cities. It's really time consuming to read all of the newspapers and keep up with the current art scene. RollingStone is another subscription that would be useful for them. In this way, the students could work from a common ground in terms of researching current exhibitions and artists. It would cut down the time for the teacher to present the material and for the student, all the information could be accessed from their computers and they would all be receiving the same material. Another application would be for the students to subscribe to each others blogs in which they would be writing about art-related topics. The students could receive each others thoughts automatically. In that way the student learns from others in the class, through blogging, the way a critique would function in a class: a collective discussion about an artist, article or event/artwork. This would be great for a Criticism class.

I picked diigo.co for no reason and my address is http://www.diigo.com/user/carol12345.

Some thoughts about Excel. I'm still a novice at this program and I had a little trouble coming up with ideas/applications for Excel and the art student. Here goes:

1. The student would make a list of color names, then make a list of titles of paintings within a certain style (Pop Art or Impressionism). Then check the boxes that correspond to the colors found in each painting. Add up the colors and discuss the color range within each style of art.

2. The students could organize a random list of paintings from a museum into art style categories to determine the museum focus.

3. The student would use the graph function to make a random linear graph that would correspond to a horizon line or mountain. By plotting numbers on the graph, making a new series for each new image or shape, the student could create a simplistic picture exploring front to back, overlap and scale.

4. Pick a room in a museum, like the Native American room in the Reading Public Museum and categorize the items found there, for instance utilitarian, clothing, decorative or religious. Use the data to to discuss the lives of the people and create a day-in-the-life model based on the distribution of the data.

5. This one is tricky: It uses ranges of numbers or conditions, like equal to or less than, to create colors in a field or a block on the spreadsheet. Once the first color is established, then by selecting boxes in the field, and then put a number in, the second and third colors can be added making a "painting with numbers".

6. Extra credit: I found out by talking to someone at the busstop that pictures can be imported into Excel. This can be used as a way of having fun by stretching the picture.