Teaching and learning

Philosophy

My purpose as a teacher is to help people realize their fullest potential, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, ability. I do this by sharing with them my experience, knowledge, and passion for what I do. I have high expectations for myself and for my students.

In my introductory courses, fundamentals such as design elements and principles are stressed. I begin with an overview of the assignment, motivational examples, and immersion into media and process. Technique and concept are given equal time and importance. I work individually with students, directing them to other sources when appropriate, sharing and discussing ideas with the class. When the project is complete, the results are often evaluated in a critique.

In advanced levels there is more independence, freedom to explore interests, personal concerns, and ideas, along with an emphasis on thematic development and working in series. Students are expected to understand, evaluate, and discuss the work in terms of its meaning, personal and historical context, and formal structure during critiques.

My teaching philosophy is the result of having taught in various locations, in Europe, Central and South America, in American Samoa and the United States. My students have been men and women of different ages, aptitudes, skill levels, and cultures. Locations have included a prison (teaching design), and a hospice (teaching quadriplegics to mouth-paint and use the computer). I have been a visiting artist in American Samoa and at The Dalton School in New York, and a high school, adult education, and university art instructor.

I enjoy teaching and helping students develop more eloquent modes of communication and expression - it is especially rewarding today as traditional and new media are used by artists and designers to develop new forms that transcend borders

Books and Links

artrenewal.org/ Online Art Archive

EDMC intranet
Accredited Schools John Bear
Online Art Schools
Books: H Gardner
5 minds for the future HG
elen winner

Student evals - a critical review

Other

Pennsylvania Avenue: Profiles in Backroom Power (Hardcover)
by John Harwood (Author), Gerald F. Seib (Author

Technology

Cloud_computing
businessweek.com
Irving BErger MIT blog
Scale_horizontally

Tools, experiences

You tube for kids totlol

skype.com It’s free to download and free to call other people on Skype

Issues

Future-Internet

and how to stop it / Jonathan Zittrain

author is the Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation at Oxford University, and co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at the Harvard Law School ... The entire book focuses on the transformation of the Internet from one in which the innovation could be done at the edges, with generative innovation that built on the provided software or hardware, to one in which we are allowed to buy tethered appliances like iPhone or X-Box that are "locked down."

Dept Newsletters

08

Summer in progress beta

Spring
Winter II
Winter I

07

Spring
Summer I
Summer II
Fall I
fall II

PPAR

Student Feedback

Social Networking

Classroom 2.0

blogs & Podcasts

100-ed blogs
edublogs.org
epnweb.org
podfeed.net

learning communities

Design

Edward Tufte
John Maeda

Positive Psychology

Abraham Maslow
Carl Rogers
Erich Fromm

Current empirical researchers in this subfield include Donald Clifton, Albert Bandura, Martin Seligman, Ed Diener, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, C.R. Snyder, Christopher Peterson, Shelley Taylor, Barbara Fredrickson, Charles S. Carver, Michael F. Scheier, and Jonathan Haidt.

organizations

CA Faculty Association
Ca Teachers Association California Educator magazine

argosy.edu
ED in instructional leadership
APA style guide academic writing and formatting templates

info/resources

Tech Talk
Mouthpainters
Foundation Guidelines
Misc Teaching
Tech in dig programs?
Manage color Pshop PDF
late work GET a lower grade?
Realism

chinswing.com/ audio tools for teaching feedback

People, Programmers

See vol 110 #1 Technology Review
Bjarne Stroustrup, Programmer
Charles Simonyi,

Nicholas Negroponte

As founder of the MIT Media Lab, Nicholas Negroponte pushed the edge of the information revolution as an inventor, thinker and angel investor. Now he's the driving force behind One Laptop Per Child, building computers for children in the developing world.

The vision behind One Laptop Per Child

lays out the details of his nonprofit One Laptop Per Child project. Speaking just days after relinquishing his post as director of the MIT Media Lab, he announces that he'll pursue this venture for the rest of his life. He takes us inside the strategy for building the "$100 laptop," and explains why and how the project plans to launch "at scale," with millions of units distributed in the first seven countries. "This is not a laptop project; it's an education project," he says.

the green machine - w/kofi anon. look up link
hi/technology more $100 laptop links

Jean Piaget

(August 9, 1896 – September 16, 1980) was a Swiss philosopher, natural scientist and developmental psychologist, well known for his work studying children, his theory of cognitive development and for his epistemologic view called "genetic epistemology". He created in 1955 the International Centre for Genetic Epistemology in Geneva and directed it until 1980. According to Ernst von Glasersfeld, Jean Piaget is "the great pioneer of the constructivist theory of knowing"[1].

John Cage

Some Rules and Hints for Students and Teachers

1. Find a place you trust and then, try trusting it for a while.
2. (General duties as a student) Pull everything out of your teacher. Pull everything put of your fellow students.
3. (General duties as a teacher) Pull everything out of your students.
4. Consider everything an experiment.
5. Be self-disciplined. This means finding someone wise or smart and choosing to follow them. To be disciplined is to follow in a good way. To be self-disciplined is to follow in a better way.
6. Follow the leader. Nothing is a mistake. There is no win and no fail. There is only make.
7. The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something. It is the people who do all of the work all of the time who eventually catch on to things. You can fool the fans - but not the players.
8. Do not try to create and analyze at the same time. They are different processes.
9. Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It is lighter than you think.
10. We are breaking all of the rules, even our own rules and how do we do that? By leaving plenty of room for "x" qualities.

Helpful Hints.

• Always be around.
• Come and go to everything.
• Always go to classes.
• Read everything you can get your hands on.
• Look at movies carefully and often.
• Save everything. It may come in handy later.

Tips

Problems in an individual piece tend to fall within these five categories:

1. inconsistency of style, idea, or feeling
2. failure to determine basic structure
3. tendency to ignore negative space
4. inability to develop value range and transitions
5. failure to observe accurately

From Critical Assessment from Drawing, 4th Edition Betti/Sale

Misc Teaching Clips

embanet.com

Hugh's View: Educational Technology: The Wrong Bet
Technology has never revolutionized education anywhere or in any way.

President Bush is convinced that the effects of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) will overcome decades of substandard academic achievement in U.S. public schools. His “all-in” bet, however, is based upon two untested and unproven assumptions: (a) that technology can compensate for ineffective teaching and poor school performance, and (b) that invoking penalties for poor school achievement can ensure above-average scores on standardized tests. Despite Bush’s optimism, half of the nation’s children will always remain below the 50th percentile. Threats and punishment will not result in all children achieving above the mean.Technology has never revolutionized education anywhere or in any way. Films never replaced textbooks, and television did not replace teachers.

The widespread use of instructional television during the 1950s is a forgotten page of educational history. Today, computer and Internet technologies are ballyhooed as revolutionizers of education.Bush selected technology as the silver bullet to improve school performance. Since the enactment of NCLB in 2002, the U.S. government has spent hundreds of millions of dollars each year for technology, expecting that doing so will ensure fulfilling the mandated provisions for student performance in NCLB. More than $619 million was spent in 2003. (Monies awarded from NCLB funds accounted for 99% of federal dollars spent for educational technology during 2003-2004.) NCLB also requires that students depend upon technology, mandating that they become technologically literate before Grade 9 and the integration of technology, teacher education, curriculum development, and instructional methodologies.During March 2005, the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) released National Trends: Enhancing Education Through Technology, a report that highly touts the use of technology for school improvement. This paper, however, does not cite even one study to support a direct link between the use of technology and student performance. Not a shred of evidence was presented to support these statements: “Sustained funding and educational technology program continuation are critical to realizing the potential that technology brings to learning and teaching. . . . The report provides overwhelming evidence of the critical role that educational technology is playing in improving student achievement playing in improving student achievement.”

SETDA’s executive director, Melinda George, ignored my numerous e-mails to cite support for SETDA’s smoke-and-mirror assertions.Computers, Internet technologies, and media provide instructional options—different means for delivering instruction. There is nothing inherently unique about any delivery system. I substituted the phrase computers and Internet technologies for media in the following often-cited quotation by Richard Clark, a USC media and technology professor: “Computers and Internet technologies are mere vehicles that deliver instruction but do not influence student achievement any more that the truck that delivers our groceries causes changes in our nutrition.” Clark is right: Media do not contribute uniquely to learning—and neither do computers nor Internet technologies. There is no reason to believe that any technology, by itself or a combination of technologies, will soon displace traditional instructional practices. What’s the difference between a teacher pointing to a word on a page of print and telling a student, “That word is cat,” a student listening to a recording of the same passage and hearing the word cat pronounced, or a student watching streamed video and seeing a teacher point to a word and saying, “That word is cat”? In each case, the student receives the same information.

The medium used to transmit the information is different, but irrelevant.Using computer and Internet technologies will not improve school performance any more than an arsenal of technologically superior bombs ensures victory on the battlefield. If technology were the silver bullet for winning wars, American troops would have returned home from Iraq many months ago.President Bush’s selection of technology will fail in boosting student achievement. It is the information that matters, not its means of delivery. He will succeed only in placing a multibillion-dollar bet on the wrong horse.

A Good Professor

should have solid knowledge of the subject, communication ability, compassion, concern, high expectations, maintain high standards, treat students equally, enjoy what he/she does, have a good personality, sense of humor, scholarly ability and contagious enthusiasm for the subject matter, as well as build the campus and department, make the majors better, and build a future... from the Daily Aztec SDSU 3/23/055.

Mouthpainters

(See also Former student Robert Florio)

Mouthpainters in Samoa

In American Samoa I worked as a National Endowment for the Arts artist in residence, high school art teacher, and community college photography, clay, studio art instructor. I taught art in the prison, and to teachers on isolated islands.A nun from the hospice approached us one day at the college and asked if we were interested in working with two men, helping them learn to mouth paint. They were two quadriplegic men, one Samoan, the other Tongan: Rudy Steffany, and Tony Hema. I built lazy susan palettes, worked with them using watercolor and ink, and helped them develop their work in landscape and traditional designs.They had an apple computer and using a brush wrapped with tape on the end held in their mouth were able to scan their work in and manipulate the designs, creating cards and invitations to their openings.They created designs for t shirts, and we silk screened them using a photoemulsion technique. We threw pots and they decorated them.They had an opening at the governor's office just months after they began painting. They painted every day, all day, and immersed themselves in their artwork.

Tony has a wife and two children. he had been thrown in a ditch from a bus stop during a fight.

Rudy was in the passenger side of a car driven by someone who had been drinking when it when off the road. Rudy is currently a mouth-painter and teacher for special education career development  He is also involved with computer graphics and video production.  Rudy’s joy is seeing his students transformed by their involvement in the arts. from artslinkhawaii.org.


pacific arts symposium

I ended up writing about Tony and Rudy, the experience, the possibilities of using different media for mouth painters, and presented the paper at the Pacific Arts Symposium in Adelaide, Australia. To read the paper, and see the easel plans click the following link: PDF 1.5 mg.

LAULIMA

Their experience is documented as well in a documentary:

Title: Laulima: Working Together (video, 29:10 min,)
Producer: Merrie Carol Grain
Distributor: CPAC, ATTN: Eleanor Coffin 1580 Makaloa St., Suite 930 Honolulu, HI 96814 (808) 946-7381, cpac@pixi.com
Content: This is a documentary on four Pacific Islanders whose disabilities may have been critical in the emergence of their artistic expressions. Aithea Serrao, a Hawaiian, became a quilt maker. Makia Malao, another Hawaiian, became a storyteller. Ruby Steffany, a Samoan, and Tony Hema, a Tongan, both became mouth painters. (Closed captioned)
Superfest Award(s): Award of Merit (Artistic and Cultural Representation)
Purchase Price: $25.00
Rental Price: N/A

WHAT LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION SAY ... AND WHAT THEY REALLY MEAN
Hard-working, workmanlike, industrious, diligent, persistent. This person is not very original, but he sure tries hard.
Shy, low-key, keeps his own counsel. This person is socially dysfunctional.
I recommend this person ... without reservation, with enthusiasm, with my highest endorsement. Hire this person.
I recommend this person ... warmly, strongly, to any department with a job in her area. Do not hire this person.
Well-grounded. This scholar is hopelessly mired in bourgeois notions of proof.
This student is always willing to engage in vigorous debate. This student is really obnoxious.
Solid, competent, scoured the archives, good study habits. This student is a plodding dullard who will never produce anything of interest.
This person is an outstanding scholar (without any mention of teaching). This person is lousy in the classroom.
This person is an outstanding teacher (without any mention of research). This person is a lousy scholar.
Path-breaking, brilliant, first-rate, making fundamental contributions to the field. This scholar is at the top of her discipline.
This is a person of great promise, who is working on important issues. As a scholar, this person has not yet arrived.
Eclectic or synthetic scholarship. This academic is a flake.
At first, this student wasn't sure she wanted to be an English major, but in the last couple of months, her work has really flowered. This student has a lot of bad grades.
Independent thinker. This student is arrogant and wouldn't follow his adviser's recommendations. (Depending on the context, however, it can also mean imaginative.)
The acorn hasn't fallen far from the tree. This student's work is dreadfully derivative and adds nothing to what her dissertation adviser has already written.
Articulate. This person is a safe minority scholar who will not give you any trouble.
He will blossom with further mentoring. I have serious doubts that I will ever see this person publish an article, much less a book.
Smart. This person is clever but superficial. (Although, if said about someone in the humanities, it might mean that the person is well-dressed.)
When this student walks into class, the room lights up. We had long discussions after class. I am hopelessly in love with this student.
A note of caution: Interpreting letters of recommendation is a tricky business. A term like "hard-working" can be the kiss of death for a job candidate if the only other adjectives in the letter focus on effort. But if "hard-working" is sandwiched between long, gushing passages about keen intellect and boundless imagination, it can clinch the deal. Context is crucial.
SOURCE: Chronicle reporting

The Chronicle of Higher Education
June 30, 2000
Section: The Faculty

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