Innovation Takes Flight

My Students

"When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they saw something...were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. The reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences..." -Steve Jobs

My kids are delightful high school students, from a rural community, in the central portion of Pennsylvania.

Many of them experience high poverty. 40% receive free/reduced school lunch, and all know a district short on resources. Poor needn't mean shut out! Our art department strives every day to provide students with aesthetic experiences, across the spectrum of the visual arts. Among our most unique and beneficial experiences is our technology-based art course, Media Arts. In Media Arts, students incorporate technology into the production of some form of visual art. They formally design and propose their projects, develop a method of evaluating project success, engage in revisions, implement logistical skills through planning and the acquisition of resources, and deconstruct successes and failures to find pathways forward. My kids consistently develop ideas and processes that challenge the boundaries of a traditional classroom, and force themselves, and their teacher into a growth mindset.

My Project

An area that seems to most engage student imagination is that of film making. Traditional storytelling, experimental film, music video, and documentary work are all subject areas in which our students have shown interest. Our resources are very limited, and we have little digital video equipment of our own. We have access to a shared iPad cart, that has come to our district through a grant, and do most of our video work using those iPads. Our students don't just make video, but investigate the power of moving images. They discuss documentary, entertainment, and journalism forms, the prevalence of the cellphone video, new technologies, and the changing of minds through information. The video-enabled drone is the newest, and arguably most exciting tool to be put into the hands of amateur videographers, in many years. Drone video is an emerging field with technical, aesthetic, legal, and ethical considerations, that we are deciding now. I'd like my students to have a hand in that.

Innovation only grows in a climate where it is valued.

Part of demonstrating what we value it is through investing in it. My students come from an environment where investing in education isn't necessarily a given. Your contribution will help to show them that our world needs, and wants them, to be a part of innovating for our future. UPI reports that unmanned aerial vehicle spending could triple to $120 billion over the next ten years. That's a lot of opportunity for young people like my kids.