PART A: The Wicked Problem - A Need or an Opportunity

What is the important educational need that you are seeking to address? This element is fundamental in this project. Since we have limited time, energy, and resources, cool technology without a clear sense of why it matters or what we gain by it is of little value in the educational setting.

As an art educator, I am responsible to assist senior art students to prepare and create a portfolio of their artwork in preparation of college reviews. Students entering colleges and universities to pursue the fine arts have opportunities to apply for art scholarships with a portfolio review for their high school artwork. College professors will critique the art and offer scholarships to those who they see potential in. . Typically, students collect all their artwork and physically take their art to the colleges and universities,but recently schools have requested digital files as the medium for the artwork to be submitted. My wicked problem is to provide a unique way for students to create a portfolio using technology. 

How you plan to address this educational issue with technology?  You need to make a clear and convincing case that your proposed solution will make a real impact on the issue you identify, and that your proposed approach is a reasonable approach given its costs and possible alternatives.

Using the web-site creator Weebly.com students will create an online art portfolio. The students will be able to have images and text readily available for any interested college and university. Using a website will allow the students to organize the information and artwork more efficiently than using a blog. The Weebly service is free and allows educators to set up accounts for their students.

Logistics of solution: For example…What is the scope? (e.g., when and where will tool be used and for how long? Who all will use it?)

The tool will be used with junior and senior art students. They will continuously add information and upgrade their website as they progress through their junior and senior years.

Relevant research and resources (from the Internet and elsewhere) including reports on the closest effort you can find to what you are planning to do as well as ideas and materials you may be able to build upon in your own effort.  Your description should include:

The results of your search (What resources may help guide your project? What resources may help in the implementation of your project?)
What you learned from performing this search. For example, which search engines did you use? What strategies did you use? What helped or hindered your search? How would you search again next time? 

Of course when I am instructed to do internet research I go to Google.com. Who doesn’t? Once there I used the search engine to guide me through a lot of information on high school art portfolios. One thing I learned was specific schools may have very specific requirements for art portfolios. I did see that the request for digital formats is in demand, and most schools are not requesting the actual art pieces from the students. I read an online article from the NY Times that discussed what should be in an art portfolio. This information will be good to share with students, in order to assist them in what work should be put into the portfolio. I would like to see information from other art educators as what they are doing with their senior students. I did read multiple articles from college professors and admission reps that further emphasized what they want to see in high school art.

A plan for the portion you will implement during this course and the portion you will implement after this course completes.

Due to the fact that my school year is over, I will be having a junior in high school begin work on their online portfolio. This particular student is very serious about an art career and plans to attend an art college after graduation. Luckily, I can still contact this student and she is willing to get started this summer.  She will begin submitting photos and text to her webpage and continue the process next school year. When the 2012-2013 school year begins I will be able to assist the other junior and senior art students in preparing an online portfolio during the digital arts course or the after school art club.

How would you know you were successful?

I will be using this summer session as a test run with the Weebly program and incorporating online portfolios, hopefully clearing any roadblocks for the fall. The student volunteer  and her parent will be able to work with me through online communication in preparing this portfolio. If the student successfully builds an online portfolio, I will be able to view her artwork and navigate through the information easily. Feedback from the student will also be crucial in terms of learning the perspective of  the student.