An innovative media arts curriculum for lower elementary school (kindergarten through second grade), which integrates technology seamlessly into the classroom curriculum

A unique curriculum for lower elementary grades (kindergarten-through second grade) has been created using the original “Ideation Conceptualisation” model for technology integration created by the author, Dr. Shirley Nuss, Media Arts/Computer instructor, and former colleague, Kimberly Conely. Dr. Nuss has created the innovative curriculum for lower elementary students at Brookside Cranbrook and the Vlasic Early Childhood Center, the elementary divisions of Cranbrook Educational Community (www.cranbrook.edu), a private college preparatory day and boarding school in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Her curriculum addresses the need for appropriate technology introduction to lower elementary students, which fits seamlessly into the existing classroom curriculum and uses computer applications in place of packaged programs or integrated technology learning systems. This curriculum is also designed to meet provides a means of authentic assessment shown to adapt easily to media projects. Dr. Nuss developed the curriculum after researching the use of technology with young children and was able to then adapt it to fit the “Ideation Conceptualisation Model” showing the efficacy of the model in designing a technology integrated curriculum for the K-2 elementary student as well as grades 3-5 which was presented in the author’s earlier work, “A Model for Collaboration: Integrating Curriculum Technology Into the Elementary Media Arts and Studies” [6]. The curriculum encourages the child to engage is such media making activities as creating and publishing a classroom book, creating an interactive slide show with Kid Pix, (a paint program) and PowerPoint, the use of Claymation and Stop Motion Pro to make a simple animation, and using Microsoft’s software, PhotoStory3, to construct a visual alphabet book using digital images taken by the children. Student work will be used throughout the paper to explain how the model is used to design projects that will fit into existing curriculum and how it might be used to design technology related curricula for lower elementary students globally.