Community Arts Resource Blog Proposal
By Shanda Veatch, Gaiser Middle School, Vancouver School District
In order to encourage a wider access by students to our Vancouver’s arts events and resources, it is my intention to begin a blog for the arts classes at our school to inform and disseminate artistic endeavors in our community to students and their families. Our student population faces a lack of access to extracurricular arts enrichment activities due to a multitude of reasons: funding, student mobility, single and working parental commitments, poverty and a lack of an organized, age appropriate and reliable community arts resources which are readily accessible to both students and families.
The blogging tool that will be utilized will be the Google based Blogger application. This application is the most familiar and most accessible to students and their families outside of the school setting. Not only will families be able to view the blogger website at home, the popularity of this blogging tool allows for access to the blog via cell phone/internet connectivity. This will allow students in the field to upload pictures and reviews of events while on site.
This blog will be a single resource. Students will be accessing this blog, and will be creating pseudonyms in order to post reviews and information about events. Students will not be posting under their real names, but will be posting with pre-approved usernames in order to protect their identities. This blog will comply with the district Technology Use Guidelines, with strict adherence to Article III, General Prohibitions.
A. Personal Information Security
1. The posting of personal information about students or staff on official district web pages is prohibited except as indicated in 2, 3, 4 and 5 below. This includes addresses, home telephone numbers, or other contact information, test scores, transcripts, birthdays or any other personally identifiable information.
2. Student names may be posted with prior written permission of the student's parent for limited circumstances, such as giving credit to the creator of student art work.
4. Student photos may be posted on district web pages only if written permission has been specifically given by that student’s parent on the student registration form, or registration update form, for the current academic year. Each office or entity hosting its own web page content, e.g., school building page, teacher page, club page, must maintain a copy of the parent permission. (http://www.vansd.org/docs/middleschoolhandbook.pdf)
The goal of this blog is to get students to participate in cultural and artistic events in the community and to network their experiences through a facilitated webpage. Updated links to calendars of events as well as recommendations made by both teachers and students will be maintained. Dates, prices (with priority given to free or less expensive events) will be posted as well as maps, links to reviews, and posted student written reviews. All student generated input will be reviewed by the administrator prior to posting. Student participation will be graded and the posting of pictures will be in compliance with the district privacy and technology use guidelines.
As a former building representative to the district level Arts Cadre and an active member of our building arts plc, it has become apparent that gaining access to professional as well as amateur arts experiences for our student population is increasingly becoming a challenge due to budget cuts. Funding school sponsored experiences is taking a back seat to funding basic classroom education, but that does not limit the possibilities that continue to be available for such experiences for our students. If we, as arts educators, are able to drum up enough enthusiasm around the events that are being presented by the artists of our community, our students will find a rich artistic environment right at their doorsteps.
Using this blog to facilitate this will allow students to access the social networking mediums to which most of them are already fully literate. Creating a page that allows them to voice their opinions, endorse and even critique cultural events will give them a sense of ownership and active participation in the world of the arts in Vancouver.
The ease of use as well as the familiarity students have with web hosted mediums of communication will encourage our students to explore the real world of the arts and bring their experiences back to the web to share with others. Besides becoming a resource for bringing students together to experience community based artistic and cultural events, it is my hope to see this blog become a seed to give families the chance to come together in order to encourage their budding artists to engage in more artistic opportunities, and perhaps even take more time experiencing these things together.
Resources:
1. Weiler, G. (2003). Using weblogs in the classroom. The English Journal, 92(5), 73-75.
2. Downes, S. (2004). Educational blogging. EDUCAUSE Review, 39(5).
3. Bartlett-Bragg, A. (2003). Blogging to learn. The Knowledge Tree, 4. Retrieved from http://knowledgetree.flexiblelearning.net.au/edition04/pdf/Blogging_to_Learn.pdf
4. Bamford, Ann (2006) The WOW Factor, Global Research Compendium on the Impact of Arts in Education, Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=ZEaxmwG9n4EC&oi=fnd&pg=PA9&dq=arts+impact+education&ots=3IsLQwAdK3&sig=LDLjPcDn785i96V-F6tPN6dIfqk#v=onepage&q&f=false
5. Vancouver Public Schools 2010-2013 Technology and Learning Plan
