LCI Brings Imaginative Learning to the Internet

September, 01 2009

Lincoln Center Institute (LCI) launched its first series of online courses in the fall of 2008.

"We wanted to bring a solid, viable equivalent of our professional development workshops for educators into the purely electronic world," says Scott Noppe-Brandon, Institute's Executive Director. "We are dedicated to bringing LCI to international audiences, so it was a natural step for us."

"I'm not a technology maven" says Wayne May, teacher in the Lansing School District, Michigan, first brought to the Institute through a U.S. Department of Education professional development grant, "and I'd never taken an online course before–of course I approached it with some trepidation. But even the uncertainty I felt in the beginning turned out to be a productive part of the whole. For that, I thank the core of course participants with similar feelings and thinking with whom I built an online community. The community challenged me and made me feel comfortable at the same time."

"The online content has the same depth and distinctiveness I experienced in the face-to-face LCI consultancy workshop sessions," says Brooke Hessler, professor at the Oklahoma City University. To Brooke, online workshops offered some distinct advantages over in-person workshops. "The asynchronous online approach supports me both when I'm in a get-it-done mindset and when I need time to digest the material, reflect on it, and explore the content: I have a choice. "

Another concern was the work of art to be studied. LCI's educational approach demands that students experience intimate contact with live works of art, meaning performances in their classrooms, or paintings in a gallery, revisited several times. Was there a digital work of art created specifically for the online environment that could capture this experience?

Along came Ghostcatching, a 7-minute work created in 1999 by choreographer/dancer Bill T. Jones and digital artists Paul Kaiser and Shelley Eshkar.

Hessler reflects: "Although I deeply value live experiences of artworks and performances, I find the use of digital installations such as Ghostcatching superior for the purposes of our classwork. I am able to rewind and re-view in ways in which I might not be able to engage a live performance."

Educators invest their time and energy into professional development with the idea that their academic improvement will have a trickle-down effect in the classroom. So the big question is: What do the participants' students get out of this?

Says May: "The Capacities for Imaginative Learning" (an essential element of LCI's practice and the courses)" give me a structure I use consistently, and I am gratified to see the impact they have [on the students]."

Tanya Magnan, who teaches K-12 students at the Ecole Powerview School in Manitoba, and also has attended LCI International Education Workshops (InEW) says, "what I have learned so far is easily transferrable at all grade levels through my lesson plans, my questioning, scaffolding of activities, reflection, and assessment strategies."

The courses, nearing their second year, are offered on a rotating basis, four times a year. They were authored by Madeleine Holzer, LCI's Educational Development Director. Implementation directed by Alison Lehner-Quam, LCI's Director of Resources and Technology Development. Are they successful? Tanya Magnan gives them thumbs up:

"My only regret is that there's only one course left to take! Anyone passionate about teaching, and curious about how the arts can spark the imagination and learning, would LOVE these courses! They fed my soul and my gray matter, and gave me permission to open doors I had only peeked through before! It's the best professional development I've taken in my 25 years of teaching!"

Lincoln Center Institute online courses are supported, in part, by generous donations from Verizon and the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust. The next session starts September 30th. Click here to register.

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