Wicked Problem Project: CEP 812

The Educational Need:

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. 

The Solution:
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.

The Scope:

Students will begin the digital portfolio project as Juniors in high school. Students will begin research on the admission process to schools of their choice in order to create a portfolio for their target audience. Student will also be given short lessons on photographing artwork and will review good design practices.  I will set up a Weebly account for each student, so they can begin the design process. The students will continuously add information and upgrade their website as they progress through their junior and senior year.
Research:

As we have learned in CEP 812, technology is becoming more and more a part of the educational environment. It is no surprise that the art education world is changing too. After a simple Google search on high school art portfolios I learned the request for digital formats is in demand. Although, it is very important for students to contact individual schools to be sure to meet their admission requirements. One thing I learned during my Google search, was specific schools may have very specific requirements for art portfolios. It is crucial that my students contact schools directly for all admission requirements. Most schools are not requesting the actual art pieces from the students, which further showcases my need. 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.

The Plan:

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 as a test run. 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. I have considered creating online portfolios or blogs for all art students, as a medium to showcase their work and writings.

Success: 

As mentioned earlier, 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. In order for this project to be successful the student must create a Weebly website, (I set up an account for my student using the Weebly Education Application) photograph and upload her artwork with text, and organize the images and information in a viewer friendly manner. 

TPACK:

What is the TP knowledge for the solution?
The Technological Pedagogical knowledge is the ability to use the Weebly application and tools. The students will learn to photograph artwork, upload digital files to the computer, create a web-site using Weebly.com, use the design principles from prior learning, upload images and text to the web-pages in an organized manner in order to fully complete this need. There are a range of tools that students could use to complete this task. In my experience Weebly is a free, teacher/student friendly application that eliminates problems encountered in other services, such as Google Sites. 
What is the TC knowledge for the solution?
The Technological Content knowledge presented in this project relates to the Michigan Visual Arts Content Standard 1:  All students will apply skills and knowledge to perform in the arts. Benchmark 4: Be involved in the process and presentation of a final product or exhibit. Students will learn the importance of art selection in preparing for a portfolio review or art exhibit. Students should include artwork from multiple disciplines to show their talents in a wide range of styles and materials. Students should also be sure to include artwork in which they worked “from life.” Meaning, the student observed an object, person, or place to create an art piece rather than a photograph or art piece from another artist. This will allow the viewer to see the true talent of the students.
What is the PC knowledge for the solution?
The pedagogical content knowledge is the intersection of the content and the application meet. As already discussed the Weebly application is very user friendly and will provide an easy transition for my students. Along with demonstrations from myself and one on one guidance I feel the students will have very few problems. The students will be able to present their artwork in a whole new way. I will guide students through the new information hitting multiple learning styles/multiple intelligence's in order for the students to learn the information needed in order to be successful. Auditory: Verbally guide the students through the process. Visual: Projected on the Smart board students will be able to see the process taking place. Kinetic: Students will do the steps with me. 

Professional Learning Plan CEP 812

Group Leadership Project

Click the image to view the presentation.

My group members and I used Google Presentation to produce our tutorial on Google Docs. We though that would be fitting and showcase more of what you can do with the application. What did I learn from this... Lesson 1: Always test your technology!   During the development process of this final product I found that Jing screencasts and Google Docs don't mix! We did not test this ahead of time and planned on using this as our way to display videos. We had to convert out Jing screencasts into youtube videos which was not an easy task either. I ended up using Snagit to re-record my videos so that they were youtube friendly. Snagit is a screen capturing application similar to Jing and created by the same company. I used a free trial to complete my part of the final presentation. The process took a lot more time than I anticipated to upload my videos. Which reinforces another lesson, Lesson 2: Allow extra time when using technology! When using technology you must always allow extra time. You never know what will happen. For instance, during the process of completing this final product I had to 1. Figure out the video situation as mentioned above. 2. Fix a microphone that wasn't recording sound. 3. Call my internet provided because I had no connection for 12 hours. 4 And finally I just recently had my electricity turned back on after a storm that happened yesterday afternoon. I am not listing these as an excuse for anything,  jut merely reinforcing the fact that you always allow yourself extra time to deal with the unexpected! If we were to take one this project again, I think one thing we could do differently is our communication. it is difficult with all three of us living in different time zones and people have other obligations, but more communication may have made things run a little smoother. Overall, I think everything went well and we successfully completed the project. Good Work Kirsten and Juan! 

Wicked Problem Project: Part D - Findings and Implications

My wicked problem is to provide a unique way for students to create a portfolio using technology. Knowing that I would not have students after May 25^th, I decided to use my WPP as a test run before school resumes next fall. With a student volunteer, she will be applying to art colleges during the 2012/2013 school year, I ran a mini-implementation.  The project was implemented as planned. I was able to assist the student in creating an online platform for displaying her artwork. The website is still in the development phase, but can be updated and altered throughout her senior year. I intended for this online portfolio to continue throughout the school year for all senior art students as an ongoing assignment. After completion of a “show worthy” piece students can upload the information and image to their portfolio. I believe that there is sufficient evidence of success, for there is visual documentation of the student’s efforts. Viewing the website allows me to see that the students successfully posted her artwork online in a professional, organized manor. I think if I were to approach a project of this type differently, I might consider having students keep a blog of their artistic journey. There, they could document the process they take to reach the final piece. I think this would be more beneficial for the high school teacher for portfolio reviews than prospective colleges. I like the idea of all students keeping an online portfolio of some type to document their progress through the school year. Some lessons that I learned when implementing this project was prior to this project I will need to implement a lesson on photographing artwork. The student’s art could have a better “wow” factor when photographed successfully. I can see this project being part of an entire lesson on presenting artwork. (Photographing, editing, publishing, etc.) This would also be what I would change about this project. I often forget that students do not always have an “eye” for design and incorporating a lesson on good web design would be beneficial. Although the website Weebly, does not allow for a lot of artistic direction, they can still get their pages too busy. I had a professor that always used this acronym when discussing design, K.I.S.S. (Keep it simple stupid!) 

Mobile Learning Lab

When completing the mobile learning lab I joined the classroom 2.0 website and began reading the discussions in the cell phones in the classroom forum. I responded to one woman's post about teachers using iphones in the classroom. I personally have not, but my coworker who teaches middle school and high school computer courses uses his iphone as a remote for his smartboard. He can add text and navigate on his computer from anywhere in the classroom, he really enjoys the fact that he can walk freely around his room and not be stuck at the board during his lessons.
As for students go, we have a very strict cell phone and hand held device policy. Students are not allowed to have any cell phones, mp3 players etc, from the start of school to the end of school. The students can not even use these devices between class or at lunch. I think it would be very difficult to get any sort of lift on the policy to use these devices in my room. I have inquired before, so that students could listen to music while doing their art but they want the policies to be uniform in every classroom.
I can see how a lot of good could come from using these technologies. When creating my poll, I text  a response and instantly saw the results on my laptop. There are clickers for interactive whiteboards that would do the same, but those are not free. I teach in a very poor district, and most of my ms/hs students have ipods (the kids text from ipods with a texting app) or cell phones. It would be great to get immediate feedback on whether students have understand the lesson.

I also believe there could be some set backs. Cell phones give students access to a lot of information. If implementing these into the classroom, students would need to be taught when and where they are appropriate. It would also be hard to keep kids off facebook or other social networks, as well as texting with friends. I am still unsure of how I feel about cell phones in the classroom.

Group Leadership Project: Part B - Storyboard and Script

You can view our storyboard here.

Our group decided to divide our presentation equally, so that each member is responsible for their own portion of the tutorial. Using Google Docs my group member, Kirsten, created a storyboard for us to input our individual information. Our final product will be a Google Presentation, so we have divided our tutorial into slides. Juan starts the tutorial with an introduction to Google Docs and how to log in, etc.(The basics of using Google Docs) Kirsten continues the tutorial with information on how to collaborate with others using Google Docs. My three slides consist of explaining the "why" of collaboration in education. To complete our presentation we will each show an  example of Google Docs integrated into our disciplines. For the final presentation, the group will use Google Presentation, as mentioned above with videos embedded for the tutorial portions. Each member will design and complete their portions, which is one of the benefits of Google Docs, more than one person can edit a presentation.

Wicked Problem Project: Part C - Implementation

You can hear my podcast here.

Data Visualization

During the data visualization lab I explored multiple visual tools. I am so thankful for having this wiki as a resource. I am teaching a digital arts course in the fall for the first time, and this wiki has so many "FREE" tools I can incorporate. I spent a lot of time playing on the drawing tools such as Odosketch. This is an awesome online drawing tool. This features tools for drawing in pencil and colored pencils allowing the artist to experiment with shading and value. Along with the drawing tools I spend time on the website creater Wix. I am in love with this website creator. It is a free Flash web-page developer. It has multiple templates and easy to use. I looked into Google Fusion Tables, I was unaware of the application in Google Docs.  I thought this was a very useful application for visually representing data, you can upload data from a previous Google Doc or another file on your computer. I then decided I should stop playing and actually create a data visualization for the assignment. I have opened this lab multiple times and never seemed to get to this point, I was too distracted by all the awesome free tools, did I mention they are FREE! 

In my data visualization I decided to create a graphic organizer. I used the program bubbl.us. It is an online brainstorming program to track and organize your information. I immediately started using the program without any help or tutorials, which makes me believe my students will easily be able to use this application. I decided to focus on color theory. The have created a flow chart divided the colors of the color wheel into their color groupings. This would be helpful for students to develop as a review before the color theory test or quizzes. The students could elaborate and include visualizations for the color schemes as well. I would like to use this program for students to use as part of the pre-project brainstorming as well. Students can begin with the topic of the project whether it's cultural identity or Surrealism, to plot their ideas. 

I love the notion of visual representation. It is my life! How can you present this visually? That is always a question in my mind. I love the aspect of animated graphic organizers to keep the students interest. I have experienced in the past, that students do not like diagrams and charts, or any preliminary work. They want to do it and be done. I think incorporating a variety of the FREE online tools listed on this Wiki will further engage our students in pre-thinking activities and data representation.

Group Leadership Project: Part A - Brainstorm

Web Conference Video: http://youtu.be/MVtwHEjFW08

I met with my group members last Friday to discuss our leadership project. We used Vyew to hold the conference. I think this program is a very useful tool for online collaboration, but like anytime you use technology you need to be flexible. One group member and I could not get our microphones to work, so we resorted to texting through the instant messaging function. Vyew offers texting, video and audio functions for communication as well as a shared message board for notes. I think this program is an excellent source for any groups looking for a platform for online collaboration. The microphones were a minor set-back; we were still able to complete the task at hand.


During out collaboration we decided to create a tutorial on Google Docs and the online collaboration aspects of this application. We will be using Google Presentation to present our information, which I believe is fitting, since our tutorial is about Google Docs. We separated the work load between the members and decided how to complete the next step to our project.