Using new technology is always an adventure into the unknown - will the internet go down it the middle of the lesson, will the presentation work properly, will the experience be relevant or too glitchy to be effective - all of these concerns went through my mind when planning to use this tool for the first time. Yes, I had tested the function on my phone and had already made changes based on that experience but I was uncertain how it would work with a whole class. To reduce the possibility of a disaster, I elected to use my Art III class as the test subjects for this project. They are a small group of smart, tech savvy artists who I have taught for three years. They are always up for something new and comfortable enough to give an honest assessment of the experience.
For this group, this information was partly review, partly reflection. The proportion and movement portions were both review, looking at old information in a new way. Over all the function was ok. There was a group learning curve. We discovered that it is much better to take pictures with your phone, crop the picture in the phone, then upload it to the slide rather than taking the picture in the program where it only allows 1 image and it resizes the image to fit the slide without maintaining the aspect ratio - problematic if you are working with proportion! We also discovered that in some phones, the images are oriented correctly on the student side but are rotated when viewed on the teacher side. The activities took much longer than I expected, partly as a result of figuring out the best approach to the tech and partly because they were typing written responses on their phone. The activities themselves worked well, particularly the pair activities. Students were active and engaged and were able to recall the information that was being reviewed from last year. The individual written responses were more cumbersome. In the future, I would rework the questions to generate shorter more focused answers. Perhaps having them make lists or breaking the questions into smaller parts. Students agreed that working on their phones was ok but it would have been better on an iPad with a larger screen and possibly a keyboard. The drawing feature would be easier to control with a stylus. I could see using this as a review tool or use the self paced feature for individual student reflection. When using student devices such as phones, which is the most easily accessible device, there are limitations based on screen size.
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LaVerne Miers-Bond is a visual arts teacher at Marriotts Ridge High School in Howard county, MD. In the spring of 2016, I began a journey that would dramatically change the focus of my teaching and interactions with my colleagues. Arts Integration is something that I believe that I have intuitively done all my life. As an artist I naturally see the world through the lens of art, it is how I learn and understand everything. Finding arts integration is like finding my native language. In order to share this with journey with others, I have developed an eportfolio. I view this site as a work in progress that will be a resource for others interested in exploring arts integration and a living document meant to grow as I do. I also see this functioning as a professional portfolio including my personal artwork and examples of student work. The eportfolio format is a flexible structure that can act as a tool to communicate a variety of things to a specific audience. My students currently use this tool to track and organize their own work. Students document the evolution of pieces, collect mentor artists, evaluate specific groups of pieces in relationship to each other, compose artists statements, comment on each other’s pieces, offer mentor artist suggestions, and share urls with college representatives. Parents are able to see their student’s work, the artistic processes they are engaging in, what the student is writing about the work and how their peers are responding to it. Students establish a habit of documentation and self reflection that they can carry forward in their life past high school. As a professional development tool, the eportfolio acts as a one stop shop for gathering and sharing aspects of the user’s professional life. Mine allows me to share ideas, pedagogy, student examples and ideas with peers. It gives a broad picture of who I am as an artist and teacher and reinforces the connection between my creative and professional life. I can use it to communicate with students, parents and administration what is happening in my department and in my classes. Creating a window into the processes and products of art teaching, learning and making and the value of integrating the arts in in core content areas is, in my opinion, the most important function of this site. |
AuthorArtist, Teacher, Gardener, Runner, Wonderer. Archives
March 2018
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