Soon-to-be Art Teachers... Technology?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ms. MaryJo Rosania on February 13, 2008 at 6:08pm

As an art teacher -- these are the technologies we cab benefit from:
Wacom tablet
Tablet PC
Powerpoint
Adobe CS
LCD projector - essential -- and a way to connect your PC to the projector for slide shows, etc.
not just for art history - students benefit from seeing examples, plus we all know that multiple intelligences exist and some students are visual learners. I give students assignments on paper and project ideas and text for them to see as well....
hope this helps,
MaryJo

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Permalink Reply by Michal on February 13, 2008 at 7:18pm

Technologies that I, as an art teacher, simply cannot do without in my classroom is my Document Camera - vital for showing small demonstrations to whole group such as origami, and also good for showing shading techniques, for grabbing an art book off the shelf to share images with discussion moves in an interesting direction and offers those unique teaching moments. A computer hooked up to a TV or a projector for sharing images online, powerpoints, etc. Digital cameras and webcams for capturing images and for stop-motion animations. A scanner and a color printer. An overhead projector - I still use mine a lot for large projects. Yes, that is old school, but it is still a technology that is useful. A card reader - it is amazing how many hd cards there are out there and the ability to pull images off them all is helpful. A Wacom tablet is nice, but mine doesn't get used nearly as much as I thought it would.
As for software - I use Photoshop Elements because I could have it on more computers and stay within my budget. I do have CS3 on one computer for those who have projects that PE doesn't fill. I am finding my ning site more and more vital the more we use it. As far as the 2.0 sites online - there are SO many it is hard to say. I like Rasterbator for large, mural type images. Using an online photo organizer is good, a del.icio.us account and/or ikeepbookmarks, Google notebook, a digication site, skype, gosh I'm sure there are many others I use all the time that I can't think of right now.

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Permalink Reply by Sylvia Martinez on February 13, 2008 at 10:22pm

Animation software and Google Sketchup are great, too. They give other kinds of students the ability to create in artistic ways even if they aren't traditional artists.

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Permalink Reply by Kathy Epps on February 14, 2008 at 10:08pm

I have a few suggestions:

1. Follow the work of others who are also investigating the tech-art combo:
Beth Harris and Steven Zucker at smARThistory.org

2. Be thoroughly familiar with the possibilities of photo sharing sites like Flickr, Zoomer and Picasa. Not just places to backup all your own image files, put a great medium for online assignments for your students.

3. Use tiny helpful apps for viewing images through the computer with your projector (beamer) and screen:
PicLens ( a Mozilla Firefox extension that revolutionizes how you see pictures from the web. (Try looking at a set if Flickr photos this way!)
JustLooking is a program to view pictures and images on your Mac. Open it up, drop a folder of pictures into and view them instantly full screen.

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Permalink Reply by Andy on February 15, 2008 at 9:51am

The whole nature of my course (Graphic Arts) is all about fusing technology with art. On a general level, here's my list of technologies an art teacher (in the 21st century) can't do without...
-An LCD projector - It's now common place in most classrooms but in an art classroom it's crucial to be able to share works of art with students and using slides has become all but extinct.
-The internet - There are tons of art resources, software and activities on the web... Visit my class website's links section and you'll see what I mean!
-Some sort of interactive whiteboard - It's a lot easier to teach when the focus is on a screen if the teacher is near the screen pointing to elements on the screen. In addition, it makes painting like Jackson Pollock a whole lot of fun!
-Freeware - Let's face it... teaching budgets don't make it easy to buy enough liscenses for commercial software like Photoshop so freeware alternatives (again... take a look at my links) are a must! In addition, it makes it easier for students with out of school computer access to continue their exploration of this software outside of the classroom.
-I want to shout an "Amen" to Ms. Rosania for mentioning the Wacom Tablets... I have a class set of refurbished Graphires (thanks to grants) and they add a whole new element to a computer lab setting!

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Permalink Reply by Michael on May 13, 2008 at 2:39pm

Hello,
As far as software goes, I think Powerpoint, Microsoft Word are essential. POwerpoint can really make art history lesson more impactful.
Software such as Photoshop and Illustrator can also be important but at this time I would not consider them essential.
In my opinion, there are very few essetial technologies existing right now. Because of the nature of what we teach and do, I'm not sure if modern technology applications will ever be overwhelming essential.

Mike Sacco
Art teacher
Paul J. Gelinas JHS
Setauket NY
http://www.3villagecsd.k12.ny.us/artsgelinas/index.htm

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Permalink Reply by Kev on December 5, 2008 at 6:26am

It depends, really, on what the course is. For me personally, I would have loved to have taken an art course that would have applied to what I was doing. Drawing my hand in 4 positions didn't do that. I can see the benefit of teaching basic art techniques to someone planning to be an artist but for most of the population that will simply use art sparingly I see nothing better than teaching Photoshop (or GIMP for a free alternative.)

Image manipulation I feel is one of those things that is primed to take off. Right now it is too complex and not enough people even know it well enough to teach it. It is amazing to me that you go from Windows Picture Editor which can do almost nothing to Photoshop with very little in terms of complexity in between. I really wish I had been taught Photoshop at some point. I've learned more about art (and more useful stuff about art) in teaching myself Photoshop than I ever would have learning drawing or painting techniques.

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Permalink Reply by Kathy Epps on December 5, 2008 at 10:31pm

Have a look at Photofiltre (for Windows) ((read about it here) and SeaShore (for Macs) - two free basic image editors that do far more than Paint.

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Permalink Reply by Kev on December 6, 2008 at 11:11am

Thanks, I'll check them out.

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