BP15_2009123_OneMinuteMessage2

One of the best stereo types of teachers is found in the cartoon strip of Charlie Brown created by Charles Schaltz . Not a word is understandable in fact the voice is not even created by human voice but by musical instrument. Non the less people find it identifiable because, I believe, everyone has sat in lectures that sound exactly like that. Is this not the voice that we attack with web 2.0. Is this not what our students leaving school for or just falling asleep. Are we not trying to get out of hte Charlie Brown world and into the future?


Schulz, Charlie (2009). Clips of charlie brown's teacher talking . Retrieved December 12, 2009, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUyLwXhqlWU

Original artwork by Mark West "Eggs and Apples" December 12, 2009

BP12_2009123_Tool#4_VoiceThread_Gimp

Art 2.0 web sites are hard to find! We still are locked in a texted based world even on the web but I did find a site for those of you

who are looking for something other than blogs, wikis, photo share, or something along that line.

http://artjunction.org/blog/?page_id=1024

This site gives me hope for the arts on the web. Altho

ugh it still contains

a lot of what the rest have as far as text-based apps. It also gives direction for the web in the classroom.

This site I find is needed because this is something that art teachers deal with everyday. Our students need to understand how important copyright is not only for those published artists but also for them. In this country and through out the world artistic rights are being violated all the time. Some violation are out of indifference to the artist and their product but I would like to think a lot of it is because of ignorance on the part of people. This site gives us a chance to open the eyes of our young people to the harm copyright infringement causes. I would encourage everyone to look at this site as a possible lesson to teach.

Voicethreads

How can a person use this tool in the art classroom? First an understanding of a VoiceThread is. It is an online media album. So how does that apply to an art classroom? First, the art student is creating a portfolio all year long. Each created piece of work must be saved and will to be graded as a complete body of work. The works therefore must stored some where. So this means that an art teacher will have at least one hundred fifty in that year with eight major projects, which equals at least twelve hundred projects to be stored. Wow that’s a lot to be placed some where in a thirty by thirty room where the students work. It can be a real problem because it is not only the space needed but it is the lack of respect an adolescent has toward other peoples work also. With VoiceThread the students can create an album that can be evaluated at the end of the year. Students can finis

h their work and take it home. Major storage problem taken care of.

Second is that the student must critique each of these projects. This is where they will explain how and why they did what they did. VoiceThread has 5 different ways for the student the student can comment on their art work. By using voice (with a microphone or telephone), text, audio file, or video the y can describe, analyze, interpret, and judge their work inside the program. This program also allows classmates to also give feedback on the artwork and the comments.

The third thing that I like about it is that the teacher can place historical works of art for the students to go in and share their critiques of the masters to then be graded. All in all some great applications.

GIMP

The first art web site that I would like to share with you is a site called GIMP. One of the problems in education is having the budget to provide e-tools for the classroom. Licensure for products can run into the thousands and thousands of dollars. Adobe Photoshop costs approximately $700.00 per copy. When you multiply that by 35 copies, the number of student quite often in an art classroom, you have an expenditure of over $24,000.00. In a typical school budget the administration would laugh and tell you to find a grant. Well hope is on the web! This program, although not as powerful or sophisticated as Adobe, has the ability for the classroom teacher to teach a very strong web based tool. It in many ways mimics Adobe Photoshop. The tools are very similar and even have some useful tools that PS does not have. This would be good for private schools considering their budgets are even smaller than public schools.

The Art teacher can use this tool for any computer generated drawing project. The additional tool that I find exciting is the perspective tool. This tool allows you to manipulate the image plane into plane that fit the desired lines of angle. What else is nice is that any image that is on that plain also changes with that plane. This will be a great asset in perspective units.

MA West said...

Tom

I enjoy your mastery of this box. It is a totally new world for me and find myself very envious of those who have been it for years. Noodle Tools is something I am going to check into. If I can get a break from my school work I want to do some real concentrated work on my AR project. Would you know of a good source for survey questions. I have to develop a survey and I have never touched the topic before. Any help or people you can direct me to would be most appreciated. Mark West

BP14_2009123_PeerReviewKarenlove

MA West said...

Hi Karen, I like your positive attitude toward those of us who hunt and peck. I've been trying to leasrn some type of typing proficiency with no avail, I hate to say.I am working with my son to push him to obtain mastery on the key board. It is a must these days and now looking at web 2.0 it just drives the point home. It should be mandatory in every students educational journey and why schools don't it is beyond me. Well, I'll keep on trying. You can't tell someone to keep on keeping on unless your willing to that your own advise. Mark West

BP10_2009122_PeerReviewvela

MA West said...

Hi Vandy, I love you use of visuals to punctuate your blog. I feel that this pictures you so perfectly. Your words helped not only in helping us complete our last team project but also gave great encouragement in times when we got bogged down in the details. Your words have also helped to cultivate some great friendships over line. Here is one of them. Thank you for this blog it is great. Mark West

November 30, 2009 1:36 PM

BP11_2009122_OneMinuteMessage1

The need to break through the education platform barrier is here and now and if we don't we could lose a whole generation of learners. The future is the computer - it doesn't matter if we like that. It is what it is and it will be what it will be. I hope this will inspire those who watch to take the leap!

BP9_2009122_Flickrlesson

The App Flickr I find very interesting because of the make up of the format. I have a lesson that was very hard to do but through Flickr it can be pretty easy. I use images all the time in my classes considering that I teach art. in this lesson I have the students compare and contrast art styles. With the grouping abilities of Flickr I can easily group my selections for the students to comment on. I also see this app. as a wonderful tool for storing images according to historical art movements. When trying to teach an art movement it is always a lot of work to gather up images to critique in one given style. With this app. I can gather images as I go and store them within a group to be used as I need them. There are different things that you want to point out in a given style that are not present in every piece but if these works could be found all in one place then I can pick and choose the ones I wish to work with for that lesson. This also can be done with a given artist. Their works are spread out all over museums all over the world. To be able to accesses them as a whole body of work will be wonderful. Image organization is very important in an art class. Up until now I have had to rely on books and large folders of images taking up vast volumes of storage area that now can be used for other things.

BP8_2009122_Tool#3_ESL_Video

Youtube and other video applications have become very well known and highly used not only to document family outings but also for lectures, current events and historical commentary. This Web 2.0 allows the instructor to use these video internet assets to be used in actual quizzes and test. Just like an illustration the video is embedded into the test and the questions can be placed underneath it. It utilizes all the question forms from true & false to essay. Technology can now be used to even enhance the testing process. In art there are a great number of videos that are available for the class room. In the past these videos were seen and then not seen again not even when they are most needed during tests. This app. along with imovie allows the teacher to select clips from the movies that the students have viewed and embed them into the test. Student now have an accurate frame of reference and a great tool for remembering the content. Art needs the ability to use images when ever it can. It is visually based and to change the context from visual to written even on test I feel is quite unfair. This will give my students a fair playing field even on test. Multiple intelligence apply even when we do assessment doesn't it? This application is another one I hope to use in the near future.

BP7_2009122_Tool#2_Stage'd

I surfed high and low for a tool that I thought my students could and would use. Here is an animation program that does not require you to understand code or be a great artist to use it. They can work by themselves or as a team to develop a stage performance using their own personalized avatars (actors). It not only would be engaging but can be collaborative as well. The students could very easily use this as a delivery system for homework or a summery of some kind. For example the students could be paired a debate situation. Given a subject the students use the characters to give the high points of their assignments to the class. One character could be used to give a monologue in a drama class to help explore personal expression. I believe that the students would get a great deal of enjoyment and inadvertent learning from using this application. I know I will by using it myself! Another application along the same lines is Dvolver but is only supported by windows and not mac. Dvolver could be a little more versatile than Stage'd but I will have to play with Stage'd a little bit more to make that determination

BP2_2009121_RSSFeeds

Through Google Reader It is great to get continuos up dates on art sites and blogs that I am following. It saves time and allows me to see which sites are active and show true possibilities of use. I am finding that there are some site that are not worth the time because of the immediate feed back I get through reader. RSS feeds that I am using at present are:

http://arted20.ning.com/

The mission of Art Education 2.0 is to develop a global community of art educators exploring uses of new and emerging technology in the classroom. It aims to support this community of practice by promoting:

• professional discourse

• best art teaching practices

• the production and study of visual culture

• professional collaboration and joint creative work

• curricular projects and student art exchanges

• the sharing of information, ideas and experiences

other activities deemed important by its members.

http://21stcenturylearning.typepad.com/blog/

21^st Century Learning

is a global professional development opportunity for teachers, administrators and educators around the world interested in the use of Web 2.0 tools for instruction and professional practice!

BP_2009129_West_Mark_ ARBlog

What is your official problem statement?

The purpose of my action research project is to investigate enhancements of demonstration presentations through added technology to improve best practices and increase learning in the area of art education.

I began by asking : Can visual technology infused within the demonstration process of kinesthetic learning, subject area - art education, increase the effectiveness and dissemination of core art concepts?

How did your research end up shaping this?

Now I am changing to add in media and visual literacy. I have found through lit reviews that these are very pertinent to my project.

What outcomes are you expecting?

I hope to demonstrate how I am improving my practice as well as how I can contribute to the body of literature on kinesthetic, visual literacy and media literacy learning through embedding technology into the demonstration process.

How are your critical friends helping in this process?

Michelle Collins -( English teacher ) has been helping me with proofreading my APA format

Vandy Vela -( classmate ) has been a wonderful spring board in editing my project ideas

Joanie Western -( classmate - Art teacher ) helping in some of the technical end of things that I miss in tutorials

Gary Baker -( ceramics professor at Jr college ) providing a venue for implementation of project

How is this month’s course helped in shaping your ARP?

• It has provided me a greater opportunity to do lit research
• It has provided apps that have helped in organizing information that I have found in research
• It has provided apps to find people to collaborate on my projects
• It has provided apps to track sites and people of interest to me.

Over-all Question I am thinking about for end of year project:

Can visual technology within the demonstration process of visual learning i.e.. Art Education, increase the effectiveness and dissemination of core art concepts?

Possible way of research - Flip-flop assignment one with enhanced demonstrations the next without and through test and survey assess the outcome.

Possible issues to explore in research for adjoining paper:

Has the technology of today changed the learning style of students from a left-brained linguistic learning style more to a right-brained kinesthetic style of learning?

I have already found that no research has been done that I can find thus far on the effect of technology on the learning styles of children.

Is there an innate prejudice built in to the centuries old uniform educational system toward right-brained thinkers?

How do we bring teachers who are technological immigrants of the 19th cen. up to speed to teach the natives of technology in the 21st cen. so that they can once again be effective teachers?

How do we derail the uniform educational train of the 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th cen. long enough to implement 21st cen. technology best teaching practices

These two questions now haunt me more and more as this masters coarse continues. I am coming to the conclusion it must have a definitive answer and not in the future but now!

BP1_2009121_iGoogleScreenshots

BP5_2009121_SocialBookmarking

The information age has changed text, research, knowledge, social communication and all other kinds of verbiage from cups of water housed in the walls of institutions to an ocean without any normal boundaries. This mass of information has caused individuals to be confused or even lost in its immensity. This frustration had to address. Bookmarks were created so that the spoonfuls of information that was once retrieved could be retrieved once again. Individuals could now relax with doing their personal research. Other questions were now being asked. Is there better or more complete information available out there? Have I missed some area or issue dealing with my topic of research? I know there are others along the shoes of this technology giant who are interested in the same topic or have already completed and have a better understanding of this topic. How can I find this research? These questions were answered by the creation of tags. Categories where these spoonfuls of information housed and retrieved not only by the individual who placed it there but by all who were interested. So what is now launched is what is coined as social bookmarking. A collaboration of that would cross all social ad intellectual walls.


Eastment, Diana (2008). Social bookmarking. E LT Journal , 62/2, 217-219. Abstract retrieved December 2, 2009, from http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdf?vid=5&hid=11&sid=a5db95b7-5421-40df-8f6e-f4a0f3675723%40sessionmgr4.

Albrycht, Elizabeth (2006). From information overload to collective intelligence: Social bookmarking, tagging and folksonomy.. Public Relations Tactics, 13/1, 16-17. Abstract retrieved December 2, 2009, from http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=8&hid=3&sid=a5db95b7-5421-40df-8f6e-f4a0f3675723%40sessionmgr4&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=buh&AN=19667301.


Weiling Liu, Lin Wu (2009). 2collab.. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 97/3, 233-234. Abstract retrieved December 2, 2009, from http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=14&hid=108&sid=a5db95b7-5421-40df-8f6e-f4a0f3675723%40sessionmgr4&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=43445209.

BP6_2009122_Anti-Teaching

This class, as the first somewhat, has been very hard for me thus far because of the way I learn. From my early childhood I have not been a reader or a writer. The educational system is based on reading and writing almost exclusively. I didn?t want top go back to school because of the structure that I knew education is. I have always just made it. Not because of the content but because of the delivery system. Full sail has been hard, it has been frustration, it has been exhausting, but most of all it has been very rewarding. I love it even when I want to quit. I have never been pushed so hard but I also have never pushed myself so hard. It reminds me of art school but in an academic way. Why? It?s the way I learn. Is the education system broken? I say no ? Not for everyone. There are members in my graduating class now that would excel if it were all reading and writing. I am so envious of those who consume that type of education. Wow! So were does that leave people like me in the present educational system ? NO WARE!!! Can we give students a way to not only learn what they need to in a venue to will cause them to hunger for more. Full Sail has given that to me at 51 years old. I wish that it was at 10 or 12. The change seems daunting to say the least but I found hope in an article that I read. They gave the example of the automotive revolution that took place. The industry of the day said that the automobile would be short lived because of the things that would be needed to sustain it. Manufacturing of the automobiles, parts, roads, gas refineries, gas stations, mechanics, and so on. Is the task in education any less overwhelming or discouraging. After 3 months I know that my perspective has changed.
So how would I change my world; my classroom? Give my students different venues of expression. What is wrong with the spoken word (garageband) or even the sung word of maybe a rap? In art the projects are hands on and not reading and writing but the assessments are. There is nothing that I do to encourage my students to reveal what they have learned. A written critique or a live verbalization in front of the class is all that I have offered them. Well now I am looking , learning , exploring and asking what if. I have seen and experienced group collaboration through Lucidcharts, Google Docs., Ning, and other platforms which students can use to show me that they have learned. I have seen that collaboration can be extremely engaging and educational. It will be a part of my next classroom. I already have plans to make it part of my AR project. In my research for this blog I came across an university that is already going down this road.

The Loyalist University in Ontario Canada. They are using Second Life as a platform to teach several of its classes. WOW! I've been there. But not just an introduction but the whole course. I have place a call into them already to talk to someone who has designed it. I can't wait to pick their brains and get some ideas.

I hope that they will be forth coming.

It has taken me almost 3 days to sit and write this blog because of that wite page that sits before me but I wanted to share what inspired me to tears and to write. Please watch this video. I hope that it will do the same for you because I don't know about you but I don't want to be left behind any longer.

Bennett, Fred (1999). Education and the future. Educational Technology & Society, 2/1, 3. Abstract retrieved December 2, 2009, from http://www.ifets.info/journals/2_1/fbennett_short_article.html.

Means, Barbara, Olson, Kerry (1997). Technology and Education Reform [Electronic Version]. Washington, D.C.: Governmenrt Printing Office.

Burton, George B. (2009). Meeting Learners' New Value Equation in Education Through the Virtual World.. International Journal of Learning, 15/12, 169-173. Abstract retrieved December 2, 2009, from http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=10&hid=108&sid=5e3be543-b575-48c2-89ff-d03cffe446f4%40sessionmgr10&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=ehh&AN=40825490.