Week 7 Writing Prompt Responses

Grant Opportunity
With the current focus on Math, Science and Communication Arts learning and achievement, grant opportunities for visual arts education appear to be in limited supply. The Kids in Need Foundation awards mini-grants, in amounts ranging from $100 to $500, to classroom teachers for use in innovative learning activities for students, without ties to specific content areas. A $500 mini-grant would fund the purchase of a set of four to five Flip video cameras for fourth- and fifth-grade students to use in a digital video art project. With a brief learning curve, the Flip video cameras would easily integrate with existing technology at the elementary school level and allow the art teacher to develop lessons focusing on artistic concerns around video creation such as storyboarding and frame composition. Additionally, this exciting learning opportunity would allow students to showcase their learning using current technology methods.

$2500 Donation to Classroom
A $2500 donation would go a long way to fund technology integration in a single classroom. In my own classroom, this donation would fund four equipment purchases: one Elmo projector, one set of ten digital cameras, one set of ten digital microphones, and an external hard drive for backup. The Elmo projector provides a convenient method for the teacher to quickly project print and digital instructional content without relying on specialized, occasionally messy, supplies such as transparencies, Vis-à-vis markers, and photocopied pages. A teacher may simply place a book or a print of an artwork beneath the Elmo’s document camera for instant projection, or insert a memory device to retrieve saved content to be projected. In the long run, the cost of the Elmo will be offset by savings in supplies, copies and instructional time. Equipping a classroom with a set of low-cost digital cameras will make student access to technology for their learning projects much more efficient and engaging since students will be able to advance through assignments with technology components at a reasonable rate. Elementary art students would use digital cameras for learning elements and principles of art, art history, and graphic representation. Students would also use digital images to learn basic image manipulation techniques using software bundled on school computers. The same ideas apply for equipping a classroom with a set of digital microphones. Elementary art students would use digital microphones to record critique comments in a computer-based program, or to demonstrate learning around art history topics. Additionally, students might develop a podcast, or record voiceovers on PowerPoint shows. By regularly backing up their work on their own classroom stand-alone hard drive, students will establish the best practice of regular backup of their work. In short, a $2500 donation would place technology in reach for students on a daily basis in meaningful, authentic learning activity.