Wow, I just went back through all of our tasks to double check that I had completed them and realized we’ve really taken in a huge amount of information over the past several weeks! Wow! It’s been great though, I’m so glad I took advantage of the class and got up to speed with all these Web2.0 tools. I’ve already recommended it to a few teacher friends!
Since I’m not in the classroom this year I can’t jump head first into creating new lessons which is a bit of a bummer! But I’m making lots of notes for when I make back to the classroom. I’ll be ready and brimming with new lessons!
Thank you to everyone who put this class together. I know it’s been a collaborative effort so I don’t know who all to thank. So if any of those people ever actually read this please know that I am grateful for all your hard work! Take care everyone.
I was definitely a skeptic of the social networking sites, at first at least! I got sucked into Facebook by friends and now “waste” plenty of time there! I will say it is great for keeping in touch with friends who are literally scattered all over the world. It doesn’t allow for deeper friendships and I do wonder about our “demise” if we rely solely on these virtual “relationships!
With all that said I’m thankful for sites like Classroom 2.0 and the ArtEd 2.0 that I’ve been harping on for the last few weeks! It’s such a great way to connect teachers all over the world and transfer tips, tools, techniques and more. It’s a lifesaver for those of us who are newer teacher and in desperate need of help and guidance!
I’ve blogged about some different posts and tools that I’ve discovered on ArtEd 2.0. I also found a Museum Education site in the Ning list on our class wiki. I explored it a bit and will look into it more. I’m always looking for ways to incorporate more teaching on museums. I’ll be going back to ArtEd 2.0 on a regular basis. I liked Classroom 2.0 as well and will definitely use it. I’m just partial right now to the other since it’s art related and incorporates Web 2.0 tools and technology that I’m excited about.
I like the idea of being able to share and collaborate on documents. I’ve already shared a really great recipe with some friends and I’m anxious to see who tries it and who comments on it. Who knows what kind of yummy new concoction will come out of it!
Obviously, this application would be great for peer editing, for lists, for plans, charts for keeping track of just about anything . . . its uses are endless. An art teacher could create a presentation of multiple artworks for students to critique and evaluate. Students can make comments as part of an art history/aesthetics criticism project and other students could comment on other students’ assessments. The students could post similar art work to compare/contrast or to support his/her arguments in the presentation. The students could track their contributions in a spreadsheet that is shared.
Well, I’ve said it before and I’ll say again; I’m really enjoying the ArtEd2.0 site! For all the art teachers out there who may stumble upon this, check it out. It is well worth your time and a great networking tool. I’m enjoying the multitude of discussions that are coming through my Google Reader. It is the most active feed I receive! Art teachers have a lot to say!
This past week I read through a great discussion concerning classroom management and keeping students on task in the art classroom. This was great for me as a newer teacher. I also read a great discussion on defining creativity. I hope more people will continue to post to this. It’s such a subjective question, just as the question of how to define what art is. Everyone comes to this question with preconceived ideas and personal feelings (positive and negative). I think it is crucial for the art teacher to wrestle with this question in relation to our students. As kids reach middle school and high school they lose something in relation to creativity. All of a sudden there is this intense belief that they must produce art that is realistic, beautiful, and perfect in order for it to art at all. They no longer simply revel in the creative, art making process in and of it itself. It’s actually heart breaking to see. They strive and strive for realism and the commonly accepted view of beauty. Then when they don’t achieve what they think they are supposed to according to some nebulous set of standards they throw in the towel all together. They call it quits on art for good.
I’m not sure if I can tell precisely where these ideas of what art/creativity comes from. I hope we’ll slowly move away from it as we develop art education in general. Schools and students are still paying the price from years of poor art education/curriculum and teachers teaching “art” who know little to nothing about art or creating art or creativity. It’s more of ignorance than anything, art education has only become it’s own entity in the last several years. Schools are recognizing its importance more and more so I know we’ll develop even more and flourish!
Check out the discussion if you are at all interested in creativity. They reference Ken Robinson who I talked about in an earlier post.
I really liked this application. It is one more way for me to get everything I’m interested in and and the pages I check consistently in one place and neatly organized! Love it! I copied some pagecasts from other people that I found really interesting. One girl had some great art stuff including some things from a site dedicated to urban/street art (graffiti). There was a pagecast soley dedicated to all things Mac, one for recipes, one for decorating. Love it, love it, love it. I’m so glad people are willing to share all the great stuff they discover on the web. There is so much out there so it helps to network and piggyback on other people’s findings. I’ve already made my page flakes page my home page with email updates, news, weather, RSS feeds, recipes, Facebook updates, and more. Yay for Pageflakes!
“I’ve already wasted more than my fair share of time of YouTube so that was old hat. I’ve found a few videos that I’ve used in the classroom in the past. I’ll share on of my favorites. It’s a video of Alexander Calder and his famous Circus. For those who aren’t familiar with Calder he was a sculptor in the early to mid part of the last century. He is best know for his work with mobiles. For those in the Atlanta area, the High museum has some of his work on their lawn. This clip shows Calder bringing his Circus to life. He held audiences in Paris and New York. There are several clips of this on You Tube and the whole performance is shown in two clips. Here is the first half.
I am excited to discover Teacher Tube! I’m thankful to have an alternative to YouTube since it’s content gets a bit sketchy at times. You never know when you’ll stumble on to something you didn’t want to! Here is a clip about Art Ed 2.O. These explains the network/website that was created just for Art teachers to share ways to teach Web 2.0 concepts/tools in their classrooms. I had stumbled upon this website during an earlier task for our class. This video is a quick run down on what’s available on the site. This is an EXCELLENT resource for art teachers and I’ve passed it on to all the art educators that I know!
(Having some technical difficulties with Teacher Tube, check back later!)
I also found some great clips on You Tube from PBS’s Art 21 that will be extremely useful. Will bookmark those with Delicious! I looked for some videos on how to cut hair. I found a few but none that were that informative or thorough enough. I’m not sure I’m ready to experiment on any one or if any one would let me for that matter!
I created a “Thanksgiving” podcast that highlights what I’m thankful for this year. This was so much simpler than when I tried to help my friend create a podcast a few years ago. The technology has advanced so much in four years. It’s so simple now!
I’ve been downloading podcasts onto my iPod for the last few years so the concept is nothing new but I am looking forward to getting more practice at creating podcasts. I helped a friend create a podcast a few years ago and we really fumbled our way through it but it came out really well in the end thanks to some other friends who were good with audio engineering!
I’ve been listening to NPR programs, Whole Foods programs on cooking, and a weekly audio program from a magazine that I subscribe to. I haven’t ventured too much into video podcasting yet but I would like to explore that more for classroom use. I’m wondering about publishing students work to create a sort of digital gallery that could downloaded or shared. Or producing digital work to convey ideas that would be shared with other schools. Or possibly snapshots of lives, times, etc to share and to save for posterity. Will keep thinking on this . . .
I explored “Library Thing” today and uploaded some of my favorite reads. I think I’ll enjoy looking for books on this site. I love to read and I love books so this will become an often visited site for me.
You could use this site to find books that colleagues and fellow educators are reading to keep up with what is going on in your field. Teachers could use this to find books for class reading lists or extra studies for students who want to read farther into a new subject. This is a great tool for teachers of all kinds.
I read a great article that really articulated some of my feelings as of late. I’ve developed some what of a distaste for paper. Not all paper. I still love the feel of nice, expensive drawing paper, water color paper and I don’t know if my life could go on with out beautiful handmade papers, rice papers, and so on! But man do I hate that eyeball searing white 20lb copier/printer paper. Oy! I’m doing everything in my power to not use paper. All my bills are paperless and I try not to print anything that I don’t have to. If I could just get the junk mail to stop I would be almost paper free. Oh, but then there are the coupons that come in my email that I love so much . . . I’m torn! Ooooo, then there is the whole idea of electronic books . . . don’t know if I can handle that. The Kindle will never have “that smell”.
Anyway, Will Richardson wrote a great article over at “Weblogg-ed” about some experiences he had with going paperless at a workshop he was hosting. He ran into educators who were having a hard time letting go of their paper. He makes a great point that our student’s futures most likely don’t include much paper . . . hmmmm. Check it out; http://weblogg-ed.com/2008/get-off-paper/
