Getting Creative with Technology and Art

At Center for Creative Education, we use the arts as a tool to break the barriers of traditional learning. Arts integration—an approach to teaching and learning that uses the creative process to connect the arts and academic subjects—is the cornerstone of our educational services, including The Foundations School. 

CCE also values digital technology. Our students currently have access to state-of-the-art devices and programs to assist with their learning, and our capabilities will only continue to grow as we look ahead to the construction of the Susan and Dom Telesco Arts and Science Center. 

But how do you bring the arts and technology together? 

“When a teaching artist comes in to teach in our classrooms at The Foundations School, they build their creative project around the teacher’s curriculum,” said one CCE staff member, who is currently developing CCE’s digital arts curriculum. “It’s easy enough to add a digital component to that—filming the students creating something, for example. But how do we integrate the technology back into the curriculum, so that it’s helping the students learn the academic stuff? That’s the tricky part.” 

But CCE is already finding ways to make those connections. For example, the Westward Expansion lesson uses Google Earth to teach students about geography. As they learn about Manifest Destiny and the westward migration in U.S. History, they build a model of a Conestoga Wagon. This ties together art, academic lessons, and the digital world.

As we embark on our second year at The Foundations School, one of our goals is to buildout our digital arts curriculum. With input from teachers, students, and staff, we want to create a library of lessons that connect students to the digital world and engage them in the creative process. 

For an example of a lesson from last year, where students used Photoshop to create portraits in the style of artist Bisa Butler, click here.