Rubrics, Clickers, Inspiration & Art Classrooms

I absolutely love the use of rubrics. I would have loved to have known what standards my work was being graded against when I was in high school and the first time round in college. Even my time at the Community College in the past couple of years did not see the use of them neither have I seen them in any of my other classes here at Commerce. Imagine my surprise at the beginning of this class to actually know how I would be graded. The various rubric sites with generators or samples are a great resource and I bookmarked a number of them for the future. But, if you find one or two samples with a format you like, it would be easy to alter them to meet current needs. I plan to use them on a regular basis when I begin teaching. I think Scott Utley’s idea about posting a rubric to a class blog or website is great (Utley, 2010). I will probably do the same and maybe post the rubric on a bulletin board in the classroom as well. A completed rubric handed back with a graded work to give feedback will also be used especially on major art projects. It is nice to be able to “learn by doing” with the rubrics, as we experience using then and see how beneficial they are for us we will then transfer the use to our classroom and students. They may take time to create, even just tweaking something already available but I think the time would be worth it for learners. I always liked including the objectives of a lesson for the learners, but rubrics take it a step further.

Clickers are something new to me. The schools in Winnsboro do not have this technology as of yet so I have nothing to compare to. I would expect they would be advantageous in classes where facts are an important part of the subject, history, math, science and the like. I would have to ponder more on whether they would useful in a “hands on” studio art class or how beneficial they might be if used. I would like to some day be in a class using this technology to actually experience it first hand.

I perused Inspiration and looked at some of the ways it could be used, the thinking and planning sessions and the multi-media/website mapping sections might be useful in an art classroom. Thinking and planning could be used for individual and group art projects especially planning an e-portfolio. The multi-media/website mapping would be useful for a Design Communications class working on learning about designing websites; it might also be useful if students are using websites for e-portfolios ("Integrate inspiration® into," 2010)  . I have created and maintained many websites over the past 8 or so years and it can be a real pain to keep an accurate map by hand as the site gets larger and larger. If there was money in a budget for the art department to invest in software this might be a possibility, however there might be more pressing needs as well. I’m not sure if I would use this in class or not, it would depend on financing.

References:

Integrate inspiration® into your curriculum. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.inspiration.com/Examples/Inspiration

Utley, S. (2010, November 24). Week 13 [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://sutleyetec424.blogspot.com/2010/11/week-13.html

Digital Storytelling, Visualizing Math and Television Learning

Digital Storytelling is a process for creating a story on video. Students are taught the steps involved to create a video and the subject matter and let loose to create. Step one is to develop an idea; this can include writing down a basic story line for the piece. This is followed by making a storyboard in single pictures (Jonassen, D, Howland, J, Marra, R, & Crismond, D., 2008) . This can allow the students to visualize what they want to get across to their potential audience. It allows the student to make a list of what they are going to need to actually film their work. As the piece is further developed a list of the basic parts of a story is created so the film makers can check off their progress (Jonassen, D, Howland, J, Marra, R, & Crismond, D., 2008).  Using a video camera and a lot of prior planning the students can go on and create their video. Once filmed the video is edited using software. At this stage, Opening titles, ending credits and music can be added. This is a wonderful tool for students allowing them to get really involved and interested in an assignment. When I was in high school in the mid-1970s, a group made an advertisement that told a story for a made up product Harrison’s Hangover Pills. We wnt through the should process as the digital storytelling except we filmed in a room with a fime movie camera. When my son was in third grade he was in a GT class. One of their assignments was to create a variation on a favorite children’s book, David choose Corduroy. David wanted to make a film titled Fuzzy Finds his Button. With the help of family for the post production part (this was in the mid ‘90s) David wrote the story, got his sister to star in the movie along with his favorite bear and even got Miss Dixie, the owner of the local used bookstore to help with the story. Stop action was used and Fuzzy searched the house for his lost button. In my daughter’s Senior AP English class, they had an assignment to create something that combined at least two pieces of popular fiction (Film and/or novels). Katie’s group combined characters from Gone with the Wind, Little Women and The Notebook. They then went on to create and film a new story. Another group, Thomas and Graham, combined Harry Potter and Star Wars into a stop action film Clash of the Creators using Lego blocks, it’s really good! The video was uploaded to YouTube in 2007 and is still there at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woLk7R0kzbg. Take a look, it is a great example of what can be done for a digital story. This whole process would be a great addition to a more advanced Art class. The whole creative process would fit perfectly and movie making has been used in education for quite a while. Why not use something that has history behind it?

Visualizing various aspects of math has been used for a long time. In early grades children manipulate objects to represent number values, patterns, addition and subtraction for instance. Most days I volunteered in my children’s kindergarten classes for “Learning Center” time there was something that involved manipulation numbers, early math. There are learning software programs available these days that allow children to do this at a computer screen. Graphing calculators, for older students, helps them to visualize equations in the form of a graphical representation (Jonassen, D, Howland, J, Marra, R, & Crismond, D., 2008). There is software that gives geometrical representations, as well, to help with the visualization of geometry (Jonassen, D, Howland, J, Marra, R, & Crismond, D., 2008). There is also software that allows for the visualization of data and statistics, which would make the data represented more clear and more representative (Jonassen, D, Howland, J, Marra, R, & Crismond, D., 2008).

If someone can learn solely by watching the television would probably depend on what was being learned and how clear the television program was. Young children can learn various things while watching programs like Sesame Street but often have their parents to reinforce and fine tune a skill. When I was in elementary school Spanish and French were taught using PBS classes on TV every day. When I moved schools in seventh grade I could recall a few words in French when I began a traditional French class. The current children’s program on Nickelodeon, Dora the Explorer, which has aspects of teaching Spanish to pre-schoolers, is colorful, engaging and fun and working with young children may have a key to teaching language. Programs for older kids like Beakman’s World and Bill Nye, the Science Guy were good for helping reinforce science learning and possibly did some teaching as well. I have learned some things from watching documentaries but I already had knowledge of the subject. An issue could be the slant of the program, the writers and directors put their own spin on their work so as in most cases more research would be necessary to determine accuracy. Many documentaries, on say Global Warming take an absolute position, their view is correct, not if ands or buts. I wouldn’t take the word of a documentary as absolute fact any more than I would believe everything on the internet. If a skill is hands on, like painting or ceramics, I would think television would be more a re-enforcement than actual instruction. There is no way to learn how to throw a pot on a potter's wheel without actually getting your hands muddy with clay. The differences between watching actually doing are immense.  I have always been taught the principle of learning that includes “tell me, show me, let me” there is no way for the television to let me, no guided practice with feedback and no way to ask questions. If a computer monitor is equated to a television, look at the Rosetta Stone language learning software. The have added to their programs an online communication where students can converse with native speakers, a “let me”. 

References:

Howser, G, & Coleman, T. (2007, February 12). Clash of the creators. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woLk7R0kzbg

Jonassen, D, Howland, J, Marra, R, & Crismond, D. (2008). Meaningful learning with

            technology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pesrson Merrill Prentice Hall.