Interactive Whiteboard

The interactive whiteboard is a great tool for the classroom. I think that the students can really get into the personal interaction. There are a lot of ways that the teacher can interact with the students and really get them involved rather than just lecture. It has the potential, as with any technology, to become boring if used everyday in the classroom or for the entire class period. It will be great to use for little activities during the day to keep the students focused and motivated. The advantages of the interactive white board as opposed to a plain whiteboard, or even just using powerpoint, are that you can save your class notes and set the students up for interaction. Students learn more by doing and the interactive whiteboard makes that a lot easier.

Video in the Classroom

First off, I would just like to say that the 4 Generations: Water Buffalo Movie definitely brought a tear to my eye... just one, like the Native American crying about polluting the land in that commercial a few years back. (you all know the one). A video like that might be a great beginning to a lesson on community and charity.
As for using video in any past projects, it would have come in handy when I made that PowerPoint presentation on the classification of animals in high school science class. I must admit that I was guilty of overly using the effects button and redundancy of bullets. Being an art student, I have made my fair share of video projects.
When it comes to using video in my classroom, I will use it in a number of ways. I will use video to engage the students about a topic, such as Native American rituals or Chinese Watercolor Painting. Being and art teacher, the students will have a few video assignments. Some might include making their own commercials, a video tour of the art room/school, a video of puppet shows using puppets the students have made, or a day in the life of the student. Students can also make Podcasts of what they have learned in my classroom as well as others.
Video is open to creativity which is essentially what teaching art is all about.

Closing the Gaps in engagement in learning

This chapter mainly discusses the importance of the internet in education. It tends to discuss the use of "technology" (by technology, the article means the internet) in a high school setting. I understand when they talk about the primary ingredients that foster involvement and motivation; Faculty and students need to have competence and control, a strong belief in the value of education, as well as a sense of belonging. I believe that the curriculum should be relevant to the students experiences and goals.
However, I don't agree with their statement on how the gap between engagement and learning can be closed by "encouraging our faculty and their graduate students to take education issues seriously". This implies that the faculty and their students don't take education seriously or for that matter care about education at all.
This article leaves me a bit confused. When they mention undergraduate students and graduate students, are they talking about them in terms of teaching them or in terms of those students preparing to be teachers? I also feel that this chapter answered very little questions on how to close the gap between engagement and learning. They offered minor suggestions on how to use the internet in the basic subjects such as math and science. But they also said the technology should be integrated into the curriculum as if it was always there. The actual means of technology should (the computer or projector) should fade into the background therefore bringing the content to the forefront. This was a good point, but it does not tell me how to close the gaps between engagement and learning. I guess that is up to me.
I appreciate that they made clear the importance of maintaining lectures and reading, but again this does not pertain to the subject of art. They mentioned that with the integration of internet in the classroom students can DO history and science rather just read or talk about it. Well, students were DOING art before the invention of the internet. Sending students to make art on the internet seems counter intuitive and almost backwards.
The internet has its place in all classes. It is a great interactive tool that can raise a child's interest and knowledge in other cultures. It is also great for research projects. But as far as art is concerned, as of right now I don't see many other uses for it.

Technology in Art.

The world of teaching has changed since I was in elementary school. The lessons I remember learning in art class between grades 3 and 5 seem almost outdated. While their content is still important (things such as the elements of design) the way in which these methods are taught are so different now. There is a fine line between teaching children the new technology in the ways of art and cutting out more traditional methods of art making.
When I see the new technology I am concerned that eventually all curriculum will be taught online and have not seen many online curriculum's in the way of art. Art requires a hands on approach and it is necessary for all children to experience and learn the techniques in order to grow as individuals.
This is just a rant; a concern of mine. I feel the need to engage the children using technology relevant to the student's outside experiences, but at the same time do not want to loose the personal connection the material, classmates, and teachers.

Excel Ideas

Everyone knows how much I love one day workshops! So here's one you might have actually found interesting: Excel in the classroom.
Some ideas for classroom activities in the art room:
1. Have the students use Excel to chart a graph of their favorite colors. Students will design a survey of 6 different colors. Each student is to pick their favorite color. We will analyze the data and enter it into Excel. Then create a graph or pie chart.
2. Students will keep track an inventory of art supplies using Excel. Each semester we will count the number of paints, boxes of markers and crayons, brushes, paper, etc. and the students will mark it into an Excel spreadsheet. They will then see how much supplies were used throughout the year.
3. Students will use it to keep track of the art they have created. This list will include the date, title, and any opinions on the piece they made. They can use the list to reflect on the work they created at any time.
4. Students will create an Excel spreadsheet of important artists in history. This list will include the name of the artist, date of birth, location, important works created, important events, the genre of art created, and the date of death if applicable.
5. Students will chart the probability of getting certain colored legos in a box of legos.

Social Bookmarking

Social Bookmarking is an easy way to store and find interesting websites. It is most commonly used among teachers in order to share websites that other professionals have found useful. There are so many websites out there and with social bookmarking it is easy to search websites through colleagues with the same interests and profession. This saves a lot of time. Teachers may also post course readings and important websites through a social bookmarking site. This saves paper and ensures that all readings are located in one place.
Students can use social bookmarking sites as a way to keep all of their references listed for school research projects and in turn share these websites, which may be helpful to other students.
I think social bookmarking will help me because I no longer need to keep bookmarks and can access all the important websites from any computer.
I choose to use Diigo as my social bookmarking website because spelling out delicious with all the periods in between was a pain. Also, some schools block that site because of the word.
http://www.diigo.com/dashboard/neonangel

Lesson Plans from Google Apps

There are only two lesson plans in my content area of Fine Arts.
The first lesson plan is A Place in Time with Google Tools- The Impact of Photography designed for grades 10-12. In this lesson plan, the teacher must first create a Google Earth tour of a few selected photographs that have influenced the US or World opinion. The students will then view the teacher's earth tour and select photographs from American photographers. They will then watch a PBS film "American Photography a Century of Images" and view the online film guide in Google Docs. Students then create their own website and Google Earth tour based on the findings of the photos they selected from the original tour the teacher created. The students must properly site the information and teachers can provide feedback and critiques by using the comment feature in Google Docs. This lesson plan covers the NETS for Students standards 1. Creativity and Innovation and 3. Research and Information Fluency.

The second lesson plan is Great Moments in Art and is designed for students grades 6-8. Students are to use Google Calender to compose a calender of important art events or artist birthdays in history. They use museum links to find this information. Upon entering the information along with location into the calender, the student will also create a Google Map where students can click on the location and see a photo of the location. Students may do this lesson in groups or alone. The NETS-S Standards are 2. Communication and Collaboration and 3. Research and Information Fluency.