art ed + web 2.0 + [e]merging media blog

I'm really interested in the idea of digital citizenship and addressing that with students.

I think technology in the art classroom is great...that is, when it works. I have spent many nights working on a great PowerPoint presentation for the next days class, only to arrive to school and find that the LCD projector's bulb has fizzled out, or half of my pictures don't show up, or a cord is missing or broken. Don't get me wrong, I love technolgy, and many of the things that we can do in todays day and age would not be possible without the advancements we have made, but I think sometimes we rely too much on it. I think there is a good middle ground between having your classroom run by technology and whether it is working, and claiming you'll never use technology in the art classroom.
What I have found to be effective is to use technology whenever the mood strikes me, but I always have a back up plan. I have been let down too many times by technology (whether my own doing or not), and I have found that I like having something concrete in hand that can take the place of that PowerPoint or movie.
Throughout my very short teaching career, I have found that technolgy does a lot of good in the art classroom, and I have especially fallen in love with PowerPoints and I have found them to be very effective in communicating concepts and ideas that would be much harder and more expensive to do any other way. Also, I think that the generation I am teaching now, even more than my generation, has grown up on computers and their lives are surrounded by it, and so I think it keeps their interest more so than looking at a small reproduction on the wall.
Anyways, thats all I have for now...talk to you later Ms. Johnston!

I agree that we can become too dependent upon things working everyday. However, maybe we need to focus on the types of technology on which you can trust. For instance, if there is an overhead that you can use EVERYday, then you may want to use transparencies to show artworks.

If the LCD projector is the problem, maybe you could show students, in small groups, the PowerPoint presentation. This is not optimum, but it might be a work-around.

I think it is definitely important to remember to have a backup plan. It is not just in the classroom that we need to plan for this sort of problem. Think about giving a presentation and not having your PowerPoint or trying to run a meeting without the slides you were planning to show. Good teaching involves being prepared and flexible. There are ways around broken or unworking technology. If we make plans that include some of these other solutions, then we'll always be ready no matter what happens.

a copy of an earlier comment from a student teacher...i wanted all related comments in the same place.

"I am currently student teaching at Oak Knoll Middle School with Coleen Shepherd. We have 3 sections of computer art. Each class has about 20 students and only 5 computers. This is a problem. The students need to have more than one project going at one time, a computer project, and a project that they can to at the tables by hand. The students are put into groups and every day there are 2 groups that get on the computers for 45 minutes each. The groups rotate. This is where Mrs. Shepherd gets parent e-mails complaining that their child did not have an opportunity to get on the computer to complete the assignment. It gets very hectic when their are several projects going on at once. It is also hard to demo because you want the students on the computers to have their full 45 minutes to work, but you don't want to demo a project twice. It is also hard when a lot of students need your help on so many different things at once. One way I have found to help a little is to get students that know what they are doing help their classmates. I am still learning how to handle this situation. I came into my student teaching placement with a fear of computers and technology, but now I am becoming more and more comfortable with computers."