Download Impact of Arts-Based Programs on Elementary School: Transforming Education - Prof. Bernard and more Study Guides, Projects, Research History of Education in PDF only on Docsity! Julie Cote CUIN 7358: Digital Storytelling Fall 2008 Dr. B. Robin Final Project Report The topic of my digital story is the transformative nature of arts–based education on one elementary school in NW Houston. The major objectives of this project are to show how important art-based education is in the current educational climate of No Child Left Behind; to make a case for an arts-based curriculum in public schools; and to illustrate how effective an arts-based program has been in a particular school. After spending two semesters researching and critiquing the effects of Technical Rationalism on a community college developmental writing program, which I was sure would be my doctoral dissertation topic, I was invited to work on a research project by my graduate advisor for one of my assignments as her research assistant. The project site was an elementary school with an arts-based curriculum. I was so impressed by what I experienced working in this school that I decided to switch dissertation topics and focus on the transformative nature of infusing the arts into the curriculum in the primary grades. The intended audience for this digital story is educators, administrators, teachers, parents, artists and individuals interested in educational change within the public school system. This project could be used to demonstrate the effectiveness of an arts-based curriculum and advocate for the implementation of such a program in a school or school- district. To create this project, I used Microsoft Word for writing the script and making the storyboard. I recorded the audio narrative using a USB Logitech microphone and Audacity software (I found Audacity much more intuitive to use than Goldwave). The Mozart piece I used came from a CD of the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra that my grandfather recorded in 1988 in Oslo, Norway (Omega Record Classics). I ripped the CD onto my hard drive using Windows Media Player, which turned the songs into MP3 format. The images from the first half of the project came from various sites found through Google images. The second half of the project were taken by me at A+ elementary school and on a school field trip to the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, where we had permission from the museum’s director to take photographs within the galleries. I wrote the narrative text myself and used Photo Story 3 to put it all together. I used Nero, CD/DVD burning/copying software, to create a CD for this class. (However, due to Human Subjects restrictions, my project is not allowed to be published or distributed. I do not have permission to use the children’s photos for anything but single viewings for class purposes. Thus, please do not include my project on any compilation DVD or web site.) I had selected my topic from Day One. I knew exactly what story I wanted to tell. Because I had to limit the project to a six-minute digital story, I did have to cut out photos and slides I had created and edit down my photo display. Challenges I faced were: 1.) convincing both professors to let me “do my own thing” for this digital story and break away from the assigned theme from the Pop Culture class; 2.) recording and mixing the voice narrative with the music. I started using the Goldwave software but became too frustrated with the lack of a rewind button and switched to Audacity, with
