The Final Post!!!

What is technology? As defined by Webster’s:" –noun ; the branch of knowledge that deals with the creation and use of technical means and their interrelation with life, society, and the environment, drawing upon such subjects as industrial arts, engineering, applied science, and pure science." But what about education? Being a teacher myself, I find myself in the never-ending battle for budgets, smaller class sizes, and in the visual arts, a job next year. I have seen firsthand how technology affects the educational system where I work and it is not perfect by far.

To implement anything new is a time consuming process that a teacher must commit to in order for it to work. But, when all the hard work pays off it is amazing to see the difference that technology can make. This especially true when a teacher has to get through the stereotype attitude towards digital gaming and show the educational side of gaming and how it can further a student’s education.

Recently I approached my building’s principal and presented him with my graduate technology proposal for class and asked, “Is this feasible?” He reply was and was not surprising. The surprising part was, “I think this is a great idea and I am all for it. I think that gaming would play a pivotal role in many classes.” Here it comes… “But, the big issue is that providing substantial evidence to prove the validity that this is not for fun and is for educational purposes.” “The school board narrowly approved of a reading remediation class to use audio CD players for enhancing reading comprehension, with a vote of 5-4.”

After hearing that, I still want to pursue this technology, but it would have to be a pilot program that I would have to document and demonstrate to school board members. I have the backing of the building administrators and staff, but having enough gaming systems to use with a class of 15-20 is tough. So I am at a standstill of what to do, with time so precious. Can I apply for a grant to try this out without board approval? Guess I will find out the next board meeting.

Online Learning Modules

This is a PowerPoint that I created for graduate class. It demonstrated how Rclass website can enhance the learning experience for my students.


Let me know what you think!


Please copy and paste the link below to access the presentation.

http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/aaronallee-450781-online-learning-moduals/

The UDL/DI Conversion

This course has been an inspiration in the looking ahead to the future of DI in my art room how to design a more functional learning environment for my students. The Differentiation Station network was a GREAT part of this course and being able to discuss the topics and issues with fellow classmates was something that I thought should have happened courses ago! The resources that are available from other teachers in my profession allows me to utilize the tools that they have found and allows me to make well-rounded decisions in my curriculum development, adaptation needs, and resources that I need.

The immediate adjustments start where it starts and that is in my thinking, or mind set, of how I teach and approach the lessons that I teach. If I start at the source, fingers crossed, everything else will fall into place. The curriculum's are what the needs to be addressed next, not to total revamp, but to address the areas that will affect the way I teach and my students learn when working with DI.
The next step is the communications I must have with my fellow staff members and administration about DI and the plans that I will have in implanting and the technology that I will be seeking and using. I would even offer any help that anyone would want to try the DI/UDL way also.

Differentiation Instruction within the Visual Arts Enviroment

This blog entry is one so I may share the pictures of my classroom and surrounding hallways.

Both art and differentiated instruction have been shown to have significant benefits on student learning and emotional well being, but would a combined or united method of these instructional processes yield greater benefits for students?

To be successful in developing an environment that is "DI friendly" we must first look at the effects on student learning when art and differentiated instruction are used to develop curriculum and how the environment will help the implementation of any lesson.

The relationships between the use of art to differentiate instruction and the development of positive classroom environments where students enjoy learning. In addition, creativity can be increased and that all students have the capacity to be creative.

What it's all about.

Who ever said that being a teacher was easy. You certainly are not in it for the money and great benefits. So why do we teach? One word...Passion. To teach a child and watch them grow is a magical thing. Why magic? Let's say that you were teaching a lesson and the kids were all in tune but one. So you break down the lesson for the student, even if you have to stand on a table and yell like a fool, you have to be willing to think outside the box and find that way to reach that child. Where is the magic you ask? It is when you are least expecting it, the student looks up with a twinkle in his/her eye and begin to fidget in their seat and "BAM" there is the magic. They understand and begin to excited and want to learn more and more.

Teaching is not for everyone, and for those who do battle in the trenches of education we need to embrace what is out there. Students are surpassing us in technology and making our jobs harder. This course I have gone through is not art education related, but I made it related. It scared me at first, but I have learned so much and gained the confidence and a new look on how I teach and my students are already seeing a change.

Art educators are a rare breed and to embrace such drastic change and utilize it will ensure that DBAE teaching will be more efficient and strengthen as we move parallel with technology through the years.

"Only through art can we get outside of ourselves and know another's view of the universe which is not the same as ours and see landscapes which would otherwise have remained unknown to us like the landscapes of the moon. Thanks to art, instead of seeing a single world, our own, we see it multiply until we have before us as many worlds as there are original artists . . . . And many centuries after their core, whether we call it Rembrandt or Vermeer, is extinguished, they continue to send us their special rays."

Marcel Proust (1871-1922) French writer.

What's Next in the Art Room?: The Final Class Blog!

The GAME plan that I have developed is one that I can carry on in to the future to help aid me in successfully integrating technology within my students learning experience. Once I understood the process, the lessons and ideas flowed very easily and I have created a lesson that can be built upon in the future and for different grades.

The greatest impact I gain from this is the organization and control that plan gives the teacher. Usually my curriculum and lessons are based upon pass experiences and state and national standards. But how is a teacher suppose to teach effectively to students without being having control over what they teach? That is what this plan does for my art room lessons.
Since beginning this class and this plan process I have started utilizing more of technology broaden my creative thinking and re-energize my imagination. Computers and digital photography are being looked at right now. One of my classes is going to have photographers come in and show the students what photography is all about and how it has changed over the years.

The teaching of DBAE (Discipline-Based Art Education) has forever changed with the use of technology in the art room:
Art Criticism and Aesthetics combined with technology gives the student more avenues for learning art in these areas. It will enable the creativity flow into their work and aid them in research and making their opinions and views about art more effective.

Art History: Technology will allow students to research a more vast network of information from around the world. The information is endless and will allow for a more thorough understanding of the artist, their work, and the culture that they lived in.researching

Art Production: The techniques and inspirations for art art are limited to what an art sees or hears. With technology, it allows an artist to express themselves in a manner that the world can see. Technology can aid in all the forms of art production visually and vocally.

What's Next in the Art Room?

The GAME plan that I have developed is one that I can carry on in to the future to help aid me in successfully integrating technology within my students learning experience. Once I understood the process, the lessons and ideas flowed very easily and I have created a lesson that can be built upon in the future and for different grades.
The greatest impact I gain from this is the organization and control that plan gives the teacher. Usually my curriculum and lessons are based upon pass experiences and state and national standards. But how is a teacher suppose to teach effectively to students without being having control over what they teach? That is what this plan does for my art room lessons.
Since beginning this class and this plan process I have started utilizing more of technology broaden my creative thinking and re-energize my imagination. Computers and digital photography are being looked at right now. One of my classes is going to have photographers come in and show the students what photography is all about and how it has changed over the years.
The teaching of DBAE (Discipline-Based Art Education) has forever changed with the use of technology in the art room.

What have I learn from my GAME Plan?

The GAME plan is a comprehensive way for a teacher to remain confident in their teaching and curriculum development of proficiency in technology and content standards. In the art room the level of proficiency and organization sometimes gets lost in time restrictions and budgets. Students need source of stability to learn from.

I have gained a great deal of knowledge and respect for technology and the advantages that it has for learning and teaching art. My philosophy for teaching was limited to what I saw and learned in college and I never knew what ISTE and NETS was and how much of an impact that it was going to have on the way that I want to approach teaching.

My content standards have been the basis of my curriculum for years and only now have I seen that there is so much more that I can be teaching. The GAME plan is a great way for the art learning process to be more efficient in the teaching of Discipline-Based Art Education (DBAE). In addition, the use of technology within the art room will enable students to broaden their critical thinking skills in and out of the art room, better preparing them tools to achieve more in the digital age.

The GAME is "A Foot"

This week's lesson really made a difference in the way that I looked at my GAME Plan. I found that I was "thinking too much" in the way my lesson plans were being designed. The GAME Plan template it match up to the template that I create my current lesson plans.

The GAME Plan is something that I can use to ensure that my lessons are following all the standards for content and technology.

I am gaining the confidence to work and implement technology into the classroom, and lately with the wiki pages, patience. Plan ahead for the unknown and be supportive of others who are having trouble. Together you can work anything out.

GAME PLAN Info Processing

Upon talking to fellow teachers and going back to some of my college mates, I feel that technology is making its way into the lessons of art room across the country. The lessons that are taught from texts and prints are now becoming extinct.
I need to maintain the course for researching and pushing for the development of technology within the classroom.

In addition, I feel that the Computer Usage Agreement that students and parents must sign needs to be updated with my corporation. Not saying that it is to restricting, but some of the wording is to broad. I feel that parents do not understand the magnitude that technology is.

I feel that parents need to sit down with their children and trip on the internet and check out what is new and what they are and are not learning in the classrooms.
I am going through a ton of info that has been sent to me, so after I go through it I will be able to get a better grasp of my overall plan will come to view.

GAME Plan Going to Overtime!!

As I develop my GAME plan I am force to reconsider my actions and the direction that I am going. As I have researched and discovered, I have verified what I already knew, technology has and will play a major part in the DBAE development of students within my classroom. The 21st century is upon us and I want to be one of the first art rooms in the county that I teach in.

I studied and researched the NETS-S in the Visual Arts in our textbook it has open my eyes to a new way of thinking and the actions that go to my GAME Plan. Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer have a great example of how technology can be integrated into the visual arts in Table 20.2, pg 331. (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009)
I have learned that I need to break down my GAME Plan and not sure of where to start. I felt that my initial approach was not specific enough in the development of my plan. The questions that I had asked and researched all pointed in different directions. I need to refocus on realigning my goals to be more specific and defined for my need.
My questions are for my classmates, so anyone please give me some feedback.

As you look at my GAME Plan and look at the table on pg 331 in our textbook, where should I be more specific in the needs of my students learning? Are there any ideas that you can add to my idea board for my GAME Plan?


References:
Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach (Laureate Education custom edition). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Gathering the Resources for my Game PLan

The resources that I need are limited at this time do in part to the reduction of teaching positions in School Corporation. Thankfully the community and schools see the arts as a valuable resource for their students.

To develop a blog I had to have interest in the idea of students working with such technology. That happened quite fast from the principal with the exception of it having to be started next school year. The scheduling of classes is prohibiting instant implementation. So that leaves me plenty of time to talk to other teachers with in the corporation and work with the web designers in school.

I have researched the state visual arts standards to stay align with my curriculum and the NET-S and verified it still aligned with my GAME Plan. In addition, the tech department has given the OK for the blog and will help make it secure, just need to know when it is going up to make room for it on the server or security network.

The data that I am researching is based on art education and technology and how it affect Discipline-Based Art Education (DBAE). Several article and textbooks are supplying a lot of resources for my plan.

The Development of a Technological GAME Plan

For me to be successful with Integrating Technology to the art room or “Artnology” (Thanks Alisa Rourke), I must develop a GAME plan(Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009) for aiding in my dedication to becoming a 21st Century Art Room.

To better understand the factors for strengthening my confidence in the NET-S National Education Standards for Teachers and International Society for Technology in Education ((International Society for Technology in Education, 2008) and I have chosen two indicators to set goals to strengthen my confidence and proficiency using GAME Plan.

1. Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity
a. Promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness.
2. Model Digital-Age Work and Learning
b. Collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation.

Goals:
1. To use technology for students to discuss classroom art work, projects, and ideas for future discussion forums to be used in a blog.
2. Determine how technology will benefit in the students in the art endeavors with in the 4 areas of Disciplined-Based Art Education (DBAE); Art History, Art Criticism, Aesthetics, and Art Production.
3. Determine the limit to which I must set before the physical art production is overpowered by digital art.

Actions:
1. Gather data that supports the use of technology in an art room will benefit student’s creativity and imaginative process.
2. Recruit art teachers from other school within the corporation to take part in blog discussions and display their art work on the blog and web pages of their school.
3. Invite local artists to take part in the blog critique, unbeknown to the children, and then the children read for themselves the words from an established artist.

Monitor:
1. Digitally documenting the process of the students during the projects duration, saving it for possible evaluations and critiques.
2. Class critiques by students and teacher, possibly include other teachers of their opinions and input on the students progress.
3. Instead of an open verbal critique, create a blog for students to comment on random pieces of art work that I add before the blog critique day.

Evaluate:
1. In order to evaluate my progress I will have random one-on-one conferences with students to check for their understanding.
2. Create a digital library of the students work demonstrating the process from start to finish. Ultimately given to the child for them to enjoy.
3. Design a web page for the school website to display the student’s art work for their parents and community to see the student’s success in working with art and technology within the art room.

References:
Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach (Laureate Education custom edition). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). The ISTE National Educational Technology Standards (NETS•T) and Performance Indicators for Teachers. Retrieved March 8, 2010, from http://www.iste.org

Final Posting for Week 8

To say that I am efficient in the in’s and out’s of technology would indeed be a false statement. I was born long ago a “digital immigrant” when the internet was not born yet and a laptop was the size of a large suitcase. Over the years I have developed a knack for finding the wrong thing in the right website. But this course has made me realize that it’s how you approach the website and remain vigil in being the “picky” person when researching websites that will lead you to the answers that you are looking for. I have learned firsthand of this and I feel that I will have a lot to offer my student and fellow faculty members at the next staff meeting.

For many years I have search and surfed the web without realizing all there is to offer. As I took this course and learned of the importance of literacy and technology I feel that not only myself but my students are missing out on a lot. My school does not possess a curriculum that explains and teaches the issues of website verifications and effective website research. To be a 21st Century School, one must have these basic fundamentals for classroom internet usage. This is something that I would like to try within the art room, where introducing new things is common and the kids would be accustomed and willing to work in gaining these new literacies.

My personal goal for my class is to have more assignment that is dedicated to the usage of internet for research of the visual arts. Many artists, even famous ones, are unknown to the many students that pass through my doors. I feel that I can give the students a chance to explore the unknown and learn about artists they never knew existed. The internet is and will be a great stepping stone for art history research and the exploration of new medium within my classes.