As educators we are responsible for providing our students with the most updated curriculum, world events, most popular and desirable careers, and the latest technology, Right?! Although that is quite never the case, we should try our best to offer students with as much as we can provide.
And so, I wrote my research paper on Enhancing Art with Technology in the Elementary Art Room. Of course I wanted to choose a topic that was directly related to what I am currently doing in my teaching career and figured there was still a vast amount of information and technology I had yet to learn and become familiar with. Originally I had planned on writing about specific software, techniques and programs doing my best to explain what they were how they could be used and what professionals had to say about them. Yet the more I began to research the more specific themes began to pop out at me that led me to the framework I wrote about. I found that in the art room, technology aided in three broad ways; Differentiating Instruction, Creating Relationships (a Global Experience) and Preparing Students for the Future of Art. Even though the latter themes would have been useful, I’m glad it turned out the way it did. I feel now that others (not in the art ed. field) could read it and have it relate to what they’re specifically doing in their classrooms. It’s not just an art advocacy piece, but a technology/”catching up with the times” advocacy piece!
While doing the research I found many instances where technology was referenced as a “tool” for learning and educating. Just as a library, chalkboard or even pencil could be. We shouldn’t soley rely on it. Technology isn’t the only way we should bring information and learning experiences to our students, but it is beneficial when we do it in ways that enrich the curriculum, open doors to new experiences (gallery tours online) or prepare our students for future careers in the arts. Our students need to become more literate in technology and the possiblilites it provides.
rstockb9 said,
October 24, 2009 at 10:39 am
I like your line “Our students need to become more literate in technology and the possiblilites it provides.” I think this comes up a lot in our field, the idea that its not what we are teaching our students but how it can help them in the future. Thats why everyone is going on about the problem solving skills that you learn in art class, because you can use them later. It is not an ok justification for a project for the students to merely view and make art. Technology is the same, teaching the techy tool isn’t enough you have to show how it relates to later in the student’s life. I support the relative connections but I wonder if this attitude is slowly devaluing those fields?
And, in the possibly related posts you should check out the As Havard Goes… Times article @ http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1592855,00.html, I’m not sure how I feel about what they are saying.
Stephen Ransom said,
October 25, 2009 at 7:58 pm
You’re so right… although there are certainly unique attributes to art in this conversation, once could also remove art from the topic and replace it with any other content area and the premises that you present would hold true. It’s about preparing, engaging, inspiring, equipping, growing, challenging, broadening, balancing,…. this list could go on. If we don’t make learning meaningful and relevant to our students, then they are little more than warm bodies sitting at desks.
carlicmu12 said,
October 27, 2009 at 3:41 pm
I have truly never thought about what technology could do for an art classroom, I guess sometimes it is still hard for me to wrap my mind around everything it can do in the general classroom. But I like your comment about “enriching the curriculum and opening doors to new experiences” and also preparing students for future careers in the art field. I also like how you relate technology to a chalk board or library, I hope someday technology is utilized that much into the classroom. I would enjoy reading your paper and all of the ways technology can be incorporated into the art classroom!