As an art teacher, I feel at times I have a disconnect with technology, students create paintings and drawings using simple tools such as brushes and pencils. Looking at how I use technology in my art classes prior to taking this course, I see that I post assignments online, use a grading program, show Youtube videos, and display other visual resources. I am finding that I have really only cracked the tip of the ice berg. This course has opened my eyes to Twitter, Instagram, and other such “social media” tools that I can use to share and promote students work, share documents, collaborate with colleagues, and look for solutions to issues I might face with technology (Richardson, 2010). I also became more inspired to make better use of the technology I already have in my class. This course has given me more courage to try to learn more Web 2.0 tools and that it’s ok to just take small steps in using these tools. I see the importance of teaching 21st Century tools to help our students with career readiness and college. I plan on utilizing resources and other data to find and create better formative assessments. One of these such tools is Nearpod, in which I can check the students understanding as the lesson is going on similar to Jeff Houston. He uses the data from his student’s wikis as an formative assessment tool to gauge where his students are during the lesson rather then at the end where it might be too late (Laureate Education, 2015e).
Ways in which I have deepened my knowledge of teaching and learning process with respect to integrating technology in the classroom is modeling tools myself. I would like to model Web 2.0 tools that I want to incorporate into the class such as Instagram and blogging. By modeling these tools, I can better share my struggles and successes with the students and I become more comfortable in using them. I need to model the learning myself. I feel that by integrating tools that students are already comfortable with can engage learning. Also with Web 2.0 tools such as blogs where students are posting to others online, critical thinking is enhanced. Their post responses are more throughly composed due to a greater exposure and authentic large audiences (Miller and WIlliams, 2013). In applying this knowledge to facilitate the changing classroom of the 21st Century, I would build in more opportunities for collaboration, a key skill that our students will need in their futures (Laureate Education, 2015o). I will utilize and incorporate the ISTE Standards for both students and teachers (ISTE, 2008, 2016). Continue to model using tools
I see Instagram as a very valuable social media tool that I could utilize in my classroom. This is a great tool to use to publish and share students work to an authentic large audience of original content (Guymon, 2014). This is a great way students could share their work beyond just the hallways of the school. They can easily share with family and friends. We are a 1:1 device school with the students having iPads. These iPads come preloaded with apps they need for our school such as Explain Everything and Google Docs. Beyond these apps, teachers can request that their students in their classes be given access to specific apps. I think one road block of using Instagram is if it is acceptable app for the students to use as well as will the filters block them from truly using. I believe I would need to talk with my administration and suggest ways that I could create a responsible safe environment for the students to use Instagram. In this way, the ISTE Standards of teaching digital citizenship would fit in how the student uses this tool to practice safely and responsibly. Other ISTE Standards for students that this assists are Standard 1. Creativity and Innovation, Standard 2. Communication and collaboration and Standard 6. Technology operations and concepts (ISTE, 2016). 21st Century skills that would develop with the use of instagram would include communicating ideas, information technology and creativity. In accordance to the ISTE Standards for teachers, I as the teacher would facilitating students creativity in what they post to Instagram, and model digital citizenship in how they post.
Two Smart Goals that I could possible incorporate into my classroom environment would be;
Smart Goal 1. By November of next year, I will have 80% all my students in every section will use Instagram to post artwork to and create a portfolio on.
Smart Goal 2. By November of next year 80% of my 1st trimester students will take an online pre and post test to support growth data in my classes.
References
Guymon, D. (2014). Using Social Media to Teach Visual Literacy in the 21st Century Classroom. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/social-media-visual-literacy-classroom-dave-guymon
International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2016). Standards for students.
Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/for-students-2016
International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2008). Standards for teachers. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/standards-for-teachers
Laureate Education (Producer). (2015b). Skills for the 21st Century [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Laureate Education (Producer). (2015e). Spotlight on technology: Collaboration through wikis [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Laureate Education (Producer). (2015o). Transforming the classroom with technology: Part 3. [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Miller, W., Williams, R. (2013). Preservice Teachers and Blogs: An invitation to Extended
Reflection and Conversation. Art Education, 66 (3), 47 - 52
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
