All Aboard For Cyberspace
About fourteen years ago I read in an
art education magazine an article written by a teacher who was using computers
in his classroom.
His students were creating geometric designs and printing them on a color printer. I was fascinated by the simplistic pictures that they had created. There was no way you could read this teacher's article without catching the enthusiasm which he felt about this technology and its application to his art program.
At the time that I read the article Osceola High School had one computer in the typing room. They had purchased a TRS-80 and the students were "playing" on it to see what a computer was all about.
I went to the Radio Shack franchise here in El Dorado Springs and discovered that they had a new model called the Color Computer which could use a television as a monitor. Date was saved on a tape recorder. Color computers could be purchased for only $299.99. A small color set, used for a monitor could be had inexpensively. So for under $500.00, my students would be in on the ground floor. Keep in mind that we could do this and have a whopping 16K of RAM! At the time, I was impressed.
With great enthusiasm i headed for my principal's office on the third floor. I was armed with my arguments for the need for a computer in the art room. They had one in the typing room, so it seemed only natural to me that we should only natural to me that we should have one for art students as well.
He wasn't so enthusiastic. He almost laughed. What did computers have to do with art, he asked. He told me he would not be able to justify that kind of purchase. i knew him well enough to know that that was the end of the discussion.
Not quite the end of the discussion. Being the person of determination that I am (I believe that must have something to do with the fact that my grandfather Baker fame to America as a young man from Holland. Some say the Dutch are stubborn, I prefer "determined.") I sat myself down and asked where I had gone wrong in my presentation of this proposal.
Once I asked the question I immediately understood my error. I had not taken with me the article from the magazine. I had said that I had read that some teachers were using computers but I needed a visual support to my statement.
I knew that Mr. Bennett was the type of person who wanted the very best for his teachers and students, but he had to be convinced that your idea was going to pay off. otherwise there was no need to waste time on the concept.
The following day I climbed to the crow's nest again. His office was actually on the third and one half floor of the old high school. You really had to have a need to go there before you wished to climb all those stairs! I had a need. I had a mission. I was going to talk him into buying the computer, and overnight I realized that I would have to have a printer. So I added that to my list!
I did better that time. I sold him on the idea. I got everything I asked for. He felt good knowing that our small school district would be one of the very few across the state that would be teaching computer graphics. (It's all in how you packaged your sales pitch!)
I asked for a graphics class in which only the computer would be taught. Mr. Bennett agreed to this, but with one stipulation. I had to have a minimum of ten students and one computer. Al right, so you have to make concessions to get what you want. I decided I could do that if it was the only way my students could learn the use of computers in art. Besides, at that time Radio Shack had absolutely no software for art. To create any graphics we had to write the programs to generate the designs on the screen.
As written the program, line for line, would require learning how to create an image, and the more complex the image, the more lines required, and the more lines required, the longer it would take to write. So I figured that ten students and one computer would somehow work out.
It did. I never had such a learning experience in the classroom as I did in the first two or three years that I taught graphic design. When I retired in 1998 my graphics lab had nine Macs, four of which were Power Macs. The district had built a beautiful classroom just for graphic design. Neither my superintendent nor my principal ever had special guests in the building, that they did not bring them to see our lab and see the quality work being done by our students.
My final two years of teaching found the Internet in my classroom. The Internet completely altered my approach to teaching art. Art concepts which I had used through the three decades of my teaching took on a new look as the students and I asked ourselves how we could add the Internet to the assignments. I was fortunate to have many bright minds which accepted the challenge and enhanced or downright changed the direction from which we started.
With my students I boarded the electronic shuttle and traveled into cyberspace. How fortunate I was to still have been teaching when that craft boarded and departed into the future.
(written December, 1999)
His students were creating geometric designs and printing them on a color printer. I was fascinated by the simplistic pictures that they had created. There was no way you could read this teacher's article without catching the enthusiasm which he felt about this technology and its application to his art program.
At the time that I read the article Osceola High School had one computer in the typing room. They had purchased a TRS-80 and the students were "playing" on it to see what a computer was all about.
I went to the Radio Shack franchise here in El Dorado Springs and discovered that they had a new model called the Color Computer which could use a television as a monitor. Date was saved on a tape recorder. Color computers could be purchased for only $299.99. A small color set, used for a monitor could be had inexpensively. So for under $500.00, my students would be in on the ground floor. Keep in mind that we could do this and have a whopping 16K of RAM! At the time, I was impressed.
With great enthusiasm i headed for my principal's office on the third floor. I was armed with my arguments for the need for a computer in the art room. They had one in the typing room, so it seemed only natural to me that we should only natural to me that we should have one for art students as well.
He wasn't so enthusiastic. He almost laughed. What did computers have to do with art, he asked. He told me he would not be able to justify that kind of purchase. i knew him well enough to know that that was the end of the discussion.
Not quite the end of the discussion. Being the person of determination that I am (I believe that must have something to do with the fact that my grandfather Baker fame to America as a young man from Holland. Some say the Dutch are stubborn, I prefer "determined.") I sat myself down and asked where I had gone wrong in my presentation of this proposal.
Once I asked the question I immediately understood my error. I had not taken with me the article from the magazine. I had said that I had read that some teachers were using computers but I needed a visual support to my statement.
I knew that Mr. Bennett was the type of person who wanted the very best for his teachers and students, but he had to be convinced that your idea was going to pay off. otherwise there was no need to waste time on the concept.
The following day I climbed to the crow's nest again. His office was actually on the third and one half floor of the old high school. You really had to have a need to go there before you wished to climb all those stairs! I had a need. I had a mission. I was going to talk him into buying the computer, and overnight I realized that I would have to have a printer. So I added that to my list!
I did better that time. I sold him on the idea. I got everything I asked for. He felt good knowing that our small school district would be one of the very few across the state that would be teaching computer graphics. (It's all in how you packaged your sales pitch!)
I asked for a graphics class in which only the computer would be taught. Mr. Bennett agreed to this, but with one stipulation. I had to have a minimum of ten students and one computer. Al right, so you have to make concessions to get what you want. I decided I could do that if it was the only way my students could learn the use of computers in art. Besides, at that time Radio Shack had absolutely no software for art. To create any graphics we had to write the programs to generate the designs on the screen.
As written the program, line for line, would require learning how to create an image, and the more complex the image, the more lines required, and the more lines required, the longer it would take to write. So I figured that ten students and one computer would somehow work out.
It did. I never had such a learning experience in the classroom as I did in the first two or three years that I taught graphic design. When I retired in 1998 my graphics lab had nine Macs, four of which were Power Macs. The district had built a beautiful classroom just for graphic design. Neither my superintendent nor my principal ever had special guests in the building, that they did not bring them to see our lab and see the quality work being done by our students.
My final two years of teaching found the Internet in my classroom. The Internet completely altered my approach to teaching art. Art concepts which I had used through the three decades of my teaching took on a new look as the students and I asked ourselves how we could add the Internet to the assignments. I was fortunate to have many bright minds which accepted the challenge and enhanced or downright changed the direction from which we started.
With my students I boarded the electronic shuttle and traveled into cyberspace. How fortunate I was to still have been teaching when that craft boarded and departed into the future.
(written December, 1999)
Posted: Thu - January 26, 2006 at 05:45 PM
Quick Links
Reflection
"Chance favors only the prepared mind." - Louis Pasteur
"Art arises from basic needs-a strong need to express and celebrate our everyday events.
In a museum most people spend less than twenty seconds looking at a work of art."
"Art arises from basic needs-a strong need to express and celebrate our everyday events.
In a museum most people spend less than twenty seconds looking at a work of art."
Calendar
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
blogs
Categories
Archives
XML/RSS Feed
Visitors
Statistics
Total entries in this blog:
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Jan 26, 2006 05:47 PM
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Jan 26, 2006 05:47 PM