Art History, Ancient Egypt - Powerpoint Presentation

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(This is a very large file and will take time to download.)

This is a Powerpoint presentation on Ancient Egypt that I designed for my seventh grade art class. I teach a survey of Art History during the seventh and eighth grades. I used to employ slides of the various pieces of artwork introduced in the course, but found that by using Powerpoint, I can identify key points while I speak. This presentation is supplemented by lots of direct instruction, penetrating questions, and by class discussion of the various pieces of artwork presented. I find that kids miss key points if they take notes while I am explaining concepts related to the art on the screen, so at some point after I present the lesson, the kids move to the computers to review the Powerpoint at their own pace and to take notes and review. This is much more effective than my old strategy of lecture, slides and notetaking, based on the retention of my students. I am very pleased with this as a teaching tool.There is some Egyptian music in my classroom version of this PowerPoint presentation, but the music files were too big to include in this Web version.

Student Artwork Gallery - Powerpoint Presentation

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(This is a very large file and will take some time to download, even with a T-1 line.)

This Powerpoint presentation was designed to spotlight the work that my high school students did during the past school year. It was produced to serve several purposes:

• At our annual awards ceremony, it shows students outside the art program what pieces their classmates have received awards for. (This works wonders for self esteem.)
• It is shown at the school board meeting to promote the art program.
• A copy is given to each student as a record of their artwork.
• It is used as a reference for specific art lessons in the years that follow.

Again, I think that the concept, design and presentation of this powerpoint are effective and that it serves the purposes that it was designed for. I feel that the music which was part of the original presentation contributed significantly to the to the overall effect, but the music file is huge, and it takes up too much disk space to include in this online version. Using this presentation in my technology portfolio has served as an important reminder that one must be very careful in selecting fonts that will be used on the WWW. The fonts I used for the design of this Powerpoint were very attractive with the subject matter, but when I tested the link on other computers that did not have the same font, the effect was lost. If I design specifically for the Web, I will choose fonts that are common to most computers.

Technology Lesson Plan

Student Designed PowerPoint Games based on
Ancient Egypt Art History Unit

Lesson
Working in small groups, 7th grade students will design and construct PowerPoint games. The games will be designed so that players will progress or advance if they are able to answer questions based on the art history of Ancient Egypt. This lesson is intended to employ the higher level thinking skills of analysis, application, synthesis, and evaluation.

Statement of Goal
The aim of this instruction is for 7th grade students to meet the following district Fine Arts Standards:

1. Creative expression through production: Students create perform, exhibit, or participate in the arts.

-Students will utilize a variety of materials, technical skills, elements and principles to produce artistic works.
-Students prepare or revise work for presentation
-Students collaborate with others in the creative process
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2. Historical and Cultural Content: Students demonstrate an understanding of the arts in relation to history, culture, and contemporary society.

-Students identify and describe specific artworks as belonging to particular cultures, times, and places.
-Students describe how history, culture, and the Arts influence each other.

3. Applications to life: Students connect and relate the Arts to other disciplines and to society.
- Students develop an awareness of the vocational, cultural, and recreational opportunities in the Arts.

Objectives
Upon completion of this lesson:

1. With minimal teacher assistance, small groups of students will build a fully functioning PowerPoint game with correct links by the specified due date.

2. Student groups will employ a minimum of 20 questions based on the history of Ancient Egyptian Art, as well as the correct answers to those questions, to as a part of this PowerPoint game.

3. Students will design these games around a central theme, and all graphics and game paraphernalia will reflect that theme.

4. Students will demonstrate an understanding of the basic design concepts of limiting fonts to one or two and using simple and clear graphics and color as a part of their games.

Prerequisites
Students must have a basic understanding of how to navigate on a Mac computer and must have completed the unit of study on Ancient Egyptian Art.

Materials and Equipment
- One computer with Microsoft Office installed for every three to four students.
- Poster board and markers.
- Images of artwork from ancient Egypt on disk or downloaded on each computer.
- Teacher prepared evaluation rubrics.
- Teacher prepared student critique forms.

Procedure
Day 1: Break students into groups of three or four. Have groups compose questions and answers based upon the recently completed Egyptian Art Unit.
Day 2: Introduce students to several good examples of homemade PowerPoint games from the WWW.
Days 2 and 3: Step students through a very basic PowerPoint tutorial. Use handouts listing menus and commands. Give brief instruction regarding good use of color, graphics, and fonts for effective design.
Days 4 and 5: Groups brainstorm a basic concept (or story) for their presentation. They plan the various slides that will have to be created, as well as any supplementary materials such as game pieces, game boards, phony money, etc. They will write the rough draft of the story, game objectives, game instructions, and game credits for the creators.
Days 6 through 10: Pass out evaluation rubrics and review evaluation criteria. Groups construct, test, and revise the games using PowerPoint software on the classroom computers. They also make any necessary supplementary materials. Teacher acts as technology expert.
Day 11: Groups try out the games of other groups. After playing each game, groups fill in a worksheet listing the things that they liked best about the games they played, the things that didn’t work, the things they have questions about, and the things that should be changed or improved and turn critiques in to the teacher.
Day 12: Pass student critiques back to the groups that designed the games. Students have one more day to revise games and to place copies of game in network files so that they can be shared with parents and friends. Students write reflective statements regarding the games that they designed.

Evaluation
Rubrics will be used to evaluate the groups in the following areas:
-Accurate questions and answers that reflect an understanding of areas covered in Egypt unit.
-Planning of game, including concept, objectives, instructions, creativity and credits.
-Aesthetics and Graphics
-Hyperlinks and navigation in game.
-Reflective statements

My Philosophy on Technology in Education

I believe that our greatest task is to teach our students to be life long learners as opposed to simply being receptors of miscellaneous information; "learners" versus "learned". At a conference that I attended, the speaker quoted Eric Hoffer, who stated, “In a time of drastic change, it is learners who will inherit the future. The learned are prepared to live in a world that no longer exists.”

This speaker also pointed out that it took radio 38 years to reach fifty million people; it took television thirteen years to reach fifty million, yet it has taken the world wide web only four years to reach the fifty million mark. We absolutely live in a time of drastic change
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Technology provides powerful tools for exploration, administration, investigation, communication, and reinforcement. To take full advantage of these tools, we must integrate them into our classrooms as comfortably as we do pencils, rulers, or textbooks. We must teach our students to use technology effectively, efficiently, and creatively. Our goal in using technology should be to prepare our students to acquire information and to create solutions when they leave our classrooms. In order to do so, educators must make every effort to become technologically fluent themselves. As educators, I feel that how we use technology is more important than if we use technology.

I am fortunate to be an art teacher. In my classroom, we use the Internet to explore “big problems” or themes that students might incorporate into their artwork. Students also investigate the art that has been created in the past, as well as what is being done right now throughout the world. From our little, rural school, students are capable of visiting galleries in New York City, Los Angeles, or Paris via the World Wide Web.

In addition to using technology to do research, my students use software such as Adobe PhotoShop, Adobe Illustrator, and iMovie to create original artwork to solve problems that I pose for them, and to tackle design problems that they create for themselves.
Students compile digital portfolios of their work and document their growth through self-reflections that accompany the artwork in these collections.

Finally, technology provides potent tools for me in my role as teacher. Using the computer, I am able to tend easily to “housekeeping” tasks such as taking attendance and recording grades, and communicating with parents, other teachers, and administrators. I can combine images and key terms for presentation to my classes by using iMovie or PowerPoint, and individual students can later revisit those images and terms to study at their own pace. I document my students’ work and progress by recording and storing digital images of their artwork.

In short, I feel that effective use of technology in the classroom teaches our students to be “fishers” of information, so that they need never hunger for information and learning when they leave our classrooms and schools.