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.
2 Comments
Cecilia Haley
2/1/2017 06:16:24 pm
I'm impressed with this lesson in a number of different ways. First, all that technology -- the cameras and uploading photos, etc. Also, this is high level arts instruction! :) It looks like you found a really innovative way to use this tool, and your adventurous spirit seems to have rubbed off on your students. Finally, I'm impressed with the amount of prep that went into this lesson.
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Lazarus
2/5/2017 04:14:13 pm
I am so excited that you dove into the tech side of this project when, as you said, there were so many ways that it could have gone wrong. I really like the choice of material as well as having the students themselves be the models for proportion. In the future I think that Seesaw or DoInk would allow you more options of manipulating the images. Great Job!!!
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March 2018
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