A place for information on techniques, approaches, activities, resources, and inspiration to make ART and TECHNOLOGY MAGIC Happen in Classrooms EVERYWHERE!
This site is intended as a companion to my book "Visual Arts Units for All Levels" (ISTE 2008)
Good piece from Education Dive... Read the full piece at its source:http://www.educationdive.com/news/soft-skills-benefit-from-arts-education/443923/
Soft skills benefit from arts education
A recent webinar
saw Crayola Education Director Cheri Sterman, Arts Academy (PA)
Multi-Tier Support Systems Specialist Nancy Horvat, and Bullis Charter
School (CA) Director of Strategic Initiatives and Partnerships Jessica
Lura address the benefits of art in helping students build leadership
skills and confidence.
According to eSchool News, the trio discussed a SEEK model that
encourages students to think critically in terms of what they see and
their ability to provide evidence, explain decisions made by the artist,
and discuss what they know and want to know about a piece — all
inquiry-based life skills that can be used in other subjects or beyond
the classroom.
Another exercise suggested is using a viewfinder to examine everyday
objects and point out their "extraordinary" qualities, exemplifying a
leader's need to see things from a different point of view, as well as
an exercise in which a student describes a portrait to a second student,
who must then attempt to recreate it.
Dive Insight:
With the increase in focus on science, technology, engineering and
mathematics (STEM) subjects in recent years, arts education advocates
have lamented ongoing declines in funding and argued for the importance
of these subjects in a well-rounded education. Some have argued that
the computational thinking valued in STEM can be applied in a number of
other areas like music, where algorithms and pattern recognition can be
used in the examination of art. Conversely, music education has been argued to boost students' math skills.
The rise in focus on STEM skills has also seen many employers argue for equal
— and perhaps even more — focus on "soft skills"
around critical and creative thinking, teamwork, flexibility and
empathy. These are all skills that contribute to stronger leadership
ability over time and are frequently at the center of arts ed, further
driving home the value for a well-rounded education over one that
focuses too stringently on a set of fast-changing hard skills that are
in demand today but could shift with economic needs in the future.
“AutoDraw is a new kind of drawing tool. It pairs machine learning with
drawings from talented artists to help everyone create anything visual,
fast. There’s nothing to download. Nothing to pay for. And it works
anywhere: smartphone, tablet, laptop, desktop, etc.” "Google’s AutoDraw: Creation Made Easier
4/21/2017 6:00:00 AM
See the icons in the logo image above? The pants, leaf, megaphone, light
bulb, apple, and stethoscope? I drew them with Google’s new AutoDraw tool.
Maybe some of them look familiar, faithful reader. If so, it’s because I
attempted to redraw the very same icons I’ve used in recent logos on
#Schoenblog posts: a pen, fire, arrows, a lightbulb, apple, and
stethoscope
AutoDraw uses machine learning to predict what you are trying to draw
and match it to artists’ submissions. So while my pen and fire might
have turned into pants and a leaf, my quick sketch of an apple matched
perfectly. AutoDraw gave me options to choose from as I drew each image,
predicting and matching my movements.
The tool’s about page
explains, “AutoDraw is a new kind of drawing tool. It pairs machine
learning with drawings from talented artists to help everyone create
anything visual, fast. There’s nothing to download. Nothing to pay for.
And it works anywhere: smartphone, tablet, laptop, desktop, etc.”
How often do we ask students to represent things visually? AutoDraw is a
great tool to help students develop visual iconographies. Whether it’s
used to help develop sketchnotes, depict scenes from literature,
represent a cell, or storyboard historical events, I can think of so
many uses for the simple visuals that AutoDraw helps create.
While it’s machine learning features may take away from some elements of
student creativity, it provides a valuable and easy way to get students
started in creative or visual tasks online. Plus, it’s free and works
on every device. You can also use the basic drawing features, add text,
change colors, and more.
In an age where more and more we need to teach students about digital
citizenship and acceptable use, AutoDraw helps us create. Although the
tool matches our sketches to other artists icons, these creations appear
to be copyright free. On the Control Alt Achieve post, Using Google AutoDraw for Sketchnotes, Infographics, Drawings, and More, Eric Curts
notes that when artists submit their artwork to AutoDraw, they have to
agree that "Drawings are my own and Google may use my drawings for any
purpose." The AutoDraw about page also describes the tool as free and
for everyone. I’m eager to see more clarity on copyright and fair use
here, but this has a lot of potential for our students--and beyond.
Blogging & Branding
I spend a lot of time--too much probably--thinking about how this site
looks and feels. In fact, a huge update to the #Schoenblog is coming
very soon. One of my intentional decisions over the last year has been
to brand my blog posts with a title image; each one is sized for
Twitter, and they follow a similar aesthetic. In the beginning, I
worried about finding other people’s artwork or ideas to help influence
my look. Lately, though, I’m much more interested in simple visual
iconography--just like I attempted in this post’s title.
I want to be more aware of the visual branding for this site and for how
I use images or art from other sources. A tool like AutoDraw helps me
be in control by evolving my ideas into simple open source icons that
are easy to use. I can download them as .png files and import right into
my favorite image editor. It’s free, easy, and efficient.
There’s a lot of potential for AutoDraw, and definitely room to explore
more tools for creation, visual aids, and graphic design, both in and
out of the classroom...."
eSchool News How art can build student leadership skills
