Dr. Chris Watts

Collaboration Across the Arts (Fine Arts, Music and Speech & Theatre), is taught annually in the fall and is designed to bring out the best in students as creators of new knowledge using digital technologies. The primary pedagogical goal of the course is to empower students as active learners who also assume the roles of teacher and creator of course content through the experience. Chris uses two primary software tools to facilitate this process: Apple's iMovie and Boinx Software's iStopMotion. Students use these and other tools while working in small groups to create their own artworks, which arediscussed in the context of current and historical multimedia art.

> View Course Syllabus (PDF)
> Course Performance Programs: 2003, 2004, 2005 (PDF)

Technology Details: iMovie is a popular tool for video editingand assembling film-style multimedia projects, and has been widely used in class assignments for a number of years. The user can import footage from a camcorder, still images from a digital camera, audio from files or CDs, and put them all together with effects, transitions, and titles. Typically, the students receive training in using the software and equipment and then complete their projects outside of class time. In this instance, the process of creating the project is the central activity of class. The underlying premise is that collaboration is a skill set that must be learned and practiced.

Project Outcomes: Some of the outcomes of this process are obvious: students learn about multimedia art in a number or ways: they gain perspective on what has been and is being done in the field; they begin to develop an understanding of the aesthetics involved; they gain skill in using specific technological tools. Because they find themselves working together with artists from different backgrounds, they encounter new concepts, issues, and ideas. The semester culminates in a public presentation of their works.

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