Hi TIPS Teachers:
Below is the reply that Steve Feld from Kennedy sent me that describes
his entry that resulted in a $2500 Best Buy award. Thanks again Steve.
Jim Carroll
Jim Carroll, Ph.D.,
Research Associate Professor
Syracuse University
888-443-4720
Dear
Jim,
Here is the Best Buy winning proposal: Thanks for sharing it with
the TIPS listserve
We
will be getting additional cameras with this grant, to support the
ongoing after school ThinkQuest Workshops and also our new project
planned with Susan Farley, New York Times Photographer who will be
serving as our Artist in Resident for a Bronx Council on the Arts
Grant, beginning in March.
1.Tell us about an interactive technology based program or program
you have integrated into your curriculum. How does it enable students
to create, learn and have fun?
Over
the past six years, my classes and I have become a web resource building
collective. As students have tracked the mystery of Mona Lisa's smile
http://wave.prohosting.com/artpower/davin2.shtml
they have enjoyed meeting online battling female experts, Lillian
Schwartz and Rina De'Firenze.
They
have developed a web resource which details various epochs of art
history
ArtiFAQ 2100 http://users.erols.com/sjfeld/nyc
which won 1st Prize in the Microsoft Challenge
and using King Tut's mystery as a key http://tqnyc.org/NYC00112
Their web based Arctic explorers' online journal responses http://wave.prohosting.com/artpower/links/anartica.htm
led to the excitement of a personal NYC Press Conference!! Currently
they are "PowerPointing” the issue of music piracy. These
efforts are allowing them to creatively, critically, and proactively
be part of this compelling civic concern.
2. How did the
program come to be?
The
program grew out of my own professional, self directed growth and
exploration as a fine arts professional. From my early work with fifteen
year old Tandys, I taught myself html and decided if I could have
so much fun with it, why not share this excitement with my students?
From my earliest self taught efforts with computer graphics animations
using the most primitive web resources, I have been heartened by the
enfranchisement the constructing of online resources and maintenance
of same, provides for
my students who are at the lower end of the digital divide.
3. Please identify
the greatest challenge you faced introducing the program and the greatest
enabling factor
The
greatest challenge faced is the equipment one. We built our first
web resource 15 year
old Tandys. We had no Flash., no Mouse or Windows This year, my lab
was dismantled and demolished. Most enabling is the positive response
and support from online experts: Ovation TV ArtsZone, ThinkQuest,
Oracle, the TIPS Law related project and others in the field.
4. In relation
to this program how do you evaluate your students engagement retention
and fun?
Students
engagement can be quantifiability evaluated by their attendance and
the pages produced, schema, graphic designs and outlines. They are
qualitatively evaluated by a rubric for their web page, which includes
specific criteria for navigability, content, presentations, links,
guestbooks, menu, home page, and other key site components. Retention
is tracked by attendance
during regular class hours, hours logged maintaining the sites, and
student responses to site visitor inquiries. Sheer fun manifests itself
in the student joyful animations, rewards, incorporation of personal
responses, distanced peer relationships/partners (ie Estonian/Bronx
and Brazil /Bronx ) relationships.
5. How long has this program been available to students?
The
Computer Graphics Program has been available since March l997 and
has yielded many awards and scholarships for the students.
Best wishes,
Steve Feld