Presented by:

Katherine Svoboda

Sturgis Middle School Art Teacher

Sturgis, MichiganOur Mission statement at Sturgis Middle School: Sturgis Middle School is dedicated to the academic, social ,and emotional development of each individual. I believe it takes a village to raise a child. The artwork was painted by me and hangs outside my art room to serve as a reminder to all who enter that we all play a part in creating a better world.

How can I, as a an art teacher, successfully infuse technology into my art classes that enhances the art content and also helps my students develop 21st Century Literacy skills?

This question has been on my mind for some time. I think art and technology have a natural attraction to each other because they both can be implemented in very creative ways. I currently include some technology in my sixth through eighth grade middle school art classes. My students have to create a digital portfolio with PowerPoint. Many of them have their artwork online at Artsonia. They also have opportunities to do research on the internet and have access to some drawing and paint programs.

When I pick a form of technology to use in art class, how is it enhancing the learning in the content area?

What will my students have to know about technology before we start a technology infused project?

How can I create good questions about artists and art history that make students what to do more than just copy and paste facts from the internet into a document?

How can I create lessons that are timely but not time exhausting when I have students for just a trimester?

Software: Students can use a variety of software that include drawing and paint programs, movie maker, as well as document and presentation programs. These can be used for creating art projects as well as documents and presentations about art and art history.

Internet: Students can use the internet for research and interactive art websites. They can also create wikis, blogs, podcasts, websites and use online software like animation and paint programs. Students can also use the internet for online collaborations and to share their art globally.

Video: Students can use digital cameras to create art, art presentations, digital storytelling, slide show presentations and movies.

Audio: Students can create audio files to enhance presentations through voice or music, and even performance art.

Handheld Devices: Students can use handheld devices to capture pictures, video and audio for presentations, blogs, websites and for podcasting pertinent art information. Students might also use some handheld devices for responses. (However, at this time I do not have access to this type of handheld devices.)

Computers: Students can use computers for access to the internet and software to create and produce art projects and presentations for art class.

Students need to have a basic knowledge of how computers work and how to troubleshoot for problems as they occur.

Students need to have a basic knowledge about how to use software and how to access tutorials and help files.

Students need to know how to do intelligent research on the internet.

Students need to know about ethical use of computers and the internet. These include issues such as plagiarism and cyberbullying.

Teachers need to design pre and post tests about technology so they can assist their students better.Teachers need to guide students in the technology learning process.Teachers need to provide ethical guidelines for students to follow.Teachers need to inform students on the issue of cyberbullying.Teachers need to keep up on current technology developments.Teachers need to get professional development as needed to stay current on emerging technologies and educational uses.Teachers need to be models for their students to emulate.Teachers need to remain curious and learn from their students.

My concern about creating good art content questions was raised because of the need to want students to be challenged to reach a higher level of critical thinking in art class. I didn’t want the technology to become the thing that drives the art lesson. The technology should just be a tool to help a student create his or her own ideas. After much research, I think the obvious choice for creating good questions is to go back to Bloom’s Taxonomy when creating thoughtful and provoking questions that interest my students. Furthermore, good art content questions will be developed within the four disciplined based art education areas of art production, art criticism, art aesthetics, and art history. Questions should be created that prompt students to want to solve them and even use their artwork to make a statement.

Artwork can both answer and create questions. This painting was created by me to put on my blog to include with an essay I wrote about women and liberty.

Questions should be designed based on the different levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy: Knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Students will reach a higher level of critical thinking with open ended questions that force them to apply, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate art content. As I mentioned earlier, the focus for the questions should be on the four areas of discipline based art education: art production, art criticism, art aesthetics, and art history. The students can answer questions by creating art projects, creating websites, digital stories, presentations, blogs, wikis accessing the internet for research and by using any other technology that serves a creative purpose. There is no limit to the potential for art students that are challenged with good designed questions and projects that infuse technology in answering these questions.

These are good web resources for designing questions:

http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/researchskills/dalton.htm

http://www.adb.org/documents/information/knowledge-solutions/asking-effective-questions.pdf

Art Production: Students can create art with drawing and paint programs. Students can create film art with video presentations that express their feelings that are solely created as a form of art. Students can use images they create digitally and access other images online as a resource to be inspired to produce art. Students can create a form of performance art.

Art Criticism: Students can use internet resources to critically look at art, ask and answer questions about art, and make comparisons about artworks. They can use software to document and present their information. They can use digital cameras to create visual responses to their inquiry.

Art Aesthetics: Students can use internet resources to research aesthetics and beauty to understand the nature and question of aesthetics. They can use software to document and present their information. They can use digital cameras to create visual responses to their inquiry.

Art History: Students can use internet resources to learn about the history of art, to make comparisons about art styles, art periods and artists. They can use software to document and present their information. They can use digital cameras to create visual responses to their inquiry.

Additional: Students can also include any and all of this work and research on wikis, blogs, and websites. They can collaborate with other students globally through education friendly websites.

These links are meant to inspire the development of creative lesson plans. They may also help in the organization of the lesson structure.

The Incredible Art Department:

http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/

Digital Wish:

http://www.digitalwish.com/dw/digitalwish/view_lesson_plans?subject=art

Internet 4 Classrooms:

http://www.internet4classrooms.com/links_grades_kindergarten_12/lesson_plans_technology_elementary_middle_school.htm

Arts Education:

http://www.suite101.com/artseducation

Teacher Tube:

http://www1.teachertube.com/

Kinder Art:

http://www.kinderart.com/index.html

Art Education 2.0:

http://arted20.ning.com/

When I started this inquiry I had a general idea of some things I could do to infuse more technology into my art classes. After much research, I realize that there are far more innovative ways than I had originally thought. My school is fairly new with much technology available that I could use. I feel I am a creative person and I will get administrative support for additional materials like digital cameras, if I can justify my lesson plans. There is a push at my school for implementing more technology to help students develop 21st Century literacy skills. I use a document camera, online resources, a projector and digital cameras to do my job as an art teacher. I don’t feel that I do enough to help my students develop 21st Century literacy skills. I think I must do more because many of the core teachers are not doing this as well. They are facing increased pressure to focus on standardized test scores. It leaves little time for developing challenging lesson plans that infuse technology in constructive and innovative ways. I think it is natural for the arts and technology to converge creatively. I also feel if I pave the way, other teachers may follow as they feel the pressure from students that have learned how to use technology in innovative ways for school work. My goal is to be among the leaders at my school in promoting 21st Century literacy skills. I can naturally do this through inspirational art projects that infuse technology in innovative ways. This PowerPoint will serve to continue to inspire me as I redesign my curriculum to infuse technology into my art lessons. I will access it to guide me with developing good questions for inquiry and designing technology infused art lessons. I will use the links I’ve provided for continued research and I will add to it as I find additional resources.

I’m not going to repeat the links that I have already included. The artwork on the slides were created by some of my middle school art students and can be seen at the Artsonia website. They are merely placed on the slides for inspiration.

My artwork is also placed on the two slides for inspiration.

My resources can all be accessed on the Delicious Website at my bookmarked site. All of the websites have motivated and inspired me in my quest for information on how to infuse technology into my art classes. I have also bookmarked many websites that will help with determining how to use technology in education.

http://www.delicious.com/ksvo2002

Artsonia (The worlds largest kid’s art museum!)

My link to artwork shown and created during the 2010-2011 school year:

http://www.artsonia.com/schools/archive.asp?id=8364&type=art