Technology for Global Education in the Art Room

My Students

My students are exceptionally driven to make an impact in the world with their work and part of 21st century education and need technology to enable them to research issues, make their own conclusions, advocate for their opinions and publish their work to a global audience.

My students will be researching global issues such as migration, connecting current events to artists as political activists.

We will be researching the social, political, and economic concerns of migrants across the globe, including Syria, Haiti, Africa, Afghanistan, and the United States. Students will develop an understanding of the cultural, political, economic and social forces that cause large groups of people to leave their homeland, and make connections with the American experience. They will apply visual arts skills to storyboard migrants' journeys, including creating relatable characters, developing a storylines geographically accurate settings, and realizing a final graphic novella or comic strip, then publish this work in order to advocate for human rights and create awareness and empathy regarding both current events and American history.

My Project

We currently have no student computers in the classroom and are relegated to rely on smartphones to enable students to perform research regarding contemporary art, global events, and submit papers if typed. Adding several laptops to our technology inventory will not only improve socioeconomic equity regarding access the Internet, but also allow us to connect to classrooms across the globe and perform more in-depth research and publication. My students live in the 21st century and an effective contemporary education should allow them to participate in global communities and publish their work. In addition, the laptops will allow us to work on larger research assignments using web-based apps such as padlet and thinglink so that students can become presenters of information they researched and not be relegated to reiterating research the teacher provides. Higher-level thinking skills and empowerment as cultural producers hinges on access to technology.

Teaching students to be 21st century content producers helps them to connect to communities across the globe, building empathy and global understanding.

Empower urban students by providing them the resources more affluent communities take for granted; provide laptops for student research and content production!