Page 46 - The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 11 and 12: The Arts, 2010

THE ONTARIO CURRICULUM, GRADES 11 AND 12 | The Arts
THE ROLE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY IN THE
ARTS PROGRAM
Information and communications technologies (ICT) provide a range of tools that can significantly extend and enrich teachers’ instructional strategies and support student learning. ICT tools include multimedia resources, databases, Internet websites, digital cameras, and word-processing programs. Tools such as these can help students to collect, organize, and sort the data they gather and to write, edit, and present reports on their findings. ICT can also be used to connect students to other schools, at home and abroad, and to bring the global community into the local classroom.
The integration of a wide range of technologies into the arts curriculum represents a natural extension of the learning expectations associated with each art form. An education in the arts will engage students in using various technologies through which artistic expression can be achieved. The most obvious example is media arts, which primarily involves solving artistic problems through the application of current technologies; for example, students will gain skills and knowledge related to still and video photography, sound recording, and digital technologies. Study of the other arts also provides excellent opportunities for using relevant technologies. In the dance curriculum, students can use choreographic software for composition and stage technologies for production. In drama, students can gain facility in the use of lighting, sound, and other production technologies. Students of music can use analog and digital technology – including notation, sequencing, and accompaniment software – in composing, arranging, recording, and editing music. Visual arts activities engage students in the use of current technologies – including websites and graphic design software – both as research tools and as creative media. Of particular interest in all of the arts is an analysis of the impact of various technologies on contem- porary society.
Whenever appropriate, students should be encouraged to use ICT to support and communicate their learning. For example, students working individually or in groups can use computer technology and/or Internet websites to gain access to museums, galleries, and archives in Canada and around the world. They can also use portable storage devices to store information, as well as CD-ROM and DVD technologies and digital cameras and projectors to organize and present the results of their research and creative endeavours to their classmates and others.
Although the Internet is a powerful learning tool, there are potential risks attached to its use. All students must be made aware of issues of Internet privacy, safety, and responsible use, as well as of the potential for abuse of this technology, particularly when it is used to promote hatred.
ICT tools are also useful for teachers in their teaching practice, both for whole-class instruction and for the design of curriculum units that contain varied approaches to
learning to meet diverse student needs. A number of educational software programs
to support the arts are licensed through the ministry and are listed on www.osapac.org under the Software/Resource Search link.
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