KEWL, Distant Learning Project... Inner Eye... Art & Technology... Audart


Kinetic Education Worldwide Learning "Power Point Presentation" "Technology"
*Collaborations between communities* The worldwide web is a kewl place for learning about the arts. But to really interact with the arts, the KEWL way is to bridge the gap between "distant looking" from a computer and seeing the art at the museum. The KEWL project uses an internet web page as a "portfolio" that contains images of artworks and performances. A data base of participating artworks, artists, museums, schools, teachers become a forum of shared links to lesson plans, with themes, activities and educational strategies. A global view of the arts is now possible. A community of people focussing on the arts now represents a global view representing many choices and ways to define meaning through the arts.. Through the leadership of teaching artists that collaborate with teachers and communities, themes are developed that come out of art works. Content driven projects are designed to have hands on activities that develop "choice" options in making and defining art expression. KEWL uses technology to create connectivity between distant communities and the arts. We make the arts accessible and available to the community by: teleconferencing, interactive web based lessons, internet based chats and forums, visits to museums and performances, faculty development and mentoring. Schools interact with other schools in different parts of the world in a way that is exciting and meaningful.
We manage the integration of technology to create a collaboration between schools, museums, community centers and performing art centers for one purpose: creating a community around the arts.
What do you do...
in a Distant Learning Project
	GET CLOSE TO ART
Create a unit of study around an artwork Participate in "distant learning" classes that prepare students for museum visits or performances in music, dance or theater. Work with an experienced staff of teaching artists specialists that act as mentors in finding connections between curriculum and the arts. Create a teleconference link between a teaching artist, a school, a community center and a museum or performance center. Participate in mentoring programs that use technology as a platform for semester long communication between teaching artist and classroom teacher. Includes technology workshops that create the internet web site that is a platform for investigation of ideas within artworks. View broadcasts of current lectures from museums and performance sites. Post ideas about artwork among artists, teaching artists, professors, classroom teachers, pre-service students, students and the community. Collaborate and create a world wide web database of relevant contextual information. Enjoy an advanced team of technology experts, from many diverse companies, that bridge the connectivity gap between the many types of equipment that are needed to make the complex needs of distant learning a reality. Participate in an on-line gallery of student art works, including, drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, architecture, writing, poetry, dance, music and performance. Go to "live" performances and museum visits. View "live" broadcasts from museums and performances.

Art Works, Artists and Teaching Artists
Art works, artists and teaching artists are woven into our unit of study. Art is our doorway into a journey of experience and meaning. Although the arts reveal the history of times and cultures gone by, they also allow us to explore the meaning of our own thoughts, ideas, feelings and belief systems and consider them next to our neighbors. The artworks were chosen because they evoke a range of responses around a theme that was decided upon by a collaboration of a planning team. The team members would discuss personal issues and interests in art and later be asked to look for connections that would allow for a common theme that would satisfy a variety of interests. These themes usually had something to do with what was going on in the school community. Some of the artworks were chosen because they made a specific connection to curriculum. Many of the artworks contained details that allowed viewers to develop graphic visual stories that contained poetically alive language and thoughtful experience.