Lesson Plan for Digital Arts (Feb 8)

This lesson plan was taught by Maki. The activity that she had planned was for us to take pictures and make a comic. This sounded like a pretty interesting idea because this allows the students to work with cameras which is useful knowledge to learn about. I am undecided whether it is necessary for Maki to have a class included in her lesson plan to have children get a tutorial on how to use a point and shoot digital camera because children nowadays are actually technologically knowledgeable and competent than they were during my elementary studies because of the internet, cellular phones, I pods, and etc…

As for the activities that took place, I feel that there was a lack of preparation for this activity. Part of the reason for this was because Maki lost her camera and she had to borrow one from the Integrated Arts Lab. Second, the card reader that she also borrowed would not read the SD cards of the cameras. I do not believe she had any control for the situation, but I believe this greatly compromised her lesson plan. Also the developmental issues she was working with was not addressed. She did however mention a resource on camera activities, but again did not reference it during her lesson. I feel that both Brenda and Maki’s lesson plans are made to be fun and exciting but they are not made purposely to address the learners’ needs.

To make the pictures into a comic, Maki downloaded a trial program for Mac computers. I am also undecided whether this is a good or bad idea seeing as the program is not easily accessible because it is a 30 day trial, it has to be downloaded, and it is specifically for mac computers.. Most computers in elementary schools are Windows so I do not believe this program would be compatible. This program did make things easier to make the photos in to a comic which would have definitely taken some time to create if used by another program.