Why GeeGuides?

So, you’ve come to a basic understanding of what GeeGuides is and what the program offers children. Now you might be wondering why you would pick GeeGuides to fulfill your art education needs. Well, here we are ready to convince you of the value of art and the unique way in which GeeGuides makes it relevant for the children of today. We’ve broken it down into four “Whys”:

Why the “Gee”?
We started with the idea of teaching “to the point of passion,” and of guiding students to a “gee moment,” when the information clicks, or hits home, finally making sense in the bigger picture of the child’s understanding.

Why is an arts education important?
The non-linear nature of art lends itself well to the development of higher-order thinking skills, especially with the comprehensive and holistic programs available through GeeGuides. Many studies show that art is an essential part of a child’s education and that it must not be “left behind.” It is an essential part of developing creative problem-solving skills, which are going to be invaluable assets in the 21st century “Knowledge Economy,” which is the global trend towards an information-based economy rather than industrial. As we focus on national school reform and on helping our youth develop these skills, we must make sure they are exposed to the arts.

An art education also helps students to develop motivation for higher achievement, leading them to become effective lifelong learners. Students who get exposure to the arts do better on standardized tests, have a lower dropout rate, watch considerably less television and have a higher-rate of community involvement.

For more reading on this subject, we recommend the following studies:

1. “Critical Links,” a report from the Arts Education Partnership and compiled in 2002.
2. “No Subject Left Behind,” a report from various arts advocacy groups.
3. “Arts and Academic Achievement,” from Americans for the Arts.

Why technology is important to education:
Again, it’s that 21st century trend towards a knowledge economy. We can expect nearly 90 percent of the upcoming workforce to utilize computers within their working environments. The computer is a technology that is not likely to go away. With almost every future job requiring computer skills, children need to begin developing those skills—now. The U.S. Department of Education released its “Education Technology Plan,” calling for more computers and ubiquitous high-speed Internet access in all of our schools. It also highlights the need for digital content in the schools’ curricula and points out that today’s technology can be highly effective in reforming teaching methods.

As with any tool, however, technology must be used in a way that is effective with its target audience. To summarize, here is a quote from an article in Education Week (issue date, Aug. 10, 2005) about the “Education Technology Plan.”

“Released in January (2005), [the plan] outlines technology’s potential to improve learning in classrooms and online, 0[…] and [its ability] to make schooling more interesting to students and more relevant to the workplaces of the future.”

To read the “National Education Technology Plan” in full, please see their website at http://www.nationaledtechplan.org.

Why GeeGuides is a special and unique program:
Here at GeeGuides, we recognize the importance of art education and how it fosters the development of critical-thinking skills. GeeGuides is the answer for reincorporating visual arts into schools, and it also meets the technology needs of today’s generation.

If your child enjoys making crafts at home or playing with various media, that’s wonderful! But, in order to learn how to reason about art, and in so doing, to develop higher-order thinking skills, GeeGuides’s comprehensive visual arts education is key.

The GeeGuides program is built from the ground-up for Web delivery. It makes innovative use of the latest technologies in order to engage children in the content, to help with retention and to spark within them a passion for art.

But check out these other aspects of the GeeGuides program, which also set us apart from the rest.

  • Our curriculum takes a holistic approach to presenting the traditional information on the elements and principles of art. For example, this approach shows how basic principles such as movement and line are interrelated, as well as how the artist uses these tools to convey a message or express an emotion.

  • The holistic aspect of our curriculum lends itself well to the study of other disciplines. Art does not live in a vacuum, but rather reflects the personal and historical context in which the artist lived, including the artist’s social status, the inventions of the time period, and other scientific advancements and understandings of that age. We also address writing skills through various exercises based on visual perception.

  • Since we’re web-based, there is lots of room to add special features to the program. Our animated lessons engage the children through interactivities that reinforce the concepts presented.

  • The fact that the program is web-based means that no software is required [other than a free installation of Flash], as well as little to no maintenance on your end. GeeGuides can easily update the program as well.

  • In addition, we offer continuous assessments of the student’s progress, which the teacher or parent can access at any time in a child’s progress/achievement reports. These reports compile the results of tests or “challenges” at the end of each lesson, which include incentives and rewards. Children can take these challenges as many times as they’d like, as the emphasis is on improving comprehension, not on scores.

  • Finally, many of the art projects for each lesson can be done with both traditional and digital media. For the digital activities, GeeGuides offers a packaged program with the real-media-mimicking Corel Painter Essentials 3, an amazing and virtually limitless digital paint program from a leading digital paint software company whose programs are widely used in the professional graphics world. Additionally, students can store their digital artwork in their online portfolio, as well as scanned artwork, documents or photographs.

So, we hope with that we answered all your Whys about GeeGuides. If you have additional questions or comments, we would love to hear from you! Please send us an email at info@geeguides.com. With GeeGuides, children sayART, seeART and doART.

For additional info about GeeGuides, please see our download links below: *Note: these documents are in PDF format and require Adobe Reader to view. If you don't have Reader, you can click here for a free download.

Why GeeGuides?.pdf
Company Brief.pdf
What You Receive.pdf