Re: LOGO-L> Visual Arts URL

[KERRB@Magill.UniSA.edu.au]

Richard Impey wrote:-

>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.

The purpose is to draw tessellations


>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.

That hasn't been my experience either personally (and I'm a poor artist) or in 
teaching students. On the computer you are constrained to working with either 
straight lines or simple shapes (eg. square), curves and translations (not 
rotations). Although some great tessellations can be done in this way (eg. 
Esher's Pegasus) it seems to me pointless to limit the variety by choosing the 
computer medium. 

I want my students to work with isosceles triangles for instance, drawing 
curves and rotating around the vertex and then another curve to midpoint and 
rotating around there (for the third side). It's easy to teach (using overhead 
projecture and transparencies -- using one transparency as tracing paper).

I also want to allow my student lots of choice -- eg. if they work with a 
regular hexagon then why should they be constrained to only doing translations 
but not allowed to do rotations around vertices.


>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!!!

There are some concepts, such as rotation, I can't teach using the computer. 
There are some aspects of teaching tessellations where the computer would prove 
useful (eg. showing that a regular pentagon is not tessellable) but I regard 
these as marginal.

> 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.

this is vague -- if you are using software that facilitates irregular curves 
and rotations then let me know about it and I'll start using it.  I'm sure the 
software could be developed, its just that I haven't seen it yet.


>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.

there is not need to limit children to "basic affairs" -- using simple 
materials they can be drawing complex tessellations after 2 or 3 hours of 
instruction.

As an intro. I do squares, hexagons and triangles (all regular) and ask for a 
composite pattern (chosen from several designs)

The I have some discussion about what shapes are and are not tessellable and 
the reasons why.

The a lesson on using your imagination by showing patterns and asking "what can 
you see" (they love that)

Then I would straight onto something like an irregular quadrilateral with 
rotations around the midpoints.

Bingo, we are past the basic ....

>The main aims of these tessellation lessons are for the children to:
>A. generate computer art work within particular design brief limitations.

the computer unnaturally limits the design brief

>B. reinforce their classroom studies about tessellations

that is vague -- means?

>C. present their art work on the schools Intranet and /or the WWW.

yes, I cannot do that using my methods, but I would rather, say, use logo to 
teach recursion and then use that method to produce art work that cannot be 
done on pencil and paper (eg. some of Claysons ideas)

>D. learn some of the features of MicroWorlds (snapshape, shape editing...)

they will learn that anyway, tessellations not required

>E. share ideas and concepts with other children around the world
>ie Global classroom concepts

same answer as for C.

>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.

Some of my students have produced beautiful tessellations, finishing them off 
with low tech coloured pencils.

Others have done very well with shading in black and white.


>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.

I argue that we learn more about tessellations without using the computer!

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

No. One thing I do allow my students to do is to *copy* just one tessellation 
out of the 2 or 3 books I distribute around the room, if they want to. In so 
doing I implore them to try to understand (and explain) how Escher produced 
this particular tessellation. Doing this seems to have a positive effect, its 
my impression anyway.... 

but to copy an Escher tessellation using the computer -- this couldn't even be 
done in most cases, except by scanning in the graphic, which would seem a 
pointless exercise.


>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.

Yes, he'd probably pay someone to develop software that could produce a bigger 
range of tessellations -- he wouldn't be satisfied with MicroWorlds.


-- Bill Kerr
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