Second life and avatars in the classroom? I am not usually the type to shy away from a challenge, but I have to admit - this is definitely a giant hurdle. I understand the attraction kids have to games and I am beginning to notice the multitude of options for technology integration in the classroom... but I will most likely put parameters on the social networking and virtual gaming inclusion in my art curriculum.
Several years ago (before smartboards, youtube and data projectors) I would have begun an elementary lesson on seascapes/ ocean with "sounds of the ocean" music in the cd player, stacks of themed library books at each table, and art posters displayed on a bulletin board. Fast forward to today ... I would also be able to show clips from streamed videos of underwater scenes and crashing waves, images from google searches and the kids could scan their paintings and use them as images in digital collages... voice threads...as writing prompts.. or as backdrops for an animated cartoon. If I wanted to take it a step further, we could post the paintings on the class blog and start a class critique or even visit virtual galleries to view famous paintings related to our theme.
- The limitations:
The possibilities are endless with technology integration, however, I have to take a small step back and consider how much time I want to spend implementing some of these ideas in the art room. Touring a virtual museum, for example, could be implemented fairly easily with proper access to the site and a data projector. Immersive social networking opportunities that are authentic to the art curriculum, on the other hand, will take proper planning, practice and monitoring on the part of the teacher. I feel that a limitation to the application of virtual gaming and immersive social networking is TIME. To some teachers, this will not be a limitation.... they are already immersed in this world. To other teachers, this may hinder our forging ahead into new online worlds. I love my job and I love teaching art - especially the hands-on, experimental, messy kind of art that involves paint, clay and glue. I also enjoy sharing the world of art with kids by tapping into their interests. However, at some point, the teacher's work day must end and life away from teaching begins. Total immersion for the students would mean total immersion for the teacher as well. Can I count a virtual club toward career ladder? Do I stretch my night a few minutes longer to check in on a social environment that I set up for the kids?
- The possibilities:
Learning should be fun. Games are great way to jumpstart a lesson, reward the kids for outstanding behavior, or to teach and review a concept. There are many sites with kid friendly, educational art games. I have been using games, such as "Leonardo's Adventures", for years. However, time is often limited in the classroom and games might need to be added to a class website for the kids to try at home. My old class website (not updated since the fall of 2009) is yet to be unpublished and can be found here: www.fairviewart.weebly.com Weebly is one of many free and easy to use web hosting sites. (It also has a blogging/ commenting feature that I did not enable based on the advice of the IT staff.) Bookmarking or linking educational and fun sites could be an easy way to extend learning beyond the school day.
Letting the kids create games centered around concepts is another great idea. Many applications can be used to create games and animated cartoons that teach topics. Many suggestions, such as Alice.org, were given in the readings. I visited the Getty's "Whyville" virtual networking site and found it very interesting. It looks very young, but if you visit the south beach and notice the teen style dialogues, you will see that it is definitely geared toward 9-15 year old kids. I also downloaded the "Scratch" software created by MIT for kids to create animations that can be shared and remixed on their website.
Each teacher is going to have their own comfort level, and with proper planning and practice, will be able to immerse their students in an exciting technology savvy art education world. For me, this means having the interest to research and try some of these technology applications and social worlds as a starting point. From there, I plan to implement some of these ideas one step at a time.
Pac-Mondrian game. Fun!!
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