Arts and Tech Blog

As dull as a PowerPoint presentation can sometimes be, it is refreshing to learn how to create presentations that do not rely on the premade designs, transitions, sound effects, or that have to follow a preset order.  Although I already knew how to create my own slide background, it was great to learn how to find and embed sounds, images, and even videos.  But, what was really interesting was the PowerPoint presentations using action buttons so you are able to switch from slide to slide without going in the traditional order.  I immediately thought of numerous lessons that I could teach in my art classroom using this type of PowerPoint presentation.  Everything from art trivia games to presentations about an artist using famous paintings with action buttons hidden in different areas of the painting.  This would make the art history lessons, and terminology reviews more fun and interactive for students.  It amazed me how much I did not know about what I thought of as merely a slide show making presentation tool.  The ideas learned are things I would love to implement in my classroom, if I could only get a digital projector to use.  Unfortunately, in my school these projectors are allocated to the traditional academic subjects first, and because of this I rarely have the luxury of being able to use one.  I guess I always have the option of dropping the cash out of pocket to have the use of a projector all of the time, but they are expensive. 

AT&T text to speach was another great resource introduced by Dr. Ransom.  What a great program to be able to type out something, and have it converted to an MP3 or WAV file.  You can even choose which voice will be speaking for you.  Another great example of how the resources page on our course website is full of amazing links and programs. 

On a side note, as the cold weather takes its frosty grip on the Western NY area, lets keep in mind those that are less fortunate than ourselves.  Donate any gently used coats, gloves or hats that you no longer use to those that need them. 

Delicious.com is probably one of the greatest web services that I had never heard of.  This social bookmarking tool not only allows me to access my frequently used websites from any Internet capable computer, but collaborate with other users with common interests.  In the brief amount of time I have had to spend playing on delicious I have found everything from art history resources and online design magazines, to free add ons for Adobe Photoshop.  The bookmark search engine makes it easy to access the information you need without having to depend on flash drives or remembering the URL of the site you need. 

It seems as though I touch on social networking websites in every blog post I make, and this post will be no different.  Webkinz, which seems to be something like a Facebook or Myspace for children seemed like a strange idea to me.  Maybe its the skeptic in me, or maybe I have watched too many episodes of Law & Order SVU, but I worry about a social networking site aimed specifically at children drawing people that will eventually show up on Dateline – To Catch a Predator.  Its not that I think children should be denied social networking opportunities, but as I have said before and will say again, this networking needs to be supervised by parents to ensure responsible use. 

Lastly the YouTube video containing the chicken PowerPoint was not only comedic, but illustrated one of the dark sides of technological presentation tools.  Too often presenters depend on the slides and limited information in their PowerPoint slide show instead of mastering the information being presented.  Presentation tools such as PowerPoint offer so many options to speakers, however presenters sometimes spend more time creating flashy slide shows instead of mastering their material. 

A special thank you to the Buffalo Sabres for their strong play early in the season, lets hope that this level of play can be sustained for the long 82 game season.

The most recent class touched on the idea of being a lifelong learner, something that I believe is necessary to be an educator.  The wiki newbie in the video explained that by using this new technology that she is not very familiar with she was able to have her students collaborate with a classroom halfway around the globe.  This is not only amazing, but shows the importance of learning new technologies to teach children new concepts.  Being a lifelong learner is essential to being a good teacher in my opinion.  Children are constantly exposed to new things outside of the classroom, and it is our job as educators to keep up with the rapidly changing world.  By using social collaborative learning tools such as wikis, teachers are drawing on the digital era that these students have grown up in, while educating students. 

The blog search tools will be interesting to use.  I really liked some of the art education blogs that were given as examples during class, and look forward to searching for blogs about some of my interests.  With the election quickly coming, I will be checking out some political blogs to see what other people’s opinions are regarding the candidates.  A classroom blog is something that I would love to use at my school, but due to the inequity of technology amongst my students, I would have to be careful about making an assignment out of it.  Maybe an extra credit activity for students would work. 

The digital footprint is something I have been thinking about for a while.  As a new facebook member, I sometimes cannot believe the photos that people will post of themselves and others.  I think that facebook is a wonderful social networking tool, but what if students, parents or administrators find pictures of one of their teachers with drinks in their hands?  And, as the new ad campaign shows, just because you delete something, it does not mean its really gone.  I can see the reason why facebook and my-space need to be regulated very closely by parents, and the adults that have pages.  People need to be more conscious of what they post on the Internet, and who could be viewing the materials put there.

This post is dedicated to my late Grandmother – Patricia Meyers – you will always be one of the most influential women in my life, I will never forget the strenght you taught me.

Sometimes you find the most amazing things you never knew about.  As I was introduced to Wikis and how to use them, I realized that this is possibly the greatest way to complete group or class projects.  It amazed me that I had never even heard of a Wiki before now, and had regularly completed group projects during my undergraduate classes just a few years ago.  The idea of being able to add information to a page anywhere and at anytime makes group work so much easier to complete.  No more working around everyones schedules to try to find a common time.  Add to the page as you like, communicate with the group or class with the discussion board or via email.  Simplicity is such a wonderful thing. 

That being said, if only the internet had a filter or fact checking system.  When people dedicate entire websites to selling dehydrated water and tree octopuses, it makes me think that there has to be some sort of way to control the misinformation that is seemingly everywhere.  Although you can find some very funny websites, there are far too many intended to distribute misinformation in the name of altering people’s perceptions of the world (such as the MLK website being run by white supremacists).  I know I have said this before, but it is the duty of parents and teachers to cooperatively show students how to determine the validity and authenticity of information on the websites they use. 

And now a special thank you to edublogs for driving me insane with the scheduled maintainance.  I checked probably 100 times between Friday and Sunday evening waiting for it to be over.  At least I was able to memorize what the logo looks like and the little apology they had written. 

Educating students has become even harder as a result of the vast amount of misinformation available in this digital era.  Now that massive information on any topic is only a google away, doing real research in books is becoming seemingly obsolete amongst the high school students I work with.  I too rely on google for things such as definitions and phone numbers that I used to look up in books.  That being said, I do not think enough is being done to demonstrate to students the importance of old fashioned research from books or cross referencing your Internetsources.  I finally understand why my college professors required both Internet and hard copy sources for our research papers. 

Its obvious that the Internet provides a wealth of information that can be accessed at any time and it is now the job of parents and teachers to come together to help children with how to discern between what is good and what is bad.  All children should know from any early age that the anyone can put something on the Internet, and just because you can google it does not mean it is a fact.  Several times I have had to explain to 7th graders that websites frequently contain faulty information, and can be put online by anyone.  Students need to know how to filter information and the importance of cross referencing to verify the information they are using.  As educators, we all want our students to learn, and Internet resources are wonderful learning tools as long as they are used to learn the correct information.  So we all need to teach young students, and continually remind older students to sort through the data smog and info garbage, and get to the valid facts. 

It was amazing to me to see some of the different uses of excel as an educational tool in the classroom.  Prior to class on Wednesday, I had only used excel to organize my gradebook and supply orders.  The idea of using excel as a quadrant game to reveal vocabulary words, creating formulas and practicing basic skills such as basic multiplication tables help the technology make lessons come alive.  The basic graphing program that we were introduced to made me wish that I had been able to learn on a program like that at a young age, and by working with that basic program I would be able to better understand some of the more complicated parts of excel that are beyond my basic knowledge.  I am excited at the idea of becoming more familiar with a program such as excel because it opens a realm of possibilities for use in the classroom beyond the basics.  My father will provide an excellent resource for any questions I have related to excel, because due to his business experience he uses excel all the time to complete projects and knows the majority of functions in the program.

It absolutely amazed me that in Pittsford students are required to be proficient at typing before they reach the 7th grade. I remember going through school and not even being offered a keyboarding class till reaching the 9th grade. Also, comparing the Pittsford standard with that of the district I work in, where some students have never even learned the basics of using a computer and are in high school. The differences between the technological capabilities of students is something that I worry will directly affect their future. In today’s digital era, it seems that one must possess at the very least a basic knowledge of office programs and email to be successful.

I was also shocked at the availability of free office related programs for download. With these programs, a cheap, basic computer can be upgraded with similar programs to the Microsoft office programs without the high cost of those programs. I would be interested to see the capabilities that these free programs have and compare them to the Microsoft programs. Upon a basic analysis of the free google word processing programs, the only major difference I found was in the number of fonts available. I cannot wait to get a refresher of some of the bells and whistles of the Microsoft office programs, so I know how to better use them, and when my students use the programs for writing their research papers, I will be better equipped to assist them.

As we begin learning new technologies to implement in the classroom, I find myself reflecting upon my own experiences with education as a student. The time period I think about most is my high school years because I currently teach in a school that has grades 7-12. I constantly find myself comparing the experiences I had as a teenager in the mid 1990s with the experiences of my current students. After learning the Inspiration program, I felt as though it would have helped me so much during my own high school education. As a visual learner, the program would have assisted with classes that I struggled in such as math. After learning Inspiration, I also wondered how it could assist my students for not only brainstorming activities in my Studio Art classes, but also in their other classes. As an educator it excites me to see programs that assist in learning and make it fun, however application in the classroom becomes difficult when schools do not have a lot of computers for students to work.

New technologies in the field of art continue to excite me both as an artist and an educator. Programs such as Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash give artists and students endless ways to manipulate images with the click of a mouse. Also, as the field of Graphic Design continues to grow, the knowledge of such programs can lead students to successful careers.