Web Authoring

The journey of making a website this semester has been an interesting one as well as beneficial to my knowledge of technology in the classroom! Creating a website has many tiny steps to it, but it is a great free Web tool from Google.  Also, it is extremely helpful in organizing classroom activities, keeping parents updated, or providing information to the students about any topic really. With a website, I think I could encourage students to become more motivated in my class after they have read my "About Me" page or when they want to become more involved in my classroom by following updates on my web site.  A lot of free Web Tools may not have a wide variety of options for creativity, but Google Sites definitely does. From changing colors to layouts to pages, Google Sites can be personalized for any individual, classroom, group, etc.

Digital Storytelling

Digital storytelling is a great tool for so many reasons! First off, it is a project in which the creator can use movie makers or slideshows to add music, text, video, or even photographs to put together a movie for any purpose. In the classroom, it is a great project for educational purposes, or to teach students about a topic as well as introduce the teacher.  Another benefit of this kind of project is there is no limit to the time frame; it can be as short as 3 seconds or as long as 30 minutes.  It is easily accessed on computers as well.  For my art classroom, I would use digital storytelling as way to introduce artists into lessons, using the movies as biographies of the particular artists.  Students can use digital storytelling to demonstrate how they made specific art projects, or to put together a biography after researching a famous artist or historical art period.

Digital Diagrams

Inspiration is a software program available for purchase online but also has free trials to try, and it allows users to create digital diagrams on any subject one can think of.  This program can contribute to many ideas in a classroom, such as creating diagrams for historical subjects, science, people, events, art history, etc. Basically, diagrams can map out ANY idea or topic! The possibilities are really endless.  In addition, I think Inspiration would be a great tool to use for the art classroom.  Ideas that could be mapped out for the art classroom are artists, art movements, art-making tools, art techniques, safety, using nature in art, color in art, etc. The possibilities are endless for the art classroom as well. Students can map ideas out in their own way with their own preferences, which can be motivating for them.  It is also faster than hand-drawing diagrams, which is what I did as a student back in the day!

Interactive WhiteBoards in the Classroom

The IWB in the classroom is a fantastic way to engage the students after a period of lecture or learning. It gets them out of their chairs and moving around, interacting with the board.  There are numerous ways to include interactive activity in the flipcharts. Using a storyboard, I can easily map out a lesson plan or activities, and create them on my computer at home. IWB allows the advantage of preparing lessons at home as well as saving files on USB to carry around! This can easily accommodate teachers so they do not having to be at the IWB to create a flipchart.  In an art classroom, I believe the IWB can provide another perspective of art activities other than creating art manually. Instead, students can learn about aspects of design, computer or graphic art, or even view historical works of art. Even videos can be embedded in flipcharts to view art making techniques. Art can even be CREATED on the IWB by using the paint bucket, paintbrush, pen, or eraser tools! In addition, lessons can consist of art vocabulary terms.