MLTI at Castine
July 30, 2010Maine’s Technology Summer Insitute
The Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI) planned another great professional learning opportunity for educators at the Maine Maritime Academy in beautiful Castine. I am always amazed at how peaceful it is in Castine. I love my early morning walks to process what I am learning, so much in so few minutes. With so much going on this week I wasn’t able to spend all four days in Castine but I knew I just had to be there for the keynote given by Jason Ohler.
He was the perfect keynote for a conference with the theme of Digital Citizenship. His website is full of GREAT resources which I suggest you check out. And arts educators will be thrilled to read and use his article which was published in Educational Leadership Magazine, October 2000 called “Art Becomes the Next R”. You can download the .pdf of the article. Be sure and scroll down to the article in English (unless of course, you’d like it in another language).
“In an era when students design Web sites for projects and integrate video, graphics, and animation into their presentations, art is fast becoming the new literacy for our times.”
Jason’s presentation included a slide showing traditional writing and the writing necessary for success in the 21st century that included not only text but images. It looked more like a piece of art then a piece of writing. His statement “new media collage is the new base line literacy” resonated with me. It makes me think about the writing requirements for students and ask what is the task given to young people to assess writing and what kind of skills do they need for success?
The second bullet on Jason’s website is “Art the Next R”. Yes, it is in alphabetical order but all the more reason you need to go to the site since it is simple to find the arts reference.
One of the stories Jason shared with us and is in the Educational Leadership article:
“I had an amazing experience a few years ago that helped me fully appreciate art’s new importance in education. I was watching a 10th grader struggle at his computer to create a multimedia presentation for his language-arts project. He wasn’t struggling with the technology-like any infoage kid, he could click around the screen with considerable ease. It was the aesthetics that seemed insurmountable. As I watched him clumsily cramming together scads of video clips, graphics, sounds, buttons, and a few words, it suddenly hit me like a ton of bits: He was trying to create art, and no one had shown him how. In the process of fumbling with the medium, he was losing his sense of what he wanted to communicate in the first place.”
If you were at Castine you know how fortunate we are that MLTI exists and continues to bring us top notch educational opportunities. If you missed Castine this year plan on attending next year. And by all means, download Jason’s article today!
me arts ed 
It is one of my observations that as we enjoy more and more technological tools, we are failing to employ initial good first teaching. (It reminds me of the ‘whole language/book flood model’ where it was thought to surround students with books would increase their comprehension.) Kids are quick studies in something new, but the application and best use of that new technology are left to chance. With the current practice of dismantling ‘computer labs’ for more direct use in the classroom, where does the computer technology curricula get taught? Along with that would be the opportunity to learn how to select the best websites and the best tools for use in the product/presentation.