The Problem Art education is often considered as a program to utilize students' creative and critical thinking process in classroom. Yet, it has been such a big challenge to reinforce student's creativity and critical thinking in graphical software application classrooms since teaching software applications is generally involved with highly structured instructions and examples. Generally, this rigid teaching format is caused by the nature of graphical software. Thus, teachers use step-by-step instructions with fixed examples in classroom. Throughout this research, issues related to creative and critical thinking process in art education, especially in graphical software application classroom, such as Adobe Photoshop and Flash will be analyzed with real student projects and their work. The main goal of this research is to share how to promote creative and critical thinking process in software application classes and to encourage students to create more intellectually and critically engaging projects utilizing their creative and critical thinking process. Summer 2008

Evidence of Student Learning & Methods of Analysis Post-Project Student Survey Grounded Theory Analyzing Gathered Data Quantatively and Qualitatively Fall 2008

Project Summary Write a brief but rich summary of your project for multiple audiences. This paragraph will come together more clearly later in the project, but do your best to write a draft. Think of it as an "elevator speech": a concise overview as if explained to someone in a short elevator ride. Ongoing

Annotated List of Helpful Resources & References Include as much bibliographical information as you can, and very briefly describe the purpose of each resource within your project. If you can provide links to these resources, great! Ongoing

Preliminary Results, Findings, Conclusions, & Implications Briefly describe some of your findings or conclusions. Briefly describe the implications of these findings for others (the "so what?"). What can others learn from your work? Spring 2009

Career Relevance & Impact As you work through the WTFS Program, note any observations about the relevance and impact of the Program on your career (conducting your SoTL project, participating in specific WTFS activities, working with UWS colleagues, etc.). This section is part of OPID's assessment of its signature faculty development Program, so it's very helpful to them. Ongoing