Using blogs in Art Education

I just learned what is an Edublogs after reading about it from Greg Henao’s blog.

I was not familiar with the use of blogs until this year.  I had participated in similar blogging activities such as discussion boards on blackboard and recall having created a blog many years ago but never gave it a try until this semester.

I think that a blog is a very valuable tool for students and teachers alike.

In my opinion blogs are effective in education because the student expresses himself/herself knowing that the teacher is not the only person that will have access to the work.  The student needs to consider the public that could be reading the work. (Most likely peers)

 The student will then write with an appropriate and ethical voice by making sure that they are not infringing on the rights of others.

Discussions are propelled and writing skills are enhanced.

Additionally, blogs can be accessed at any time with the use of computers, tablets, smartphones, making of them a perfect tool for teachers to communicate with students.

Now, Edublogs are not only blogs, they are safe and secure they can be free without the possible advantages, but still remain with no advertisement nor inappropriate content is displayed. Edublogs are private blogs within a circle of users (the classroom) they are like the online class website.

But what differentiates this blog from others is not only the fact that it is private but because it give the teacher the tools to control the privacy settings and content with a class management suite.

 Additionally the teacher can publish assignments, note them in calendars, resources, important news and to make surveys and quizzes accessible. What a great web tool! I am definitely using Edublogs for my Art classes!

Technology Integration Plan

The lesson plan is meant to be use by 12^th graders after they learn how to make a monochromatic color scheme.

In the lesson students will create a monochromatic portrait painting based on a printed digital photograph of themselves that is altered with photo softwares.

Once the students have their own personal they will transfer the image with the use of a projector. And then they are ready to start painting with light values or tints by adding white to the color they choose and shades or dark values by adding black.

it is beneficial for teenagers to create self-portraits because it motivates the student and also helps construct the sense of self.

My lesson attempts to increase students understanding of tints, shades and tones, as a foundation to broaden their background knowledge of elements and principles of design while using technology

The lesson plan would take approximately 5 days to be fully completed.

The matrix demonstrates the integration of technology, which compliments the lesson by making it flow in a practical manner balancing as well teacher and student centered activities.

The matrix read as follows; in row # TWO I begin the lesson by making a visual presentation for the students on PowerPoint. The presentation would be on a computer run through a projector or a Smartboard it will be about monochromatic works of art throughout art history, some examples would be the blue period of Picassso and works of art done by Kazimir Malevich, Mino Argento, amongst others.

I would guide the students to formulate a subjective analysis by asking them questions such as How does the color make an effect on the interpretation of each art piece? What time of the day do you think it is? How is the weather? The mood? They should talk about it with their partners and then share with class.

Following I will present a video recording of how I created my art piece so that the students are familiarized with the steps. The video will be edited to shorten the length and summarize the most important steps. It is optimal to use a video because it shortens the time of a demonstration and because details are magnified as opposed to a live presentation. Although if the number of students in class is 13 or bellow, then a live demonstration should suffice.

In row # THREE I connected two fine art strategies where the students are meant to use a different art discipline, in this case; photography.  Students will take a picture of themselves by posing and trying to capture the identity that they want to reflect on their monochromatic portraits. They are free to use the camera provided by the school or their own cellphones.  The students will then transport the image into the computer if it is from a camera they can connect a USB cord, or move the memory card onto the corresponding slot for example SD-MMC, MS/DUO or with their cellphones they can send it to their emails and open

The students will then transport the image into the computer and use a second art discipline (graphic design) by using software such as iPhoto, photoview, or a more complex program such as Photoshop to change the saturation and make the contrast good enough to have a good reference of values.

Once the students have black and white photographs on the computers they will print them to use them on a projector in which they will enlarge their images by tracing the most remarkable lines with pencil onto a canvas.

they should use the same printout as a reference for their monochromatic painting.

The students are then ready to paint. They need to analyze the painting

For row # FIVE I want my students to take pictures of their work publish their accomplished artworks on a website that they will use all year long so that they have a visual record of what they have done and be able to track their improvements.

For row # SIX we will display all the artwork in class on the Smartboard and we will have a discussion about the steps followed, if they like the project, what challenged them, what could have been changed?

In my opinion to integrate technology in this lesson plan not only facilitates the understanding that the students attain about color composition and depth but it ensures that all the students in a classroom artistically skilled or not accomplish a successful art piece. 

                                                                              MATRIX

Building websites in an Art Class

I believe it is important for students to learn how to create an artist website in an art class. 

The ability to create a website gives them the opportunity to get a background for website building to be applied in the future in any field.

When building websites the students need to consider their domain name, most likely the use of full name, if the domain name is used they can art the word art, artists, or something relevant.  Stick to lowercase and do not use hyphens or dashes because they are not user friendly.

Also make sure to create a website that is compatible with different computers and devices (HTML5)

Additionally the student should make sure that the website looks good on Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome.

Having a website to show their art becomes a virtual representation of who they are as artists and students.  The personalization that the students gives to their website will be made by the way in which the students customize the platform, the students will need to be mindful to make simple designs, that would be easy to navigate by the use of fonts, size, colors, backgrounds, small descriptions, name visible on each page and images with reasonable sizes (so loading doesn’t take forever for users with low speed internet) so it practical to be used by users of all levels of web surfing experience.

The students have to keep in mind that the context of their websites will be navigated by strangers so they to be ethical and properly reference resources.

Personally, I think it is a great idea for students to make their work public, because it motivates the students to create art that looks presentable to be published and shared worldwide.

Video Recording for Education

           I have to give credit to YouTube for bring to my ears music that I want to listen to instantly, for making available the so many topics that could be a source of inspiration and that feed my curiosity and the countless lectures given by professors whom I otherwise not have been exposed to.

Lately used one of my art lesson plans about mandalas with seniors in high school.  I showed the students the so many examples of symmetrical patterns present in nature as well as architecture and to finalize examples of mandalas. 

My intention then was to show them about a YouTube video that unfortunately was blocked.

 The video was great since it shows how sound can be visible with the use of a scientific experiment called cymatics.

Most of the patterns created by sound frequencies resemble the ones of mandalas and could have been a great source of inspiration and getting them to be more curious about the world.

Just as how Bill Gates suggests that we can video record our lessons for professional development and to get a thorough feedback by our supervisors.

 I think that instead we can use video recording (as long as we have consent from the parents to do so) for at least the first two years of being brand new teachers, so that we can learn from our errors because we need time for experience. 

I believe that most of the recordings should be used by us privately and shared at our own discretion.

 We can save our videos titled as our lesson plans, so we can have an efficient access to them.  We can practice a daily editing of our videos to shorten their lengths and to eliminate irrelevant information but to review what happened, to have a better sense of time management in class.

If we plan to use the same lesson plan after a year we can go back to them after review the lessons, we can see how the students responded to the teaching strategies used and modify or eliminate what seemed to not work in the future updated lesson.

As we become more experience we can release videotapes for our students to access them at home to remember what was said in class or what they missed because of being absent to school, or as a classmate Raechel Eddy recommended in one of her blogs; we can provide a video recording of our lesson so substitutes could show them to our students during class.