Art + Technology Integration

Oh my inner nerd is so excited today! I love technology. And I love art. Check out what Mercy High School in Farmington Hills is doing with technology. A little background first -- MHS is a private college-prep school, has a 1:1 computing program that requires students to purchase a tablet PC when they begin school. On this tablet, they read textbooks, take notes, share presentations, and now they create art too!

Susan Young, the art department head posted this youtube video showing how they integrated technology into art education. It's cool the way the compare/contrast working with real charcoal vs. tablet-simulated charcoal, sketch and plan 3-d projects, and get assessment/feedback online.


Larry Baker, an Apple Distinguished Educator Class of '09 and MHS teacher, has a blog that covers what he's doing with technology in education. Here's his description, "I blog from 'down in the trenches' of 35 years of high school teaching and have found my muse. Here I offer my perspectives on technology, free of dogma and seasoned with practicality. I chat about tech integration and use this space to archive my presentations."

The Creativity Crisis

I recently read this article in Newsweek online. It states that for the first time, American creativity is decreasing. It’s time to take a proactive approach to include creativity in all of the disciplines.

Around the world, though, other countries are making creativity development a national priority. In 2008 British secondary-school curricula—from science to foreign language—was revamped to emphasize idea generation, and pilot programs have begun using Torrance’s test to assess their progress. The European Union designated 2009 as the European Year of Creativity and Innovation, holding conferences on the neuroscience of creativity, financing teacher training, and instituting problem-based learning programs—curricula driven by real-world inquiry—for both children and adults. In China there has been widespread education reform to extinguish the drill and-kill teaching style. Instead, Chinese schools are also adopting a problem-based learning approach.