HOOK, LINE & NET 2001

Kiss the Mouse Goodbye: Workshop with Craig Goudie
By: Lindsey House, Roncalli Central High, Port Saunders, NF

Kiss the mouse goodbye. I bet that’s not something you thought you’d hear these days. But this was the name of Craig Goudie’s presentation on Tuesday, June 26th at Hook Line and Net’s 2001 Conference in Sprucewood Academy, Grand Falls-Windsor.

Craig Goudie is an art teacher from School District Five who teaches an online course, Art Technologies 1201. Goudie is a self-professed lover of tablets or pressure sensitive art pallets. “These pallets are a “dream” he said. The pallets come in a wide rang of colours, sizes, weights, depths, and ratios.

These pallets do everything a mouse can do plus so much more. “You can always tell which students [Online] are using the art pallets and which are using a mouse,” explained Mr. Goudie. “With the pallet there is a considerably higher amount of quality and precision, especially when it comes to drawing”. A 12x12 tablet has a 1:1 ratio which means that a line you draw on your tablet will come up on your screen in the same scale.

Mr. Auréle Beaupre, Principal at Roncalli Central High in Port Saunders, who was present at the workshop stated, “Teaching art in rural schools is sometimes very difficult to accomplish. However, having art pallets within a school setting provides a very important avenue for students to now share their creativity digitally with the rest of the world. It also opens the door for rural schools to have access to quality instruction in art via the web and web CT. As a teacher and principal I’m looking forward to what this type of technology can offer our students.”

Indeed this technology will be opening many doors for students through online art courses. And Craig Goudie will be leading the way - kicking down the doors!

“Wicked! Our school will be purchasing this hardware and software as soon as funds become available” announced Diane Williams, teacher at Fatima Academy in St. Brides.

Apparently Mr. Goudie had his audience converted to art pallets by the end of his presentation. Maybe somebody should hire Mr. Goudie as sales rep!