Art & Technology

We Are Teachers offers excellent ideas for integration of art into the curriculum. You might try taking art “out of the box” by displaying a cubist painting on an interactive whiteboard and having students check out and draw over geometric shapes in the painting. After the lesson, students might create their own Cubist paintings using digital art programs or by creating shapes on paper. Make use of document cameras when studying how light and darkness interact. You can “manipulate light and color in your classroom by covering the bulb on your document camera with a piece of colored cloth.”  As you do this, “place various objects under the camera” in order to investigate changes in appearance that are dependent on different colors of light. Check out the article, “4 Ways to Take Art ‘Out of the Box’ Using Technology” to find more suggestions for the use of art in technology and in other subjects such as science, math, and social studies.

Sketchlot: A Free Whiteboard Website

With the free Web tool Sketchlot, you can create your “sketch” and share it with your students. They can then mark it up and send it back to you.  Suggested for teachers and students ages 8-18, Sketchlot is a Web application, not an app, and requires no installation or plugins. It works on computers, smart phones, and tablets. You can sign up your students with class codes. Examples of use include creating math questions, science diagrams, and text through Sketchlot.

Educreate: Free Video Tool for iPad

With Educreations, you can make your own video lessons that students can access through Web browsers or the Educreations iPad App. You develop your lessons with the use of an online whiteboard. The App works with any iPad, but not with other notebook-type devices. To get ideas about what is possible to create, browse Educreations’ public directory or the showcased lessons. Signing up for the free App enables you to join a community of educators interested in creating and sharing, if they wish, the best of their resources.

Socrative: A Free Student Response System

Socrative means easy-to-use and engaging interactive learning. This free student response system takes only three minutes to set up and twenty seconds to load for your classes. It runs on any device with an Internet connection. Using the program, you can challenge students with multiple choice, true/false, self-paced quick quizzes, space race (quiz as a game), and exit tickets (end-of-class pulse check). You can see how your students do with the questions by checking the screen on your digital device or through email.  To better understand how the system works, watch the video and/or work through the hands-on demo.

Apple TV: Beyond Interactive Whiteboards

Most teachers want interactive whiteboards in their classrooms, but the boards are expensive and not all schools can afford to provide one in every classroom. According to Tech & Learning, Apple TV is a cost-effective way to give teachers an alternative tool that allows them freedom to move around their classrooms to observe student work. In addition to teacher mobility, it provides options for switching among devices and for the sharing of individual work, which are not available with interactive whiteboards. For more information, register on the Tech & Learning site (if you aren’t already registered) and open the eBook that describes AppleTV.