David Bush

Finding their Paths
by Alex Lipoff

At their best, our classes can help students begin to see themselves and the world around them a bit differently; David Bush’s Advanced Art Class, made up of all seniors and one junior, is both literally and figuratively helping students “find their way.”

Using the smartphone app “Map My Run,” which is intended to give runners data about the course, duration, and difficulty of their workouts, students have been utilizing the mapping capabilities of the app and incorporating those images as part of a visually evocative project that combines technology, artistry, and poetry.

Students are asked to use Map My Run to come up with a project that is visually interesting and looks professionally presented, and they must incorporate a poem or a page-and-a-half long reflective response that uses the word “Path” in its title. Students are randomly paired in groups of two, a gesture toward the idea that rather than distancing ourselves from one another, technology can also be used to bring people closer together.

While many projects and classroom activities that utilize technology can err on the side of superficiality, only relying on the “sizzle” of the tech itself to interest students, this art project, in the words of Mr. Bush, “lets students use technology as a drawing tool that expands the notion of what technology can be, as well as the notion of what drawing can be.”

As students have progressed with the project, and continue “drawing,” they are beginning to find things and ask questions that they initially hadn’t considered. Some students have begun leaving the app running all-day, while others have been going up and down the stairs in different buildings, and some students have even been trying to walk in particular directions to create a recognizable image, like an animal or a human face.



One of the universalities of education is that we hope that our classes can be, whether explicitly or covertly, experiences that our students draw upon when solving problems and making decisions in their lives. Mr. Bush has figured out a way to incorporate technology in his course without compromising the promise that art is the vehicle that we can use to teach about creativity.