USING DIGITAL VISUAL ARTS TO PROMOTE EQUITY AND ENHANCE LEARNING FOR STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES.
Standing
Undergraduate
Type of Proposal
Poster Presentation
Challenges Theme
Open Challenge
Your Location
Belle River, Ontario
Faculty
Faculty of Education
Faculty Sponsor
None. This is listed as optional on the submission page.
Proposal
As a digital artist and teacher candidate in the Faculty of Education, I saw the need to incorporate the visual arts to assist students with learning disabilities. For many of our students who have a difficult time in committing multiplication facts to memory as well as having challenges with finding strategies for solving, conceptualizing etc. I decided to come up with discrete ways using digital art with curriculum materials to enhance their learning while preserving student dignity, as many students with exceptionalities are sensitive about being singled out as being the few that still need to use manipulatives. We solve this dilemma using digital arts by allowing students to access the manipulatives on their work pages, discretely, yet in plain sight. Made available for all students, as a digital overlay file or just simply splicing the teaching material the manual way, then copy and distribute. In addition to these overlay art pieces; I have digitally designed graphic organizers that are typically used for literacy purposes but now have been re-engineered for use in math. These graphic organizers are a way for our learners, to choose the strategy that is a best fit for them to assist understanding. By no means a total replacement of traditional plastic blocks and manipulatives, but as a meaningful accompaniment that helps to level the playing field for exceptional students, who “never want to be that special kid who needs these special tools” (Anonymous, 2019).
USING DIGITAL VISUAL ARTS TO PROMOTE EQUITY AND ENHANCE LEARNING FOR STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES.
As a digital artist and teacher candidate in the Faculty of Education, I saw the need to incorporate the visual arts to assist students with learning disabilities. For many of our students who have a difficult time in committing multiplication facts to memory as well as having challenges with finding strategies for solving, conceptualizing etc. I decided to come up with discrete ways using digital art with curriculum materials to enhance their learning while preserving student dignity, as many students with exceptionalities are sensitive about being singled out as being the few that still need to use manipulatives. We solve this dilemma using digital arts by allowing students to access the manipulatives on their work pages, discretely, yet in plain sight. Made available for all students, as a digital overlay file or just simply splicing the teaching material the manual way, then copy and distribute. In addition to these overlay art pieces; I have digitally designed graphic organizers that are typically used for literacy purposes but now have been re-engineered for use in math. These graphic organizers are a way for our learners, to choose the strategy that is a best fit for them to assist understanding. By no means a total replacement of traditional plastic blocks and manipulatives, but as a meaningful accompaniment that helps to level the playing field for exceptional students, who “never want to be that special kid who needs these special tools” (Anonymous, 2019).