I tracked the digital devices I used all last week . Keep in mind last week I was on vacation so it wasn't typical- for example I only looked at a computer screen for about half an hour to book a hotel. This was super refreshing because during a school week I find lots of reasons to use my lap top. I use it for things as simple as music. I've never had an ipod and I can't stand to paint without music so I'm constantly streaming spotify. But lets get back to last week. I mostly just used an android. My boyfriend and I both have one. I used mine to take instagram pictures to document our trip. I'll include some in this post cause they were really fun. I'm sort of against instagram because it makes everyone think they are a photographer, but it is fun and I got sucked in. I find there is a big art community on there so I post my art as well. In case you guys are interested you can find me @ jennseeley. The main purpose for my android use was the GPS. I'm still not the best navigator, but thank goodness for the GPS because California freeways are impossible to newcomers without them. I also watched a movie on a laptop we brought so i lied that's a couple hours of being glued to a screen. But I'm happy to say these were the only digital mediums I used last week. I can see this is the direction the world is going, but I still like the simplicity of not having them sometimes. I think you enjoy the little things in life more.
As far as online texts I think I use facebook the most (if that counts as a text, but from what I understand the term is very broad). I just think it's fun I guess. As I got back to school I searched some educational websites like
www.uen.org for lesson plans. It's awesome how willing teachers are to share.
How am I going to apply this to my students? Well I tend to post a lot of art on digital formats such as this blog, my instagram, and facebook. I think it would be cool to have students share their work with the world somehow. We could have a class blog. I think students will take more pride in their work if they know they can share it with people. I've always loved doing art and I think it's important to find inner reasons for it, but sometimes I have felt like I spend all this time on something no one will ever see. Although there can be other reasons like art therapy I think art is meant to be shared. We had a good lesson for this today in class. I found that there are all sorts of art games on pinterest. Caitlin and I found one where you can create your own Picasso using famous features he used in his art. It was a lot of fun and I can see students getting into it. We also found one on color. It went through about six colors and had little illustrative clips on the colors meaning. This would be a great intro to an assignment dealing with color. It was entertaining and informative.
I think you have some nice ways to get technology going in your art-ed. It seems like most disciplines have nearly limitless texts available on the internet, and art is no exception. I think the coolest thing that you mentioned was the use of some kind of class blog or other online venue that you can highlight student works with. As a BFA recipient from years ago, I vividly recall the hours of hard work to get a print, photograph, sculpture, drawing, or whatever just right. When the work was done, i looked forward to the critique- the payoff. It was always short lived though, and even if the works were exhibited in a hallway, it didn't feel like much to get excited about. If you were to post them on some kind of online forum (whether blog, class facebook page, or whatever kind of semi-social media they think of by then), then they could stay up even longer and even have the capacity to generate comments or critiques from a much wider audience.
ReplyDeleteIt could be pretty cool!
Giving students a chance to show their art to a wide audience is a great idea! In the few art classes i took, i did what the teachers expected of me and not much more. If that chance to show to a bigger audience was their, maybe i would have put a bit more effort into it. Posting them also gives the student additional feedback from people who are interested in the subject enough to search it out on internet. Like Amy was saying in class about fan-fiction, there are communities out there that take things very seriously and will give good critiques.
ReplyDeleteI think it's great that you are connected to an art community on Instagram. It would be great if you could connect students to other affirming, dedicated online art communities as well. That way, they would have a support structure for staying connected to art even after your course was over. Thanks for sharing your beautiful work, and your vacation looked like fun!
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