Technology as the Crayon Box.

Dade County integrates learning technologies into arts education for real-world applications

Technology has made the computer the crayon of the 21st century.

Arts education is not a frill or an entertaining interlude within the academic day. Sequential and strong arts programs teach high-level thinking skills such as analyzing, synthesizing and evaluating, all of which help students connect skills to real-world applications.

Besides being a rich and vital form of self-expression, arts instruction promotes academic achievement and provides significant cognitive benefits, according to the latest research. Arts education develops the imagination, self-esteem and respect for other cultures that help students connect and integrate the many disciplines taught in today's classrooms.

Learning such skills and attitudes is especially important today when students are expected to compete in a visually and audibly complex, information-based age. Need more proof? A documented and direct correlation exists between improved SAT scores and time spent studying the arts. In 1997, the College Board reported that students with four years of study in the arts outscored students with no arts instruction by a combined total of 101 points.

A Pas de Deux 

Virtual reality provides enormous potential for bringing artists, musicians, actors and dancers into the classroom. Virtual field trips will allow access to cultural and historical resources that otherwise would not be possible. But the question of how best to integrate the arts and technology is a serious one indeed.

Teacher training has to be a major consideration if educators are to be effective in integrating technology into their already-crowded curricula. If arts teachers are to be successful in this new integration, they must have district-level support, including access to the latest equipment. They also need opportunities to experience and understand the techniques, strategies and possible models of instruction in implementing new technologies into the classroom and the ability to network with other computer-using teachers to share experiences and results.

When introduced in the arts classroom, technology serves as an added medium to the choices students already have in creating their individual art form. High-tech tools should not be seen as the end result, however, but rather as a resource to assist students as they expand their creative choices and to challenge them to use critical thinking and problem-solving skills. In the process, our children gain unparalleled knowledge of real-world applications, opportunities and the many career-related skills connecting arts classes with the world of 21st century workplace potential.

Viable arts programs, therefore, have an added responsibility, especially at the secondary level, They should provide an education that mirrors the professional world, where technology has become an indispensable tool and an eloquent medium. Today's artists, designers, musicians and performers are exploring the many needs fostered by the information era and the multitude of technical possibilities available to them. As a result, numerous career opportunities for artists have emerged and will continue to expand and change at an incredible pace.

Examples of this process are many. Computer animation, for example, has emerged in recent years as a highly visible, multifaceted profession. Graphic designers, using the computer, incorporate animated images, video clips and sound tracks into electronic publications. Web page designers, using high-tech hardware and software that enhance their work, create Web sites that are aesthetically dynamic, unique and competitive in the electronic market. Artists manipulate images rendered in traditional media, and musicians use specialized software to create what were only dreams just a few years ago.

Additionally, computers enable photographers to integrate the expanding role of digital imaging into their work, while choreographers use that same computer to stage, arrange and create new dances from ballet to hip-hop. Interior designers and architects now model, render and animate in three-dimensional design for their clients. Artists and performers of this new century can disseminate their crafts and talents through cyberspace to a global audience.

Fostering Creativity

One challenge of this ever-changing electronic medium is the need for curriculum designers and teachers to update and transform their curricula almost continuously in order to prepare and support our budding artists and arts consumers of the 21st century. The fact that the skills needed by those who use this new medium are constantly evolving can be both the upside and the downside of the endeavor.

Two years ago, through the leadership of a visionary superintendent and a supportive school board, the Miami-Dade County Public Schools developed an action plan to assist the 1,100 certified arts teachers in the district to integrate technology into the arts curricula. A series of ongoing in-service programs introduced the computer and specialized software to interested K-12 teachers. Each program was geared to the individual art form--visual art, music, theatre or dance. A series of advanced workshops also was provided in partnership with local arts schools, universities and visiting experts in the fields of technology and the arts.

In partnership with the University of Miami, a summer arts institute enabled arts teachers to explore their own personal art form in a studio setting without the pressures of writing lesson plans or teaching. We wanted to allow these teachers to be reintroduced to their creative selves, to immerse themselves in the creative process in a personal way, to make them artists again. This allowed them to explore the natural synergy between the arts and technology and add to their personal media choices. It didn't hurt that each participant gained three graduate credits from the university's School of Education.

Despite the many ways in which technology expands the traditional arts class through new tools, materials and resources and rich networking opportunities, electronic enhancements must not replace the traditional arts classroom. While it will be imperative that such facilities are properly equipped with computers, color scanners, MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) labs, connective video cameras, digital synthesizers and up-to-date software, music rooms still need pianos and visual arts rooms still require traditional art supplies.

To reinforce the importance of this artistic depth, the Miami-Dade County system launched a pilot project in two of the jurisdiction's six districts in which four arts teachers (two in visual art and two in music) were assigned to 10 elementary schools each. Their role was to work with the visual and music teachers housed in those schools and serve as a technology guide and mentor to them and to model lessons, begin projects, provide resources and be available on an ongoing basis. Although the program has operated only since January 1999, early evidence suggests it is worthy of expansion to other parts of the district.

Finally, concerns peculiar to 21st century arts programs and artists are copyright and intellectual property issues.

They impact the current and future dissemination of visual and performing arts content over the Internet or via other networked or interactive technologies. These issues must be resolved so educators can access the highest-quality materials.

A Vibrant Impact

The years just ahead will bring massive changes to our society. Technological innovation has become a fact of life and has expanded tremendously the definition of arts education. The arts, integrated with technology, can serve as a connector, as a partner in preparing students for the current and evolving world of tomorrow's work force and a well-rounded life.

The writing on the wall for the years ahead will indeed be created with electronically enhanced crayons. And the effect will be as vibrant as we educators encourage it to be.

Lilia Garcia is director of the Division of Life Skills in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools, 1500 Biscayne Blvd., Suite 317, Miami, Fla. 33132.

Date County's Marriage of Arts and Technology

New and exciting things are happening with the arts and technology in Miami-Dade's County secondary schools. Three examples follow.

Further details are available by contacting the Division of Life Skills, Miami-Dade County Public Schools, 1500 Biscayne Blvd., Miami, Fla. 33132.

* New World School of the Arts 

New World School of the Arts, our premier fine arts magnet school, is developing electronic portfolios of student work. A single CD can hold exact copies of students' creative expressions, such as reproductions of drawings, paintings, sculptures, or recordings of their singing voices, playing an instrument or their own orchestration for an original piece of music. It can hold video images of plays, recitals and dances.

These CD-ROMS can be used for teaching purposes, peer or self-evaluation or, even more interesting, critique by professional artists or for college admissions.

The school, with 500 students, opened in September 1990.

* South Miami Senior High School

South Miami Senior High School's magnet program, the Center for the Media Arts, emphasizes a technology-rich media arts program focusing on careers that integrate creativity and technology. The school's student body is composed mainly of minority students from middle- and low-income households who receive career direction and support from this program.

The curriculum is organized around five career paths designed to allow students to develop the technical and applied skills related to communication and graphic arts, commercial photography, music production, theater and commercial dance. Technology-based instruction is integrated into all the course work, and students experience what the actual job entails.

Projects use technology in the same manner it would be used in private industry. The senior-year experience largely is devoted to internships, in which students can apply all their acquired skills to a real-life work situation.

Results of the 16-year-old program are impressive. The magnet program's 400 students are reaping outstanding scholarship offers, scoring higher on their standardized tests and coming to school regularly and with improved attitudes. Most importantly, they are more engaged in their schoolwork than ever before.

* Miami Beach Senior High School

In Miami Beach, where the entertainment industry is second only to tourism, there is a particular need for new, young talent to fill a wide range of positions in theaters, museums, performing-arts organizations, film and video production companies, recording studios, sound stages, television companies, photography studios and laboratories.

To address the employment needs and take advantage of the community's arts-related resources, the leadership of Miami Beach Senior High School and district administrators developed the Arts and Related Technologies program featuring a sequential curriculum based on skills necessary for careers in the film and entertainment industry.

By collaborating with local business and industry, the program integrates the creative and technical aspects of the field into the curriculum. Students have greater incentive to stay in school as they identify future career paths and gain meaningful job experiences before they graduate.

The integration of academics, the arts and technology, as well as the industry focus, has made this one of the school district's most exciting initiatives. Potential employers see it as a critical training ground, and the larger community views it as a dynamic program for students to meet their artistic and technical potential.

The program, which opened in 1999, has 80 students.

Research on Arts in Education 

The best new resource on the relationship of the arts to K-12 education is "Champions of Change: The Impact of the Arts on Learning," cosponsored by the Arts Education Partnership and the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.

The 98-page report, funded by the GE Fund and The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, examines the impact of arts experiences on young people. It includes summaries of the most authoritative research:

* "Involvement in the Arts and Human Development: General Involvement and Intensive Involvement in Music and Theater Arts" by James S. Catterall, Richard Chapleau and John Iwanaga, the Imagination Project at UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California at Los Angeles.

This study analyzed data on more than 25,000 students to determine the relationship between instruction in the arts and student performance.

* "Imaginative Actuality: Learning in the Arts During the Nonschool Hours" by Shirley Brice Heath with Adelma Roach, Stanford University and Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

This study identified features of after-school arts programs for youth in poor communities that contributed to success in and our of school.

* "Learning In and Through the Arts: Curriculum Implications" by Judith Burton, Robert Horowitz and Hal Abeles, Center for Arts Education Research, Teachers College, Columbia University.