Technology & Education

Technology has had an impact on education. Technology has been able to change and impact the way that we as teachers are reaching students. We as teachers are now able to reach students that are not in our classroom. We have the ability to teach lessons to students outside our classroom because of programs like Skype and Voice Thread. Students are now able to be more engaged in the introduction of lessons as well. With tools like the Smart Board students can be introduced to a lesson using games, stories, or videos. Technology has made it much easier to make lessons interesting to students. The use of technology has had an impact of students' interest as well. We as teachers are able to make our lesson more visually pleasing and that means that we can keep students' attention much longer. Since there are many different learning styles, we can use technology to help students learn by using technology to provide a variety of learning styles in our technology. We are able to focus our lessons to help those students who have special needs so that they have the ability to learn much better. As an art teacher, I have been able to give my students a much richer art experience because of technology. I am now able to show my students art works that they otherwise will not be able to view. I am able to give them the best art viewing experience as possible without taking them to the museums. I am also able to have them create artwork using technology. Technology has drastically photography. Students are now able to produce beautiful photos without a large amount of expensive equipment. My students are also about to use technology for graphic design and other digital media pieces of artwork. They are able to create art using technology that is very low cost. Overall technology has brought a lot to the classroom and has changed the way that teachers teach students. I believe that as technology continues to advance that it will continue to positively impact the way that we teach our students.

Below I have an audio piece about the technology tool Voice Thread. This piece talks about how it enhances my classroom. Have a listen!! (Just click below)

listen to ‘Voice Thread Tool’ on Audioboo

Graphic Organizer

During this week, I discovered a great resource that I plan to use in my classroom. This resource is called a graphic organizer. Basically it is a visual study tool. The graphic organizer consists of images and text that can help break down a larger idea. This resource is great for the classroom because it allows those students who are visual learners in the class a better way to learn. The organizer can be used in discussions to connect images with the information, as a study guide for students, or as a group discussion starter. There are numerous other possibilities as well. I plan to use it in my art room to organize the main themes in art. I see a big advantage to having a resource like this. One reason being that it helps the visual learners of the classroom. Another reason is so that I , as an educator, can switch up my teaching style. Finally, I feel that it engages students much more. It is a more exciting method of learning. Below I have an example of a graphic organizer. This was created for my students in my ceramics class to use as a study guide for their final test. I hope you find it to be useful!

Graphic Organizer (Inspiration)

Inspiration is a great tool that is used to make graphic organizers. Like the title says a graphic organizer is an outline of information made with graphics as well as text. I would use this in the classroom to help keep students engaged. I believe that many students are more visual learners so as a result a outline that is mainly graphics would help each student learn much more. It can be given out as part of notes in the class so that students can have a fun way to study and remember much more. I will use it to help me when I am teaching. I tend to lose my place when I teach off of notes so I believe that by following images I will be much less likely to lose my place which would lead to my lesson teaching going much smoother. The biggest advantage to using a graphic organizer in the classroom is that it keeps students interested. I am also able to get a large amount of information into a small space which then gives me more space to teach. One other advantage to using the graphic organizer is that it can be posted up in multiple ways. I can change my view from a web to an outline in a few seconds. This versatility allows the advantage for all students because they can all look at the information that suits them best. I used Inspiration to create my graphic organizer. This program is user friendly and fun to use. I recommend you give it a chance. Below is an example on a graphic organizer. I made this one to help my students get a better grasp on the many different concentrations of art and a few examples of each. Enjoy ...

Podcasting

Podcasting is a good educational tool. I feel that students can learn from podcasts. They can use podcasts to hear from other educators teach the same subject they are learning in a different way or style. They can learn from other students through podcasts by listening to projects that fellow students created. I also think that podcasts can be a great research tool as well. Students can use them as an additional resource to gather information. The main advantage of using podcasts is that they are usually free. Having good podcasts available to the classroom opens up a lot of possibilities since they are free there is really no limitations to where they can be used. I also like that podcasts are done by so many people. This allows students to get numerous perspectives on the same subject. As great as podcasts are, there are some disadvantages as well. I found that the main disadvantage to some podcasts is that there is no visual attached to them. This can be a problem, especially when discussing art because without the visual of the art piece being discussed; students could have a hard time visualizing what is being discussed. I feel that sometimes students do not get the full effect unless they have a visual. However, overall I feel that podcasts are a useful learning tool for the classroom.

I watched a podcast today. It was a TEDtalk by Lucy McRae titles- How can technology transform the body? This was a really informative video especially for me as an artist so because of that I made a quick summary. Just click on the link below to listen.