Here is my challenge:

• 2 classes of AP Studio Art.
• 4 variations of the three exam types offered in AP Studio Art (Drawing, 3D Design, and 2D Design, 2D Design-Photography.)
• the exam requires a large body of work to be produced specific to the exam type so at ASIJ students have the opportunity to take the class over 2 years and submit the exam in the second year. (16 pieces of work for 3D Design, and 24 pieces of work for 2D and Drawing.)

This means there are potentially up to eight different groups of students for me to teach in 1 class period. Here is a diagram created in Gliffy to illustrate.

Call me crazy but I am actually quite excited about the problem this creates. It compels me to find new ways to help personalize learning for each student, and to differentiate instruction for each of these groups. Yes, it would be much easier if they were all doing the same exam type, but that wouldn’t have pushed me to think outside the box.

One solution I am hoping will help me is technology. Which is why I have been spending part of my summer reading, learning and playing with things like my new iPad. The use of mobiles and game-based learning were identified in the 2010 Horizon Report as trends that have potential to enhance student learning. This week my focus has been on finding suitable mobile apps that I can recommend to my students to try out depending on their exam type. Here’s what I’ve been experimenting with so far:

ArtLite has info and a good selection of work on 11 artists plus a neat quiz. (free)

PocketChris has the basics of Photography – a bit texty but has some neat visual ways to explain things like depth of field. (free)

PhotoTrainer – still pretty texty but helpful tips on taking photographs in different lighting situations and how to create HDR images. (0.99)

Random Pose – just downloaded this today. 3D human figures in dynamic poses — with shadows! (free)

Dexigner – graphic design, architecture, fashion news and more.

Of course arty apps for iPods and iPhones are just frosting on the cake. The actual cake will still need to be my Blackboard course and the resources I will be linking into that. None the less this challenge is causing me to think differently about teaching and learning, surely that is a good thing.

I’m reading Curriculum 21 in between holiday ficition. It’s a collection of writers led by Heidi Hayes Jacobs on preparing students for our times…and their future.

Here is a snipit I read this morning over breakfast in Chapter 7 Making Learning Irresistible by Tim Tyson from Mabry Middle School in Georgia, USA.

If digitial technology is used in low-level ways–to do the same things we have always been doing in schools, just doing them now with computers–then we have failed to grasp the metamorphosis this technological ecosystem offers.

After a week in London thinking, talking and exploring ways to integrate ‘Technology in the International Classroom’ at the Teacher Training Center this sounds like very useful and inspiring revision.

I’m in London with three other ASIJ high school folk at a course on technology. My assignment is to plan a unit that uses technology to address a content standard and tech standard which I will teach next year. I have revised the Critiquing unit for the AP Studio Art classes.

Content Standard: Critical Thinkers and Problem Solvers – reflect upon and assess the characteristics and merit of your work and the work of others.

Tech, Media & Info Standard: Communication, Collaboration, and Ethical Use: Students use TMI tools to communicate and work collaboratively and ethically, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.

My next job is to gather other tools,  ideas and strategies that might be useful as we move toward 1:1 next year.

What’s the biggest difference in visiting museums in Tokyo compared to….well most other places? The number of people you rub shoulders with!  

On the good advice of my Japanese teacher, Matsumoto Sensei, I decided to arrive at opening time (10AM) to see,   

at The National Art Center. You can get off the subway right below the museum for easy access – they even sell entrance tickets in the tunnel leading to the main entrance. Why? Because Japanese young people, housewives and retirees flock to see block buster shows like this one.  

Despite being there early, when I entered the first room of paintings, the crowd was already at least 15 people deep. Quite overwhelmed, I skirted around the edges and chose carefully what I wanted to line for. I was definitely impressed, but not so much by seeing these works in the flesh again, rather by the volume of spectators moving around the rooms in such orderly fashion, most with handheld lecture devices held tightly to their ears.  

Post impressions? I wasn’t disappointed; I got to stand for sometime (during a lull) in front of some favorite works by Maurice Denis & Henri Rousseau. So today was just another art and culture experience in Japan…one that was just a little more on the culture side, that’s all. 

http://www.domesticatingit.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/HereComesEverybody.png

The iPad has entered my life…and what a life it has become. I am a ‘paddy’ convert. I was contemplating buying a Kindle but held off because I had a hunch that the iPad with its wifi, email, internet capabilites would be worth having. When I heard I could load the Kindle app I was set on it.

It seems quite appropriate then that I am reading Here Comes Everybody on my iPad via the Kindle app. My browsing for the book on the iPad included previewing  Clay Shirky on Youtube…oh how book shopping as changed.

The article ‘ Coming to the defence of Liberal Education’ caught my eye this morning from the Huffington Post.  Exams are now over…I wonder how many bubble sheets our high school used this year and what that might measure?

For Fish it means becoming fluent in the fundamentals even before moving on to post-secondary education: understanding the grammar of intellectual, artistic and social practices so that one can participate in them, or at least understand them from the inside. Both commentators, like many others writing today, worry that in our results oriented regime, the study of history, literature and the arts is being compromised or eliminated in favor of narrow skills that fit into so-called objective tests. Instead of giving students the opportunity to have strong emotional and cognitive encounters with well-told stories, instead of helping them find their way to becoming absorbed in great works of art, we have drilled young people into thinking that effective reading and writing are techniques with measurable outcomes to be evaluated on standardized tests. A liberal education produces results, too, but they are less reducible to questions that can be answered by coloring in a bubble with a number 2 pencil.

I read this book several months ago however it is one I keep coming back to. Understanding the Digital Generation: teaching and learning in the new digital landscape by Dukes, McCain and Crockett does a great job of providing evidence of what is changing, and also casting a vision of how and why technology can impact student learning.  Chapter 4 outlines ‘A shift to Whole-mind Instruction’ and includes an explanation of what the authors call 21st Century Flencies. They consider these six categories part of the basic literacy skills students need to thrive in the new world of technology. (Dukes, McCain, Crocket. p. 64.)

Check out their site: understandingthedigitalgeneration.com

This is the promo video for the book – a very slick and polished piece of marketing. Then watch Ian Dukes talking about some of the characteristics of digital natives. (I saw his presentation at Learning 2.0 a couple of years ago in Shanghai.) I am obviously a fan of what these guys have to say – you may have noticed my post on Ted McCain’s book ‘Teaching for Tomorrow’ which I looked up after reading Understanding the Digital Generation.

Simon’s post on music mashups reminded me of the Larry Lessig TED talk on copyright and the art of ‘remixing’. He presents the case that Creative Commons allows people to use material for creative expression that enriches and challenges our culture. The concept of MASHUPs seems to be about finding was to creatively extend something whether it is mixing software apps for a specific purpose or using elements of content to create new meaning.

Teaching for Tomorrow: teaching content and problem solving by Ted McCain has a simple and challenging message. Help students develop independence and the ability to define, design, do and debrief problems that mimic real world situations. McCain is clearly an advocate for technology in the classroom however technology is a means to an end rather than the ultimate panacea. In his closing paragraphs he gets to the heart of it:

In my view, the use of technology in the classroom is not the critical issue facing us in education in the 21st Century. The issue of foremost importance is to develop thinking skills in our students so that they will be able to utilize the power of technological tools to solve problems and to do useful work.

I have been so inspired by McCains teaching strategy I made my first attempt at using a role play with one of my classes yesterday. I have to say I was pretty nervous and my hands were visibly shaking when I re-entered the room as ‘Rebecca Winters from Reuters’ and launched into my presentation. The kids blinked a bit and then entered into the spirit of the simulation, asking clarifying questions about the task, and later when I returned as ‘me’, they started to grapple with defining the problem. Because ‘Ms Winers’ was no longer in the room the kids had to help each other (if they didn’t take sufficient notes), and my role was to help mediate their thinking about the problem. Voila – engagement in a different way than I have seen.

As a teacher of AP Studio Art I get all the College Board articles and up-dates. This came through this morning: Teachers are the center of Education: Writing, Learning and leading in the digital age. I particularly liked seeing the recommendations that came from the study. One caution though, an assumption you could make is that Language Arts is the domain that students should develop digital literacy in. I would advocate that all disciplines should be embracing digital forms of expression and communication. Some areas – like the visual and media arts – have significant contributions to make in regard to conventions of design. Likewise, we all need to be teaching and reinforcing good writing since it is a skill used right through life. Anyway, here’s the recommendations:

Recommendations

Effective teaching with technology requires far more than just adequate hardware and software. It takes commitment, trained personnel, planning, resources and ongoing evaluation. To meet the challenges of teaching and learning in the digital age:

• Every student, at all levels of education, needs one-to-one access to computers and other mobile devices in the classroom.

• Every teacher, at all levels of education, needs professional development in the effective use of digital tools for teaching and learning, including the use of digital tools to promote writing.

• All schools and districts need a comprehensive information technology policy to ensure that the infrastructure, technical support and resources are available for teaching and learning.