Thank you for expressing an interest in our project's background. The initial conception occured in Albany in 1989. My students had won the Learning Technology Fair and Lillian Schwartz was in attendance. She introduced herself and we learned of her theory. My students had created a Da Vinci Computer Game called Da Vinci's Visions, so she was especially interested.
In December 1996, I learned about the ThinkQuest Project and attended a workshop at City College. Dr. Sheila Gersh introduced me to the international Internet student collaboration and my students became part of the ThinkQuest Contest with their Why is the Mona Lisa Smiling? project. We had found a partner in Sweden and by April 1997 we gained access to the server. We worked continuously for the next three months since the deadline was July 31, 1997. In August we started promoting the site and by August 23 our guestbook was signed by a visitor from Mongolia. Our guestbook has been signed each day since them. Over 73000 visitors have seen our site.
Since the site was created with Tandy 1000 computers, the students needed to meet challenges on a daily basis.
Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.
Thanks for expressing an interest in our project which was created as a result of a student collaboration among high school seniors from Borlange Sweden and the Bronx. The site represents an ambitious project which was created with fifteen year old Tandy Computers, and a word processor. Beyond meeting the challenges on a daily basis, the student partners learned how to build a site which was designed to be viewable with any browser. Foremost in design was the site's accessibility to all. Frames and non frames versions are included, as well as accessibilily to the hearing impaired. The site building experience sensitized the student creators to the needs of all viewers from many different cultures.
It built, enhanced and concretized their media capacities and research skills. We include two versions of Da Vinci's original musical score.
Why use a theory that was widely publicized several years ago?
As per your comments about the use of the theory, visitors to the site are referred to the research of Dr. Lillian Schwartz, whose book is now out of print. Full reference is made to it including secured permission to use the images. My students created the Morphing sequence using a public domain, DOS based program called RMORPH. It cost a dollar. This animated sequence is a graphic realization of her theory.
How is the web based technology different from traditional education using books?
A single line of text would not mine the multi media potential of the web nor would it engage spatial and kinesthetic learners. Use of technology immeasurably expanded the scope and immediacy of student research finds, far beyond the spectrum of what they could accomplish within a comparable period of time using conventional print material.
It seamlessly integrates research into classroom instruction. It should also be noted that through this project Goals 2000, School to Work Strategic Objectives and the National Arts Standards are being addressed using technology as a catalyst and a bridge.
How has the project expanded since its inception?
Our site has been selected to be part of the Getty Museum Digital Experience. Please visit our Partners' Page.
As semifinalists in the GII US Awards we were prompted to create a guided tour of the our site.
Contributions from the field yielded our meeting Rina De Firenze at herLibrary Lecture and led to our ongoing collaboration with her.
Through our da Vinci Dissemination Workshop sponsored by the Board of Education and AT&T, we presented our project at the Make It Work Conference. A digital photo record of the workshop and audience feedback are available online.
Hi Steve,
Thanks so much for bringing your two wonderful students to present at the Classroom of the Future exhibit at School Tech Expo. I really appreciate your work and your enthusiasm. Please thank the girls for me.
I forgot to mention that I'd love for you to write about your project for The Well Connected Educator.
See you again.
Gwen
--------------------------- Gwen Solomon, Director The Well Connected Educator 21882 Herencia Mission Viejo, CA 92692 714-206-9571 voice 714-206-9572 fax gwen@gsn.org http://www.gsh.org/wce
My experience as a ThinkQuest coach has been extraordinary.In December 1996 I was asked by Gino Silvestri, my Principal, to attend a classroom session at City College of Dr. Sheila Gersh to learn about the ThinkQuest Project. At the time I had little Internet experience, but a great desire to get my students involved in this International collaborative project. Since our computer classroom had the most rudimentary equipment, I knew there were compelling challenges that needed to be met in order to succeed in this process.
Seven years earlier my students were competing in the Learning Technologies Fair in Albany. As they won the competition with their Da Vinci's Visions, a student created computer research project which included a video component and a 24 screen computer game, we met Dr. Lillian Schwartz who was sitting in the audience. She introduced herself and explained that she had researched Leonardo and had made some remarkable discoveries.
Although her book was out of print, my students selected the Why is the Mona Lisa Smiling project as their theme for this ThinkQuest contest to revitalize Dr. Schwartz's theory.
We needed to collaborate with another school and at first used the ThinkQuest Team finder to seek partners for our project. Although we located a Canadian student to help us with the team formation, she dropped out of the project just as the deadline approached. We ultimately found our Swedish partners using a Canadian listserve called INCLASS.
We knew we had to work quickly because the deadline was now only three months away.
The key component was to make the web site accessible to all. Through their research, my students discovered that da Vinci wrote music and was able to find the music and digitize the score to make it Internet compatible.
We wanted to include an online interactive quiz but we also wanted it to be viewable with any browser. This meant we needed to learn how to incorporate java applets as well as CGI Scripts into our project.
We secured permission to use any copyrighted images we wanted to use for our project. My students began coding the project using text processors while our Swedish collaborators researched the web to find the best da Vinci resources that were available. We communicated with each other through email exchange.
Since we wanted for our project to be widely used by school children we included elements that would be fun to use. Random research and digital post card elements were added. We also included a guest book and site survey to get feedback from our visitors.
We were responsive to those who provided contributions from the field.
The response to our project has be phenomenal.
On August 23 a visitor signed our guest book from Mongolia.
Since that day our guest book has been signed each day for over eight months; a continuous chain of support from educators, art historians and school children from nearly sixty countries and over 48 states across America.
On Sept 2, 1997 our site became USA Today's Hot Site of the day. On the same day we were selected as the Cool Site of the Day. As a result we received 2000 visitors in one day!
Our growth has been exponential. In October Gloria Edwards used our site in a classroom integration session at Purdue University. In November, Classroom Connect selected our project for inclusion in the web guide resource.
In December we presented our site at City College and we were featured on the front page of two local newspapers. As a result, we met another Art Historian and author Rina De Firenze who wrote The Mystery of the Mona Lisa. We continue our ongoing collaboration with her.
In January our site was featured on Radio Net's The Human Factor, and Seeker Magazine gave our site their Site of the Month distinction. At this time the Getty Museum placed our site in their new Digital Experience.
We were featured as Hot Site for teachers in the UK in February and we formed a partnership with MidLink Magazine.
In March we presented Why is the Mona Lisa Project at the Make It Work Conference sponsored by AT&T and the New York City Board of Education. We were also selected as Teachers' Choice by the Global SchoolNet Foundation and Encarta included our lesson as part of their collection.
In April we were invited to present our project at the School Tech Expo at the Hilton. As part of Caroline McCullen's Web publishing workshop we share our project with school administrators and teachers. At Robert Sibley's Workshop we expanded the interest in our project to potential ThinkQuest participants. My students also presented Why is the Mona Lisa Smiling as part of the Virtual Classroom Experience.
As our project continues to evolve we continue to expand our partnerships and outreach.
Our plans for May includes an review in Computer Currents and a featured Site of the Month on Prodigy. We anticipate an article in Technology and Learning for the Fall.
As the ThinkQuest Head Coach it was my responsibility to keep this ambitious project on schedule and to assist with the promotion of the site. This experience has brought exposure to our school and we will be getting four new computer labs and a T1 line at John F. Kennedy in the Fall.
Hi Steve,
Thanks so much.
Can you either add what the learning was for students ?
That would be a terrific addition.
Thanks,
Gwen
The students who worked on the project Why is the Mona Lisa Smiling? learned the ways in which the Internet can be used as an inquiry tool for primary and secondary source multidisciplinary research.They experienced the powers of the Internet for collecting links which were pertinent to a given problem construct. As our guestbook grew they noted how the use of this Internet supported vehicle could serve as a multigenerational, multisector collaborative forum.
They were able to begin to weigh conflicting evidence, perpectives and issues evoked by the comments in the guestbook and to reflect on the formal differing theories showcased in the project.
They also learned through doing, how a web site can not only be a forum for problem construct inquiry and evaluation, but also can serve as a vehicle for project dissemination.
The formal responsibilities of the students to code their site, so it would be accessible to all, led to their increasing familiarity and fluency in the use of HTML, Java Applets and CGI Scripting.
As researchers, investigators and web builders they also learned the importance of scheduling, staying on track and daily monitoring of site functions.
They also learned how to be sensitive and responsive to the evolution of the project over time in response from the feedback of our participants through our site survey.
Very truly yours,
Hi Steve,
Thanks so much for the addition. I'm sending it to one of our editors to
assemble and put into our format. I hope to have it posted in the June
edition of WCE.
Thanks,
Gwen
The Well Connected Educator is the on-line publishing center for the K-12 community to write, read, and talk about educational technology.
At 01:34 AM 5/17/98 -0700, Parry Aftab wrote: send me information about your students and why they did this and what else you're doing, and I'll write an article for the site about it. It's terrific!
Thank you for your words of encouragement. An Article would be great. Will the article be online?Your question regarding the project is answered in our FAQ. /13681/data/link2.htm
We just added additional Contributed Curriculum Links for Mathematics, English, Special Education,Social Studies and Health resources. These links were reseached by the teachers in John F. Kennedy High School as a result of the Internet Training Workshop which I was the Instructor, It was funded by the Bronx Superintendency.I'll pass the word. We're in the process of upgrading the site and we're building content behind the scenes. We'll highlight your site when it gets updated.
That would certainly be appreciated. Let me know if you need any additional info.
Congrats!
I'll sign your guest book shortly, since I'm running to cook for a dinner party today
... I look forward to your guestbook entry. That will be my desert. Sincerely, Steve
From: Parry Aftab
Parry Aftab wrote: > > tell me something that isn't in your FAQs.Dear Parry:
My students who attend John F. Kennedy High School in the Bronx, NY, created the site as a collaborative effort with a school in Borlange Sweden. It was done through our participation in the ThinkQuest project.It is based on the theory of Lillian Schwartz who states in her book, The Computer Artist Handbook, that Leonardo da Vinci painted himself when he painted the Mona Lisa. Since this book is now out of print, my students wanted to renew the interest in her theory by using it as our inspiration for the project.
This ambitious project was completed in three months. The computers in our classroom are Tandy 1000, so they had to create the site without the benefit of a mouse, Windows or hard drives. In fact we needed to save our work on 5 1/4" floppy disks.
At all times we had a clear vision that we wanted to have our project accessible to all browsers, including the interactive quiz. The original da Vinci music included would also be made accessible to the hearing impaired.
The Deaf Links as well as the other curriculum links were provided by Contributions from the Field.
As we continue to evolve, our counter has just passed 100,000 visitors. Our proud partnerships we have established are proudly displayed on our Partners' Page.
Our guestbook is another important feature of our site. On August 23, 1997 a visitor signed the book from Mongolia. Since that day, our guestbook has been signed each day, everyday, with comments and feedback from historians, professors, teachers and students. This represents nearly nine months of continuous support.
Please let me know if there is something else you would like to know to help you with your article. I look forward to hearing from you. Yours sincerely, Steve Feld
Why is the Mona Lisa Smiling?
Kennedy High School
Dear Barb:
My students and I eagerly anticipate our participation and involement in this cross age internet learning style with your selected team members. Your criteria in identifying team might include:
1. Student self nomination and desire to work beyond the school day and weekends.
2. Ability to work collaboratively with other team members.
3. Special internet/technology/knowledge and ability to work at home.
4. Family support is important.
5. Ability to pursue a particular strand, avenue of interest or task, successfully to completion.
6. Once the idea or concept is developed and the initial site is online, they must remain committed to its expansion, promotion and maintenance.
7. Try to select students who can quickly aquire/apply new technology skills and are eager to do so. You will find that participation in this project will involve you and your students in an incredible ongoing and evolving learning experience which will expand you and your students internet learning talents.
8. Brainstorming and evidence of creativity and problem solving are also important critery in student selection since various obstacles, issues and concerns which invariably evolve.
9. You may also wish to look at demonstrations of past student projects and portfolios, to determine final selection of your team members.
10. Once you have narrowed down your selection, have the members of the team sit down with one another to discuss their potential project themes and expectations. See how they gel with one another. Remember they must be able to socialize, support and complement one another's strengths.Best regards,
Steve Feld