Digital Art: 21st Century Artwork (the grant)
funded by the San Francisco Education Fund

Cesar Chavez, John Muir and Leonard Flynn Elementary Schools

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PROJECT ABSTRACT
The Digital Arts team of teacher participants received training in designing and managing their own classroom Web site where families can view their children’s best work. This Digital Arts project is designed to teach teachers how to prepare students’ best work for display on a celebratory Web site. Teachers participated in after school professional development workshops where they learned how to use a digital camera in capturing student work. They also learned how to use software to crop, edit and reformat their students’ work in order for it to be inserted into a Web page. Finally, teachers participated in tutorials where they learned the fundamental steps in how to create and manage a Web site containing students’ best work. This project integrated technology with language arts, visual arts and music by displaying student writing, a! rtwork and music on a Web site.
 
RATIONALE

Our teacher team of participants consists of four art teachers, one librarian and two technology staff member. The art teachers travel to multiple elementary schools offering weekly classes in the arts. Our base is not a school, but the SFUSD’s Visual & Performing Arts Department offices. By creating a Web page where our students’ best work can be displayed, we will be more included and networked with the school communities and families that we work with.

Due to lack of funds, the schools that we work at either have no Web site, a Web site with no student work displayed or a very little work displayed. Most of the schools we work at cannot fund a technology teacher, which is a major reason for the lack of a school’s Web site. This is why we think that this project is so important for the students. Parents will be able to access their child’s work and better know the accomplishments that they are achieving in the arts. Students will witness their work going beyond the classroom walls and celebrated through out the World Wide Web, which will help teachers in the classroom better motivate students to achieve their best. This Web site will provide students with a unique place that showcases their finest work and in turn will help create a sense of pride and success in their arts projects and musical shows.

ASSESSMENT
Click here for PDF version of Project Timeline & ongoing assessment. Please note that our timeline changed; our trainer recommended individualized tutoring occur earlier that expected for teachers to gain more practice using Adobe PhotoShop and MacroMedia DreamWeaver software. Our DreamWeaver workshops began a month later than the timeline originally created. Training varies according to the technology level of teacher participants.
BUDGET

Our $5,000.00 budget covered professional fees for our trainer, stipends for afterschool trainings for teachers, equipment and software, printing/postage and food for trainings and tutoring sessions. Costs were as follows:

Professional Fees: $2,025.00

Teacher Stipends: $1,454.00

Equipment/Software: $1,485.00

Postage: $ 6.00

Food: $ 30.00

EVALUATION

Teachers participated in SF Ed Fund web-based evaluations mid-year and at the end of the year. These evaluations were confidential and uploaded directly to the SF Ed Fund.

In addition, we participated in two separate pre/post surveys. Survey #1, was administered by our trainer, Christina Noyes. Survey #2 was administered by our Digital Arts Facilitator, Holly Calica. Qualitative Teacher Reflections were also collected on this survey. Click here to read teacher reflections. (Please note that Ren Volpe was added to our project in May, 2005, and she did not participate in these two surveys, only the year-end survey conducted by the SF ED Fund.

Survey 1 Individual Results (scales 1-10):
Donna Mankus improved her knowledge to a 10 in the following categories: file formats, understanding computer terms: dpi, resolutions, use of software, and designing & publishing onto the web.
Linda Camarena improved her knowledge to at least an 8 in the following areas: use of digital camera, transporting files,use of PhotoShop, knowledge of HTML, use of computer servers and scanner.
Stacy Moore improved her knowledge to a 10 in the following categories: use of digital camera operation and downloading images, understanding dpi, resolutions, HTML, and Fair Use and Copyright Laws.
Holly Calica improved her knowledge to a 10 in the following categories: downloading pictures, transporting files, knowledge of file formats,knowledge of resolution requirements for print and web use, knowlege of servers, scanners and ability to teach digital arts in a classroom.

Survey 2 Results:
As a whole, the four teachers, Donna Mankus, Linda Camarena, Stacy Moore and Holly Calica improved their knowledge in this Digital Arts project. The average increase for all ten questions on skills and knowledge was two points on a scale of 1 - 5. The average increase of 3 points occurred for questions #2,3,4,8 and 9; teachers developed the ability to download pictures to a computer (#2), use PhotoShop to edit images (#3), create web designs(#4), download (#8) and upload (#9) to websites.

 


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