CyberARTS
Encyclopedia
CyberARTS is a multi-disciplinary, integrated six-year arts and technology
specialized program which is offered in a number of schools in Toronto
for grade 7 to 12 students in Ontario
, Canada
. The CyberARTS program has been honoured by Maclean's
magazine as one of the best programs in Canada. Many international delegates come from the UK, Spain
, the USA and China
to study the unique model of this program. In addition to learning art
, design
, and technology
, the students are also taught about important skills such as organization, work ethic
, presentation skills, professionalism
, career building and post-secondary
planning.
Support for the program initially came from the Don Mills Collegiate Institute
, Don Mills Middle School
, Northview Heights Secondary School
and the North York Board of Education
’s Computers in Education. The program has educational partnerships with businesses such as Alias/SGIWavefront, Apple Canada, Kodak Canada
, Rogers Communications
and Softimage
and organizations like the Textile Museum of Canada
, the Art Gallery of Ontario
, Ontario College of Art & Design
, Sheridan College
and the University of Waterloo School of Architecture
.
CyberARTS is offered at the following middle and high schools: Charles H. Best Middle School, Don Mills Collegiate Institute
, Don Mills Middle School
, Northview Heights Secondary School
, Western Technical-Commercial School
, Lakeshore Collegiate Institute
and Innisdale Secondary School
.
s Technology, and Computer Science
, Music
, Drama
, Dance
, Media Studies
and Co-op
. Curriculum in CyberARTS is designed so that the teacher is a facilitator
, manager and producer while students take an active role in problem solving
the task at hand whether it be creating or publishing children's books' authoring interactive CD-ROMS, organizing a conference
or creating a traditional portrait
. Each lesson unit in CyberARTS has an integration of at least two of the main CyberARTS subject areas and results in the completion of a major project. Staff and students at both levels work together to expand and improve the knowledge gained by students participating in the projects. The knowledge gained by students on these projects may assist them to make educational and vocational decisions. CyberARTS is also committed to both formal and informal experiences in Cooperative education and seeks in the development of curriculum to provide "real world" projects that extend beyond the classroom. Credits
are granted for each course delivered to meet the Ministry
outcomes.
CyberARTS students are expected to contribute to the program, school and/or greater community. These community hours will involve student application of their artistic, creative design and technological abilities in a variety of areas. Some examples include:
Students are encouraged to take on leadership roles in these activities as part of the curriculum and skills training.
Teachers of the CyberARTs program specialize in visual art education and have had a background as a working professional involved in some aspect of the visual arts. Former experience includes being artists, filmmakers, curators, art administrators, designers and graphic artists.
, and application package. The interview involves completing a creative activity, such as a still life drawing. The potential student will be assessed in a 15 minute face to face interview with two CyberARTS teachers, and two senior CyberARTS students. It is recommended that the student brings a portfolio
and sketchbook
. The application package includes a student information sheet, an interest and background form (for students applying in grade 7 or 8 only), a parent nomination form, a creative writing
piece, a self portrait (using only a pencil), and a release of information form. Prospective students are required submit this package to the school of their choice by the beginning of the year.
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
specialized program which is offered in a number of schools in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
for grade 7 to 12 students in Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. The CyberARTS program has been honoured by Maclean's
Maclean's
Maclean's is a Canadian weekly news magazine, reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events.-History:Founded in 1905 by Toronto journalist/entrepreneur Lt.-Col. John Bayne Maclean, a 43-year-old trade magazine publisher who purchased an advertising agency's in-house...
magazine as one of the best programs in Canada. Many international delegates come from the UK, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, the USA and China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
to study the unique model of this program. In addition to learning art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
, design
Design
Design as a noun informally refers to a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system while “to design” refers to making this plan...
, and technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
, the students are also taught about important skills such as organization, work ethic
Work ethic
Work ethic is a set of values based on hard work and diligence. It is also a belief in the moral benefit of work and its ability to enhance character. An example would be the Protestant work ethic...
, presentation skills, professionalism
Professional
A professional is a person who is paid to undertake a specialised set of tasks and to complete them for a fee. The traditional professions were doctors, lawyers, clergymen, and commissioned military officers. Today, the term is applied to estate agents, surveyors , environmental scientists,...
, career building and post-secondary
Higher education
Higher, post-secondary, tertiary, or third level education refers to the stage of learning that occurs at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, and institutes of technology...
planning.
Program creation and location
The CyberARTs program was created in 1995 by a group of educators, principally Sharron Forrest, Tito Faria, John Mergler, Mike Morey, Linda Newman, Terry Wensley, Doris Fleming and Lesley Monette who saw a need for enriched learning through the arts and had a unique vision for digital arts at the [high school and middle school levels. Their purpose was to develop a program for students wanting to specialize in particular subjects within the combined areas of the arts and technology. Art is the foundation of the digital program.Support for the program initially came from the Don Mills Collegiate Institute
Don Mills Collegiate Institute
Don Mills Collegiate Institute is a high school in the community of Don Mills in Toronto. It serves an ethnically diverse student population of approximately 1000. As of 2006, 66% of students speak a first language other than English...
, Don Mills Middle School
Don Mills Middle School
Don Mills Middle School is a middle school in Toronto, Ontario. It is located near the intersection Don Mills Road and Lawrence Avenue. The school was known as Don Mills Junior High until 1986....
, Northview Heights Secondary School
Northview Heights Secondary School
Northview Heights Secondary School is a secondary school for grades 9 to 12 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the North York community in Toronto, on the intersection of Bathurst Street and Finch Avenue....
and the North York Board of Education
North York Board of Education
The North York Board of Education was the public school board for the former city of North York in Ontario, Canada.In 1998, the provincial Government of Ontario passed legislation which amalgamated North York into the City of Toronto. As part of the amalgamation process, the NYBE ceased to exist...
’s Computers in Education. The program has educational partnerships with businesses such as Alias/SGIWavefront, Apple Canada, Kodak Canada
Eastman Kodak
Eastman Kodak Company is a multinational imaging and photographic equipment, materials and services company headquarted in Rochester, New York, United States. It was founded by George Eastman in 1892....
, Rogers Communications
Rogers Communications
Rogers Communications Inc. is one of Canada's largest communications companies, particularly in the field of wireless communications, cable television, home phone and internet with additional telecommunications and mass media assets...
and Softimage
Softimage
Softimage, Co. was a company located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada that produced 3D animation software. Their flagship products, Softimage 3D and Softimage XSI, are used in the creation of computer animation for films, television advertisement, and video games...
and organizations like the Textile Museum of Canada
Textile Museum of Canada
The Textile Museum of Canada, located Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is the only Canadian museum dedicated to the collection, exhibition, and documentation of textiles. The museum was founded in 1975 by Max Allen and Simon Waegemaekers.-Collection:...
, the Art Gallery of Ontario
Art Gallery of Ontario
Under the direction of its CEO Matthew Teitelbaum, the AGO embarked on a $254 million redevelopment plan by architect Frank Gehry in 2004, called Transformation AGO. The new addition would require demolition of the 1992 Post-Modernist wing by Barton Myers and Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg...
, Ontario College of Art & Design
Ontario College of Art & Design
OCAD University is Canada's largest and oldest educational institution for art and design. It is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on McCaul Street beside the Art Gallery of Ontario...
, Sheridan College
Sheridan College
Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning is a diploma and degree granting Canadian polytechnic institute with approximately 15,000 full time students and 35,000 continuing education students...
and the University of Waterloo School of Architecture
University of Waterloo School of Architecture
The School of Architecture is one of the professional schools of the University of Waterloo. It offers a professional program in architecture accredited by the Canadian Architectural Certification Board at the master's level . It is part of the Faculty of Engineering and is located on a satellite...
.
CyberARTS is offered at the following middle and high schools: Charles H. Best Middle School, Don Mills Collegiate Institute
Don Mills Collegiate Institute
Don Mills Collegiate Institute is a high school in the community of Don Mills in Toronto. It serves an ethnically diverse student population of approximately 1000. As of 2006, 66% of students speak a first language other than English...
, Don Mills Middle School
Don Mills Middle School
Don Mills Middle School is a middle school in Toronto, Ontario. It is located near the intersection Don Mills Road and Lawrence Avenue. The school was known as Don Mills Junior High until 1986....
, Northview Heights Secondary School
Northview Heights Secondary School
Northview Heights Secondary School is a secondary school for grades 9 to 12 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the North York community in Toronto, on the intersection of Bathurst Street and Finch Avenue....
, Western Technical-Commercial School
Western Technical-Commercial School
Western Technical-Commercial School ' is a high school in the High Park North neighbourhood of Toronto, Canada. It shares the same building with Ursula Franklin Academy and The Student School. Originally two schools when it was opened, Western Technical and Western Commercial, the present school is...
, Lakeshore Collegiate Institute
Lakeshore Collegiate Institute
Lakeshore Collegiate Institute beginning in 1950, is a high school located in New Toronto that serves the New Toronto, Long Branch, and Mimico working class neighbourhoods in Toronto's west end community of Etobicoke...
and Innisdale Secondary School
Innisdale Secondary School
Innisdale Secondary School is a public secondary school that is located in the south end of Barrie, Ontario. It was founded in 1978, and serves as an educational facility to over 1700 students in grades 9-12 and a working environment to over one hundred full time staff.The administrative staff...
.
Structure
CyberARTS is an integrated program in which students gain credits in Visual Art, Media Literacy, CommunicationCommunication
Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...
s Technology, and Computer Science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
, Music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
, Drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
, Dance
Dance
Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....
, Media Studies
Media studies
Media studies is an academic discipline and field of study that deals with the content, history and effects of various media; in particular, the 'mass media'. Media studies may draw on traditions from both the social sciences and the humanities, but mostly from its core disciplines of mass...
and Co-op
Cooperative education
Cooperative education is a structured method of combining classroom-based education with practical work experience. A cooperative education experience, commonly known as a "co-op", provides academic credit for structured job experience...
. Curriculum in CyberARTS is designed so that the teacher is a facilitator
Facilitator
A facilitator is someone who helps a group of people understand their common objectives and assists them to plan to achieve them without taking a particular position in the discussion...
, manager and producer while students take an active role in problem solving
Problem solving
Problem solving is a mental process and is part of the larger problem process that includes problem finding and problem shaping. Consideredthe most complex of all intellectual functions, problem solving has been defined as higher-order cognitive process that requires the modulation and control of...
the task at hand whether it be creating or publishing children's books' authoring interactive CD-ROMS, organizing a conference
Academic conference
An academic conference or symposium is a conference for researchers to present and discuss their work. Together with academic or scientific journals, conferences provide an important channel for exchange of information between researchers.-Overview:Conferences are usually composed of various...
or creating a traditional portrait
Portrait
thumb|250px|right|Portrait of [[Thomas Jefferson]] by [[Rembrandt Peale]], 1805. [[New-York Historical Society]].A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness,...
. Each lesson unit in CyberARTS has an integration of at least two of the main CyberARTS subject areas and results in the completion of a major project. Staff and students at both levels work together to expand and improve the knowledge gained by students participating in the projects. The knowledge gained by students on these projects may assist them to make educational and vocational decisions. CyberARTS is also committed to both formal and informal experiences in Cooperative education and seeks in the development of curriculum to provide "real world" projects that extend beyond the classroom. Credits
Credit (education)
A course credit is a unit that gives weighting to the value, level or time requirements of an academic course taken at a school or other educational institution.- United States :...
are granted for each course delivered to meet the Ministry
Ministry of Education (Ontario)
The Ministry of Education is the agency of the Ontario government in the Canadian province of Ontario responsible for government policy, funding, curriculum planning and direction in all levels of public education, including elementary and secondary schools.This Ministry is responsible for...
outcomes.
CyberARTS students are expected to contribute to the program, school and/or greater community. These community hours will involve student application of their artistic, creative design and technological abilities in a variety of areas. Some examples include:
- Graphic design for the school newspaperStudent newspaperA student newspaper is a newspaper run by students of a university, high school, middle school, or other school. These papers traditionally cover local and, primarily, school or university news....
or yearbookYearbookA yearbook, also known as an annual, is a book to record, highlight, and commemorate the past year of a school or a book published annually. Virtually all American, Australian and Canadian high schools, most colleges and many elementary and middle schools publish yearbooks... - Environmental design for the science program
- Fashion designFashion designFashion design is the art of the application of design and aesthetics or natural beauty to clothing and accessories. Fashion design is influenced by cultural and social latitudes, and has varied over time and place. Fashion designers work in a number of ways in designing clothing and accessories....
for the DMCI Fashion Show - Stage Design for the Drama and Music Program
- Web designWeb designWeb design is the process of planning and creating a website. Text, images, digital media and interactive elements are used by web designers to produce the page seen on the web browser...
for individual programs at DMCI
Students are encouraged to take on leadership roles in these activities as part of the curriculum and skills training.
Teachers of the CyberARTs program specialize in visual art education and have had a background as a working professional involved in some aspect of the visual arts. Former experience includes being artists, filmmakers, curators, art administrators, designers and graphic artists.
Entrance Requirements
Entry to the high school program is based on a successful interviewInterview
An interview is a conversation between two people where questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information from the interviewee.- Interview as a Method for Qualitative Research:"Definition" -...
, and application package. The interview involves completing a creative activity, such as a still life drawing. The potential student will be assessed in a 15 minute face to face interview with two CyberARTS teachers, and two senior CyberARTS students. It is recommended that the student brings a portfolio
Career portfolio
Career portfolios are used to plan, organize and document education, work samples and skills. People use career portfolios to apply to jobs, apply to college or training programs, get a higher salary, show transferable skills, and to track personal development. They are more in-depth than a resume,...
and sketchbook
Sketchbook
A sketchbook is "a book or pad with blank pages for sketching," and is frequently used by artists for drawing or painting as a part of their creative process....
. The application package includes a student information sheet, an interest and background form (for students applying in grade 7 or 8 only), a parent nomination form, a creative writing
Creative writing
Creative writing is considered to be any writing, fiction, poetry, or non-fiction, that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, and technical forms of literature. Works which fall into this category include novels, epics, short stories, and poems...
piece, a self portrait (using only a pencil), and a release of information form. Prospective students are required submit this package to the school of their choice by the beginning of the year.