Re: LOGO-L> Visual Arts URL

[rimpey@netspace.net.au (Richard Impey)]

Hi Bill

I agree with some of your points about the limitations of using LOGO to
create tessellations and "Shouldn't we use the best medium available for a
given task?"

In fact it does depend on on the purpose(s) for which one uses the tool/medium.

1. I teach both Art and Information Technology to primary school students.
So the students get to use both pencil and paper.... as well as graphics
software.

For some students the pencil and paper works brilliantly for others the
ability and ease of erasing and redrawing on a computer allows them to
achieve where in the Art class they have been easily frustrated and
disapointed with their efforts. After having used the computer to
draw/create graphics some of these students are more able and interested in
creating designs with traditional materials.

2 You should try teaching one point perspective to two groups of primary
students. Allow one group to use a computer and the other pencil and paper.
See which one understands the concepts quicker and produces accurate and
better results quicker!!!

 3. I experiment with a wide variety of software to provide an exciting and
stimulating learning environment across as many subject areas and year
levels as possible.

MicroWorlds is currently our main multimedia presentation tool. It is used
for a variety of purposes, not just for learning with the LOGO language.
Some things work well others not so. The tessellations I intend the
children to create with the computer will be fairly basic affairs. If some
children discover through their experimentations the limitations of the
program then that is a bonus.

The main aims of these tessellation lessons are for the children to:
A. generate computer art work within particular design brief limitations.
B. reinforce their classroom studies about tessellations
C. present their art work on the schools Intranet and /or the WWW.
D. learn some of the features of MicroWorlds (snapshape, shape editing...)
E. share ideas and concepts with other children around the world
ie Global classroom concepts

4. Similarly you can't readily manipulate digital photographs and color
gradients in a primary school environment. Airbrushing equipment and
photographic chemicals are too dangerous, expensive and time consuming
compared to what is available on the computer. I intend for the children to
use digital photographs and the computer spray paint tool when creating or
experimenting with their tessellation designs.

5. We can't all be as brilliant as Escher, Papert or Piaget but we can have
fun trying and sometimes learn a lot in the process.

Surely you wouldn't expect the average grade 4 student to produce Art work
of the standard and complexity of Escher???

Anyway Escher didn't have access to a computer......

When I was studying graphic design (1970's) according to one lecturer we
had to learn to touch type because "one day we would have to use a computer
to generate designs" .... I still don't touch type but boy are my mouse
skills good!!!!
When I eventually saw what a computer could do I was absolutely blown away!!!
and that was on an old b/w Mac Plus with 20Mb of HD space and 2Mb of RAM!!!

The point is most Graphic design studios today rely heavily on computer
generated art work and I'm sure that Escher, if computers were available,
would have at least dabbled with them to create some of his Art work.

Cheers Richard




John St. Clair wrote:-
>
>>I just visited your web page and I like the idea of doing tessellations
>>with MicroWorlds.  Now I have a new project idea for my students.  Thanks
>>for sharing your ideas.
>
>I still  maintain that its best to do tessellations using pencil, paper,
>cardboard, tracing paper etc.
>
>Why?
>Because there is no easy way, for instance, in Logo to do this:-
>
>1. draw an irregular quadrilateral
>2. measure the midpoints of each side
>3. draw a curved line between the vertex and midpoint
>4. rotate that curve to the vertex at the other end of the line
>
>etc.
>
>By using the computer you restrict the range of tessellations that
>students can
>do. Last time I looked MicroWorlds could handle the translations but not the
>rotations.
>
>Shouldn't we use the best medium available for a given task?
>
>Dale Seymour Publications have some brilliant books on tessellations
>(including
>one called 'Tessellations using logo' which I don't use). Sorry, can't
>remember
>the title of the one I do use.
>
>btw, Escher didn't use a computer !
>
>-- Bill Kerr
>
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                        Richard Impey
                        Information Technology Specialist
                        Phone 0011 61 3 9509 6872
                        Caulfield North Primary School
                        186 Balaclava Road
                        Caulfield North 3161
                        Melbourne, Victoria, Australia


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