Hi Nora, here's my results for your survey. Michelle
1) a) How long have you been teaching art?
_____________4years______________
b) How long have you been teaching computer art? _______________1
year____
2) a) What kind of background do you have in this area?
I began "fooling" around with it in undergrad school, took some classes in
grad school, taught myself most of it at home at 3 in the morning, and have
created a few web-sites for college, school, friends, and myself.
b) What kind of computer classes do you teach? (Discuss programs
used.)
I teach advanced computer graphics and the other art teacher teaches
beginning computer graphics. We only have 2 levels of it because we stress
the importance of taking Visual Art I, II, and III as well as specialized
electives such as Pottery/Sculpture. We have PCs because our school uses
PCs even though we feel Mac is better for graphics. We use Adobe PhotoShop
and Illustrator and MetaCreations Painter Classic. We are desperately
trying to get Corel Draw and some web software such as Dreamweaver in there
for next year.
What was your first response to teaching these classes? I first was
intimidated by the fact that my students knew more about technology than I
did (I'm 25 and constantly taking classes on it so I expected to have the
upper hand but these kids are, like, born into technology or something- it's
not just veteran teachers who feel outdated). Then, I really began teaching
art (not just the software program) and let the kids figure out some of the
technology for themselves rather than stressing out constantly had to figure
out masks and advanced layering techniques for every project before they did
it. The kids feel challenged and their work has improved because of the
emphasis on art and design rather than the software. As I've said many
times on this list, the computer is just another tool for creating art.
3) a) What kind of technologies do you use with the computer? (for
example- computer, digital camera, CD-ROMS)
Scanner, digital camera, LCD project for class demonstrations and student
presentations, CD writer to burn their digital portfolios.
b) How do you make sense of technologies in the art classroom?
As I said in a previous answer, I let the kids figure out some of the
technical aspects of the problem for themselves. We do a lot of peer
tutoring as well as the students teaching me. I try to do an example so I
can play with the software before they do it to anticipate problems just as
I would with a printmaking or sculpture project.
4) Did the technology inspire the art curriculum or does the art
curriculum inspire the technology?
As I said earlier, art inspires the technology. The computer is just a
tool. I love to ask guest speakers and college portfolio reps what they feel
is important to emphasize in their portfolios/work. They always say
observational drawing, good compositions, and creativity NOT PhotoShop,
Illustrator, and Corel Draw.
5) What are some problems you faced while teaching a computer art
lesson? We had 20 computers and they registered 26 students for the class.
The other art teacher had them drop 6 but they wouldn't let me so we have to
rotate computers. Also, I sometimes feel like my job is fixing printer jams
and other technical problems rather than teaching because these
interruptions happen on a daily basis and get in the way of our work.
6) What are some wonderful surprises that developed while doing a
computer art lesson?
One way I helped the technical problems in my last answer that is I gave 3
students manager positions and put students in groups with a team leader who
is pretty advanced and peer tutor the others. Each manager has a different
job. One of them (who is a god send) is technical manager and fixes most of
our printer jams and network problems. Some of our kids take a CISCO class
and networked the school as well as some local businesses. They are
incredible.
7) Please give an example of a lesson that you felt was successful using
computer art. Did you incorporate any artists into your lessons?
When we first started learning PhotoShop, I did a project called The Faculty
(like the movie- kids loved this). Every teacher had their picture taken
for their ID and it's in a folder on the staff drive on the network. Kids
picked a teacher, got permission, and took that image and manipulated it
using some of the tricks they had learned in a tutorial I did one day (they
can do the tutorials from the handbooks in 10-15 minutes sometimes). I had
already shown them surreal artworks and we reviewed it. I also encouraged
students to use another object to combine with their image (like the
chemistry teacher had a beaker over her face, we used the spherize filter,
and lowered the opacity- it was cool) to show what this teacher was like and
taught.
Michelle H. Harrell
michelle_h_harrell@hotmail.com
Southeast Raleigh High School
Center for Accelerated Studies
Raleigh, North Carolina
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