Abstract
This chapter provides insight into how two educators researched, planned, and co-taught a remote learning arts-integrated project during the pandemic. Student interest in video games generated an inquiry-based collaboration centered around pixel art and video game narratives. The authors combined digital animation with cross-stitching and language arts to address the multiple ways that students learn. The authors believed that by combining technology and language arts with visual arts, students could take a more project-based approach to their learning, which they hoped would lead to greater student engagement. The authors share their challenges and future opportunities that were made visible during this project.
TopBackground
Another challenge facing educators teaching remotely, especially those teaching in underserved communities, was low student attendance. Karp (2020) mentioned that in spring 2020, most Chicago public schools did not have students regularly logging in to their virtual classrooms. Students that did not have access to a computer and could not access the Internet were considered “nondigital learners” (p.1).
At the beginning of the pandemic, the education nonprofit organization Kids First Chicago and the Metropolitan Planning Council (2020) released the report called Digital Equity in Education in the Coronavirus Era. The report shared that about 1 in 5 children in Chicago under the age of 18 lacked broadband access, and this primarily impacted Black or Latinx communities. Kids First Chicago, whose mission is to ensure that every child in Chicago has access to high-quality education, immediately advocated for action to address the digital divide, highlighting concerns about the widening achievement gap. In June 2020, several months before the authors’ collaboration began, a program titled Chicago Connected was launched to address this divide.
The initiative, a partnership between the City of Chicago, CPS, the philanthropic community, and community organizers, was able to raise money to get access to high-speed Internet for more than 64,000 CPS students. Though this would not necessarily solve all the problems associated with remote teaching and learning, this initiative did help address access to the Internet for many of the students that CAPE’s programs reach. The authors were relieved that this option was available for their students, but also began to consider how their collaboration was an opportunity to address a broader, systemic problem related to underserved communities and technology: computational fluency (Resnick, 2018a).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Block-Based Coding: A type of coding for beginners that uses digital blocks to create code rather than using text-based programming.
Digital Animation: Animation that is produced using digital software to create either 2D or 3D forms.
Arts Integration: An approach to teaching that integrates art and other discipline/s. Students show their understanding through their artwork.
Contemporary Art: Art that is made by artists living today, whose work critiques concepts and ideas of the present day.
Pixel Art: A type of art where the smaller components, the pixels, are visible and make up the larger whole.
Inquiry-Based Learning: An approach to learning which is student driven. Questions are open-ended and the learning is focused on research.
Cross-Stitch: An embroidery or sewing technique that creates x-shaped stitches.