As 21st century teachers we have all been told to use technology in the classroom more times than we can count. Some of us embrace the use of technology in our classrooms with open arms, and are full of great ideas on how to incorporate technology into our daily lessons. However, there are those of us that have a harder time coming up with ways we can use technology to engage, enhance, and extend our students learning. As a general observation I have found that Art teachers are among those that struggle with incorporating technology into their classrooms. Often art teachers will attempt to incorporate some kind of technology in their lessons and it will temporarily engage the students, but it does not enhance nor extend their learning.
I keep referring to the three E's (Engage, Enhance, and Extend) when talking about integrating technology into a classroom, but what do these words mean? This is how Keren-Kolb defines these terms as they relate to technology integration projects in her article:
Engagement- The teacher is trying to find a way to motivate or interest disengaged students.
Enhancement- This is using technology to develop understanding of learning goals that could not have been accomplished without those tools.
Extension- The technology brings learning outside the classroom walls and into students' everyday lives, where they can continue to grow after they leave school.
As an art teacher I could tell that based on these definitions I was not integrating technology into my classroom to the best of my ability. This lead me to begin researching how other art educators were able to successfully integrate technology into their lessons and classroom.
I was able to find one article that suggested using iPads in the art classroom. This allows for hands on engagement like any art project would but there is a deeper level of learning occurring. An iPad allows for mistakes to be made and with a simple touch that mistake can be taken away and the whole project is not ruined. For more examples and information on integrating the iPad into an art classroom visit: iPads in Art Education
After taking time to research the internet I have found that there are plenty of resources that can help an art teacher come up with creative and helpful ways to integrate technology into their classroom. It is merely taking the time to do some searching on the internet for lesson ideas. The next step for art educators is to take a chance and try involving technology into their classroom. I believe there will extremely positive results if we as art teachers can get past the block we have set up about technology in our classrooms.
References:
Keren-Kolb, Liz. (2013) Engage, Enhance, and Extend. (pp. 30-37)
Fugelstad, Tricia. iPads in Art Education. http://ipadsinart.weebly.com
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