A Look into Design Foundations

I have blogged previously about our Design Foundations course.  As part of Mercy 2.0, our Art Department chairperson, Susan Smith, has designed a marvelous course that we now require of all students.  It introduces each student to multimedia and technology from the artist's perspective.  Students create pieces with traditional materials but also work with animation, audio files, and video editing (using professional grade software).  The students also design web portfolios.

On April 10, Susan made a presentation to our Board of Trustees.  I asked if I might share her slides with you.  We have removed the videos, but we will publishing some fresh ones at a later date.

Susan's Presentation Slides for Design Foundations

As you can see, we have provided the students with a rich visual and technical experience.  Also a foundation has been built for advanced curriculum which builds upon these skills.  I expect to be posting about our new digital courses in September!

From Susan Smith's slide deck (photo from Sarah, class of 2013)

Mercy-- Using Technology to Transform Instruction

It is a goal of Mercy’s IT Department and school administration to assist teachers in redefining instruction for the better.  I use redefining as intended by Dr. Reuben Puentedura.  I the an opportunity to spend a day at Reuben's side at a conference at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino two years ago.

Referencing his model below, substitution is the most basic form of tech adoption in the classroom.  For example, the DVD replaces the VHS which replaced the film that the teacher still loves to show his his students.

Dr. Ruben Puentedura's SAMR Model

Redefinition is the most advanced level of tech integration because it is transformational: new teaching methods are used that would be otherwise be inconceivable without the technology.

At Mercy we are not content with substitution.  Our several years of 1:1 technology with the HP laptops allowed us to hit the ground running when we switched to the iPads, which are now a pervasive part of Mercy life. Our teachers and students are using these devices innovatively

We wish to harness this genius.  The ninth grade Design Foundations course is almost inherently an example of redefinition.  It is my particular hope that our next stage of professional development assists teachers across the curriculum in using the multimedia tools the students experience using in that class.

Published with permission.

By the same token we hope to tap into our iPad "iWizards" to not only teach new students how to use their iPads, but we also want them to experience enrichments and be challenged creatively.  We have some very specific ideas about channeling their energy and creativity into school life.

In the coming months I'll have much more to report on these endeavors as we continually seek to redefine what leading edge instruction means at Mercy High School.

The Arc of Mercy's iPad & Google Apps Training

I hosted visitors from another high school, recently.  Since our adoption of 1:1 iPads, this has become a frequent experience. I was explaining how much emphasis we had placed on professional development with Mercy 2.0.  This caused me to consider how our P.D. process had evolved over the past one year.  Fortunately, we did not try to predetermine every step.  Some of the best features of our training have been based on the feedback we received along the way:

Workflow Analysis -  Our consultant, Lucy Gray, urged us to begin the staff development process by focusing on "workflow".  Lucy and administrators held conversations with members of every academic department, discussing how the new tools could accomplish and improve the way they conducted their classes on a daily basis-- assigning, collecting, and evaluating student work for instance.

Unboxing- We had a special "unboxing" basic training event for the staff when they received their iPads.

Super Tuesdays- Our own advanced teachers conducted voluntary after school workshops on key apps  like Dropbox, Evernote, and iAnnotate PDF.  These were extremely well attended.

Creative Commons photo by jeanbaptistparis

"Ten Things" - We wrote learning modules for ten activities that would serve as milestones for staff technical competency.  The activities were required and included using Google Cals, Evernote, iMovie, Moodle, iPhoto, Dropbox and Explain Everything.

Summer Labs

In order to support the quest for the "Ten things", we hosted several drop-in "labs" during the summer.  These were staffed by volunteers, whose only reward was a free lunch.  The turn-out was terrific.  and by summer's end some of the learners had become trainers.

Boot Camp

Our ten new staff members attended three summer mornings of "boot camp", specifically designed to raise the technology bar high for our newbies and to give them a head start on  the iPad.

Rock Stars

For a full day of August in-service we flew in Cheryl Davis from California to give us a keynote address on "retrofitting the Classroom for the iPad."  She, Lucy Gray and some of our in-house technology exemplars conducted workshops through the day.

Design Foundations

All ninth graders were required this year to take a course called Design Foundations.  Much of their time is spent in our new Mac Lab learning how to use photoshop, design web pages and edit using FinalCut Pro X.  Next year we will be offering a Set Design course and a video editing course which have been made possible by this introductory curriculum.  We will also have a second Mac lab next year.  The entire staff was given a presentation on Design Foundations.  The Curriculum Council is exploring ways for courses of all disciplines to reinforce the skills learned in our new course.

iWizards

Our focus on training has shifted to utilizing student expertise.  We have identified, trained and branded a group of iPad users named iWizards.  They will assist in tutoring all members of our community in iPad skills.

Ninth Grade Tech Orientation

The iWizards will be spending a full day together with Lucy Gray at their elbows, creating the Curriculum for this year's Ninth Grade Tech Orientation.  They will create multimedia tutorials to support their presentations on topics like Dropbox, iPhoto, Pages, and iAnnotate PDF.  You will be reading more about this activity on these pages after March 4.

Surveying the Staff

The staff have not even had their iPads for a year, but it is not too early to plan more professional development with them.  Before long we will return to where we started, surveying them to discover what they need to rock their classes with the iPad and Google Apps for Education.  After all, for all the great technology, the teachers remain the key to great instruction.