Massachusetts College of Art

Teacher Workshops for Professional Development

Digital Art in the Classroom

Thursdays - 3:45 PM -6:15 PM

October 21, 28,
Nov. 4, 18,
December 2, 9

Room 310
Computer Arts Center, Tower Building

Instructor:

Nita Sturiale

617-625-9307

nita@artscience.org

www.massart.edu/~nita

Assistant Extraordinaire:

Susan Hogue

232-1555 x 121

hoguesm@massart.edu

 

This workshop will provide an overview of, as well as, hands-on experience with digital media. Teachers are invited to work with their own images, ideas, and questions as a vehicle for exploring the possibilities of digital media in their classrooms. We will discuss hardware (scanners, digital cameras, printing), software (Adobe Photoshop and Photodelux, Hyperstudio, Web page editors), curriculum ideas and World Wide Web applications. Emphasis will placed on generating ways to link traditional with digital media and revealing strategies for finding resources and technical answers on your own. No experience with computers is necessary and any experience is welcome.

Topics we hope to cover at lightning speed in six two-hour sessions:

  • YOUR ideas
  • Using a Digital Camera
  • Adobe Photoshop Software
  • General interface metaphors that will help you with digital imaging in general
  • Saving files
  • Layers and Selections in Photoshop
  • Scanning
  • Image size - file size, print size and dots (pixels) per inch (DPI)
  • File Formats
  • Overview of the World Wide Web
  • Introductory HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language - used to create webpages)
  • HTML/Webpage WYSIWYG editors
  • Release forms and the web
  • How to create a project for the computer screen - Hyperstudio, KPT Quickshow
  • How to get a project off the computer screen - printing issues
  • YOUR ideas

Week 1

Introductions, Getting started with a digital camera, Hardware and software overview.

Skills:
Mac Desktop Interface,

Downloading your photos from camera,

Saving files,

Get a Zip disk!

Get an email address!

Bring in your own imagery ASAP!

Reading:
William Aspray and Martin Campbell-Kelly, Computer, "When Computers Were People", Basic Books, 1996.

 

Week 2

Take a look at your digital images from last week with Photoshop

and start experimenting with them.

Skills:
Introduction to the Photoshop Interface,

Scanning tutorial,

Photoshop Layers,

Making and manipulating selections.

Reading:
William J. Mitchell, The Reconfigured Eye, "Electronic Tools," MIT Press, 1992

 

Week 3

The computer as a tool for expressing thoughts, ideas, colors, questions and stories from one's life; Creating a presentation of ideas.

Skills:
Collaging separate images,

More layers,

Combining words and images,

KPT Quickshow,

Hyperstudio

Reading:
Hafner and Lyon "Casting the Net",

 

Week 4

World Wide Web Architecture.

Skills:
Browsing and online research,

Creating a simple HTML document,

Reading:
Steven Johnson, excerpt from Interface Culture

 

Week 5

The specifics of uploading images to a web server; file formats.

Skills:
Output options for images - saving files for the web,

Page Layout and HTML,

Adding an image to your webpage

Reading:
James Brook and Iain A. Boal, Resisting the Virtual Life, "Computers, Thinking and Schools in 'The New Economic Order", Monty Neill, City Lights, 1995.

 

Week 6

Show your work and brainstorm ideas for your own classrooms.

Write them down so that everyone leaves this workshop with everyone's ideas.

Good Luck, keep in touch and ask for help!

 

many, many resource links
www.artscience.org/nita/links.html

Teacher Workshops Introduction
www.massart.edu/~nita/workshops/

Nita's Class Resources
www.massart.edu/~nita