learningIT

Chris Toy was a presenter at our school’s annual BTG conference. He presented on digital storytelling. What’s digital storytelling? View this video and then continue to read my notes on his presentation below.

Title: The First Pedagogy and the 21st Century

• Why tell a story?

Goals for this session:

1. Model sharing of stories
2. Reflect on why digital storytelling is engaging to an audience
3. Transfer activities to classroom practice

• Change and Leadership: How will you prepare yourself and your school for the 21st century? “You must be the change you see want to see in the world.” (Gandhi) – What do you want from a child? What situations will you put your students in? What choices will you offer your students? How will you empower your students? What sustenance will you provide?
• Digital Storytelling is a rich and deep teaching medium
• If you had to use a story in your classroom in the next month, how would you adapt it to your use? This is the most challenging aspect for teachers.
• Teachers need to make it relevant to themselves and their students
• An intro video example on digital storytelling from this Educational Uses of Digital Stories site
• Students become more engaged and learning is more meaningful – ask them to interact within curriculum – Students will become the curriculum
• Another form of storytelling is music (ex. Billy Joel “We Didn’t Start the Fire”- social comment from 1949-1989)
• Business student parody “We Didn’t Start the Crisis”
• Example story of “How Paul Bunyan became a Champion” (photos taken from Creative Commons)
• (C.Toy always stops before the end of the story and asks the audience to predict the ending in pairs – He then asks a reflection question related to the story)
• Point of View story example from elementary students on The 3 Little Pigs (example was a narrated photo slideshow – some stop motion animation applied with photos – some YouTube examples here)
• What are some things or practices that are made of straw, sticks and bricks in our classrooms and schools? (Reflection question related to story)
  
• Musical Stories are another possibility: Social studies example
• How might you use music to reach and teach more students?
• Chris Toy then concluded with some stories about student work regarding problem/project/challenged based learning
• He used these videos: Elem example, HS example
• What can you share about your school’s initiatives through Digital Storytelling?
• Poetry and the Parable: Blind Man & Elephant example using simply Keynote style

Go here if you need further info regarding the use of video in the classroom. The site offers student examples, lesson ideas and rubrics. I also have some film and video lesson ideas here on my wiki too that may be of interest. But the mother of all ideas may come from Alan Levine’s 50+ Web 2.0 Ways To Tell a Story.

I was inspired by this video to try something new with my artwork (thanks Craig R for sharing it). Though it is good to develop personal style, I find myself doing the same thing over and over. With time on my hands I gave the technique a go a few days ago.

The premise is to be influenced through music to explore creativity. I chose “In Sickness and in Health” by The Legendary Pink Dots from their The Whispering Wall album. I had no plan in mind and simply went with it, playing the song over and over for about an hour until the work was complete. It’s harder than it sounds and I doubted myself throughout the whole experience.

My goal was to simply break out of my comfort zone and explore new possibilities and various techniques that I usually don’t use. I used graphite, pastel, ink, coffee, charcoal, gouache, watercolour and collage.

The final piece itself is not a work of art, but a document of an exploration process, something newer art students may struggle with. I recorded the process in the video below and sped it up reducing it from fifty minutes to approximately three (you may also click the photo to take you to the Flickr page).

Check out Rankin (photographer, publisher and film director who launched Dazed & Confused magazine) and the Destroy Rankin Project. It’s…

I have seen variations of this Australian aboriginal art activity in the past, but what I like about my co-workers’ delivery is the crumpled paper effect. Sonya and Gillian did this as an after school activity with grade 1-4 students. They write:

“Students were inspired by an aboriginal painting to create their own ‘rock drawings’ in the style of the Australian aboriginal people. After drawing their animal in permanent marker, they used watercolour dyes in earth tones to colour the paper. When it was dry, the paper was scrunched into a ball to create the rock texture. Further detail was added with cotton buds and paint – the dot painting being very prominent in aboriginal art. A border was created for the work and students helped prepare their work for display.”

Here’s a simple intro tutorial on basic drawing using ‘crates’ (or measuring), that I made with my Grade 9 Art Foundation students. We’re focusing on observational drawing (drawing from sight).

Not everyone is a fan of tutorials. However, it is simply created as a back-up reference for students to use at home as it is embedded on our class website. This is also beneficial for parents to get an insight into what we do in class. It helps both further understand the rubric once assessment rolls around.

It saves me a lot of time in class when students do not remember the steps (or need a refresher). They simply know to go and find it on the net (as we 7 desktops in the classroom), allowing me more time to focus on their strengths or struggles. Some students also prefer to learn independently this way during their own time.

Hopefully in the future, the students can fully take over the creation of these videos (but time is always an issue). To be honest, I always get a little nervous when I post these videos online. What if the quality is poor? What if the information is not accurate? Yes, you are putting yourself out there, but it is worth it. It is indirect studying. I have received more feedback from anyonymous viewers on YouTube than anywhere else. I may also then take these videos with me if I ever transfer schools. Actually, 80% of my resources are now somewhere in “the cloud.” Why take binders or boxes full of paper? Why not share it with a wider audience?

Give it a try, and yeah, try some observational drawing too.

(video link here)

My previous post reminded me of an activity I did with Olivia Gude a few years ago in a workshop. We were given a photocopied sheet of ink blotched onto paper similar to that of the first picture (note: coloured paper works better).

Using coloured pencils, we were asked to find images within the smudges and blotches by rotating the paper. Next, we did a gallery walk where we gave ‘psychological’ titles to the works of the other participants. The activity was geared towards inspiration and simply letting go of traditional drawing methods. It may also be extended by attempting to incorporate the images into a painting.

Click on the images to see an enlarged view. Feel free to use them in any way you see fit.

Kabuki actor Matsuyo Onoe (website in Japanese only) visited my school to talk to students regarding Kabuki theatre, make-up, acting skills, abilities and character transformations. Kabuki actors usually play women roles as “femininity can only be expressed well by men.” During a one month performance, Matsuyo stated he often loses 5-6 kilograms due to the weight of the costumes. The wigs themselves can be up to 10 kg alone! Here is a clip of Matsuyo demonstrating speech to the students.

Below is an example of Kabuki theatre.

If you’re a teacher, Japanese Bunraku puppets would also make a lovely art and cross-curricular topic involving story-telling, theatre and performance.

Lastly, don’t forget about the art of Sumi-e.

Interesting work of “art” correct? Or is it? Yeah, I thought it was funny, clever and it did make the rounds at my school. But I didn’t know I was being sucked in. It’s actually a clever advertising campaign by Samsung TV. The video and the info area on YouTube keep pointing to Samsung.com/LE.

What does this do? It makes people do a search. Where do they most likely end up? Simple answer, the Samsung site (where I sadly could find nothing about LED sheep). It was developed by The Viral Factory and is quite a successful viral campaign. At the time of writing, it was viewed over 6.5 million times on YouTube alone (posted March 16, 2009). I wonder how I can get more people to watch my YouTube tutorials or visit my blog? Hmm…what animals do I have at my disposal besides the several homeless cats living in the park across the street from my school? Now there’s an idea for a class project! No, not the cats! Who could create the most popular video to attract an audience to a site? Each student sets up a blog or website. They create some type of viral advertising “video” and see who ends up with the most hits.

NOTE: I deliberately did not include hyperlinks to the Samsung site.

I stumbled across an Eric Carle exhibit yesterday while biking around Yokohama at Sogo department store (6th floor-info here in Japanese only). The Very Hungry Caterpillar is celebrating it’s 40th anniversary this year and as a previous kindergarten teacher, I have always loved his books for their simplicity and artwork.

The exhibit also shows several examples of the planning and draft phases he goes through to create his stories. They also provide an insightful video of him creating the caterpillar pictured left. His books are so enjoyable and easy to create cross-curricular activities with.

Last year grade 1 students created ‘paint’ pictures using KidPix based on the book Little Cloud. They completed these in one or two 45 minute lessons and were all compiled into a class book. My example for the students is pictured right. Of course, creating actual collages from painted paper works too! If you are interested in collage, also have a look at the work of Peter Clark.

Craig Roland over at The Art Teacher’s Guide to the Internet and creator of the Art Education 2.0 ning, invited bloggers to a challenge through the Green Friday Synchronized Blogging Event.

The theme for our Green Friday event is this broad question: “How might we use art or design to promote a healthy environment and a peaceful, sustainable world?” How you choose to respond to this question is up to you.

I must say, I really struggled to come up with something different, unique and creative. I’m not sure if I have anything innovative here but all activities basically raise awareness. I have thought about this for approximately two weeks and it even kept popping in my head whilst on holiday! (I would like to reconsider a greater way for these projects to reach a wider audience.)

Frustrated, I rethought what my strengths and interests were. Would it be easier to focus on a particular year group? Would it be more effective if there was differentiation? I kept going round and round asking more questions than I was getting answers for. I have therefore decided to post all brainstorm ideas I had. Perhaps collaboration with you could further enhance some of the ideas? The details are rather lengthy so I posted them on my wiki here. I’d love to add the other blogger contributions there as well (if interested, let me know…and for those living behind iron curtains, the PDF, pictured below, is here: environment-art-and-design-lesson-ideasv3).

Activity Summaries:

1. Design an eco-friendly home using Google Sketchup
2. Create word clouds with Wordle
3. Poster Design for Elementary using ComicLife or Glogster
4. Poster Design for Middle/High School using only graphics
5. You are an illustrator, create a children’s book
6. Several video tasks
7. Product Design: Invent an imaginary product that would solve an environmental issue
8. Recycled Art: create a sculpture or work of art using recycled or found materials, or create land art

Have a look at some International Posters for Peace, Social Justice and the Environment 1965-2005 for some good examples (go to their ‘Posters’ drop down menu).

Also have a look at The Miniature Earth to see what it would be like if the planet’s population was reduced to 100.

Other participants in this activity are linked below. Give their ideas a look.

The Art Teacher’s Guide to the Internet
http://www.artjunction.org/blog

Blissful Thoughts
http://blissthink.blogspot.com

The Carrot Revolution
http://carrotrevolution.blogspot.com

Jean Fitz’s Weblog
www.heartjean.blogspot.com

The Teaching Palette
http://theteachingpalette.com