Appetizing Art Apps

With access to iPods and iPads in the classroom and millions of apps, how do we know which apps are best for our students? When researching, there are many articles detailing the best tested apps for specific needs. This is a good start to finding apps for your students. From there, in my opinion, it is best to test them out yourself. If you know the type of lesson you are wanting to teach your students, you know what type of app will work best! There are many free or very inexpensive apps that are useful in the classroom for all subject areas. As an art teacher, I will be focusing on apps that allow my students to CREATE, with a focus on artistic creation! There are a plethora of apps that are available for this and I will link the title of each app for some of my favorites. I also would like to share some of the best art history and/or interactive apps that are also useful for art lessons.  

Creating and editing iPod/iPad apps:

The Warhol: D.I.Y. Pop

This is a really cool app that lets you create your own pop art. Students can create their own silkscreen just like Andy Warhol did...only digitally! You can upload a picture or take one and go through the whole process of cropping, exposing, under painting, and then sharing. The app also allows students to meet curators from The Andy Warhol Museum who demonstrate silkscreen printing and share inside information on Warhol and his artwork. This is an awesome addition to a pop art or Warhol lesson.  

Type Drawing
This is one of my all time favorite creating apps! It is literally painting with words! Type Drawing allows you to type in a sentence, name, word, or anything you would like and then drawing with the letters you typed in. You can change the font, size, and color or the words in your picture. The pictures can then be shared. This is so fun and creative, I can't imagine anyone not having fun playing around and creating with it. Type Drawing has a Flickr Gallery that is downright AMAZING! I highly suggest you check it out! 

Flip It!

Flip It! allows you to make a flip book with drawing, but on a mobile device! A student can do a simple drawing and then when you add the next page, the previous is faded but still visible so that you can have the movement work to the best advantage for the book. This is a great introduction to animation for students and just fun, overall.

Animoto
Just like the Animoto website online, the Animoto app allows photos to be uploaded and set to music to make interesting movies. I really love that students could use the same device to take pictures and videos, edit, and create a final product without having to transfer to another device. Fantastic app.

123D sculpt

This app allows students to practice the idea of sculpting without having to get so dirty. I do not have a kiln, therefore, it is not as easy for my students to experience sculpting. We use model magic, but it is just not the same as using clay. While this app is also not the same as using clay, students can push, pull, smooth, pinch, grab, flatten, bulge, and paint their creation with the app. They can also take pictures of their work and share them.

Lego photo

Lego photo is just a neat editing tool that turns a photo or picture into one made out of Legos. It is really neat to see the transformation. I really picked this because it is a great connection between our Lego engineering class and art class for our students.

Faces iMake

This app allows students to create a collage type artwork using different objects as opposed to painting or drawing. This is a very important type of art can creation and this app allows for the students to really see how art can be made out of anything. This can be a great addition to any collage lesson in class.

Art History and Interactive iPod touch/iPad apps:

MoMA

The MoMA app has a plethora of information about the artwork housed at The Museum of Modern Art in New York. This app has visual tours, audio tours, kids tours, you can add music to your MoMA tour, take pictures and share them, listen to MoMA podcasts, watch MoMA videos on iTunes, and so much more. This is a fantastic opportunity for students to guide themselves to what is most interesting to them. I love this app for myself and even more for my students!

Love Art: National Gallery, London 

The National Gallery in London app gives students access to artwork that is halfway around the world. The app includes more than 250 works of art that are from the gallery. There are video and audio experiences to accompany the artwork. A really neat aspect of this app is that the images are zoomable are are high resolution. Again, this app is great for letting students be their own tour guide and relate to artwork. 

Louvre

The Louvre app allows students to visit the Louvre museum while at school. The app has over 100 of the artworks that are at the Louvre in Paris available and close up views of the details in the artwork. There are also videos in the app about the Louvre itself and on the artwork it houses. A great accent to a lesson in art history and an exploration that can be guided by students.

PixPop Art

This app is a game that students could play as a way to focus on the skill of observation in relation to art. A student has match a small close up of part of a famous artwork with the part of the larger work of art. They truly have to look at the details in the art in order to match the tokens to the full artwork. This is a great app for the early finishers in class and it incorporates art history and observation.

Whiteboard Collaborative Drawing

This app is a painting/drawing app, but the neatest aspect is that two people can use devices and draw on the "whiteboard" simultaneously! Peer to peer interaction and teamwork at it's finest. Students can also use the app to write as opposed to drawing, if desired. The link is to the free version, but there is a paid version with more options available. My students are always wanting to work together and giving each other pointers on how to improve their artwork and with this they can work together through the magic of Wi-Fi!  

21st Century Learning: Delaware Elementary Style

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. The pictures in the video below show the students at Delaware Elementary at their finest! They are working with technology, doing hands-on projects, and collaborating with others. 21st century skills are so widespread that students have to be using multiple skills during every lesson and all of the projects on which they are working. I believe that classes today still need to have a balance of human interaction and group learning, hands on production, and technology use. Our students need to know the technology that they will have to use when they have jobs in the future and we need to prepare them for this, but they will also need to know how to work with people and that should be part of our teaching, as well. 21st Century learning is truly a comprehensive process that requires numerous types of teaching and collaboration such as those shown in this video. Enjoy!

How Can We Create Amazing Digital Citizens?

This is a topic that means a ton to me. We are a very fortunate elementary school in that we have netbooks for all grade levels and grade level sets of iPod touches and iPads to use for our lessons. Our population is 95% poverty and I love that while our students may not have access to these technology tools at home, they have a plethora of them at school. While we have the access, our students sometimes do not have the knowledge necessary to use the tools that we have. I have created an action plan that our staff can implement each school year with all grade levels in order to improve our students' digital literacy and citizenship. A presentation of the steps we will take as a staff to ensure amazing digital citizens at Delaware:




A little more detailed explanation of the presentation, but not as many pictures. :o)


Digital Citizenship Action Plan

How to Bridge the Digital Divide

The digital divide has shifted from being having access to technology and the web versus those who do not, to how people are connecting to the internet. While many people used to have no access to the internet in any form, many people now have access through smart phones. This is better than nothing, but it is absolutely not the same as having access through a broadband Wi-Fi connection.  Job applications, submitting resumes, and other necessary tasks can usually only be accessed through computer access. Students that do not have access at home to technology and the internet, for fun or practical purposes, will likely not have the technological literacy that is necessary to function in the digital world. It is our job, as teachers in today’s society, to teach them how to utilize the resources available at the moment. While many schools are still lacking in the technology that would enable the teachers to instruct on the many uses, slowly but surely, we are getting there. Unfortunately, the new digital divide is still leaving some schools behind as new technological resources are developed daily. It seems as though there may always be some sort of digital divide as products and software evolves. My hope is that it will become more common in ALL schools and that the children in schools now will learn how to make the most of the amazing resources available.

As teachers, we need to keep in mind that students need to use technology for more than just a reward. We need them to see the internet and technology as a resource that can be used to learn, not just to play. We also need to ensure that the students are taught how to use netbooks or iPads so that the navigation does not slow them down on researching topics and working on projects. At Delaware, we do not have textbooks. We use netbooks, iPod touches, and iPads as our textbooks. It is imperative that our students know the basic commands of each technology so that they are not bogged down with how to save their work and tasks such as that. As a staff, we have been committed to creating meaningful and practical lessons that are standards based and employ real life situations. We have grade level PLC (professional learning community) meetings to plan and discuss what is needed for grade levels. We also do vertical alignment so that our students know that the expectations of them in class are not going to change year after year. We have seen much success with the programs and reform we are implementing at our school. Not only does having the technology available make planning our lessons fun, it makes them engaging lessons for our students. Using technology at our school is not an infrequent occurrence, but a daily requirement. Our students can make a Prezi (prezi.com) in an instant, as well as many other web applications, and can teach me tons in just one class period when it comes to the digital world. We allow the students to create and contribute to the digital world and they LOVE it. When you think of the jobs that our students are likely to be doing when they graduate both high school and college, technology knowledge is an absolute MUST! The best way to learn and to have it become second nature is to dive right in.

Our collaborative VoiceThread on "Bridging the Digital Divide"

Reaching the 21st Century Learner

Reflecting on “Reaching the 21^st Century Learner,” I definitely think that technology has had a profound effect on the processes that we all take to learn in this digital age. Our world is one of instant gratification and information is, most literally, at our fingertips. So many adults, and even kids, have smart phones that if a question is raised, many instantly go to the internet and find an answer quickly and efficiently. We have a certain amount of reliance on the ease of access to so many resources for information that is sometimes good and others not so great. We should not become so dependent on technology that we lose our creativity and innate knowledge.

I would like to believe that most educational environments are becoming more in tune with the way a 21^st Century learner works. At my school alone, we now have class sets of netbooks, iPads, iPod touches, and Promethean Boards in all rooms. Our students have come to expect that they have the latest and greatest to learn from and they are sometimes the best teachers in the digital worlds.  If students are so interested in the technology of tomorrow, we need to have it accessible for them in order to motivate their learning.  Many people believe that in order to learn the lessons necessary, you must take notes, you must have textbooks, and you must take tests. I am seeing a completely different learning environment at the school where I teach and it is so exciting, for both students and teachers, every day.

I really feel like the terms digital native and digital immigrant are really not as opposite as some would like to believe.  It is truly all about having an open mind and a positive attitude. The majority of my students do not have computers at home and technology in every moment of their lives because their families cannot afford it. However, they are so open to learning about it, they are instantly successful. You will never hear them say, “I can’t,” when working with the technology at our school. They are so persistent and I feel like the adults that are “scared” of technology and would be considered a digital immigrant should take a page from my students’ books. 

I really enjoyed the video interviews, in total, on the PBS: Digital Nation-Life on the Virtual Frontier website. These were very informational and gave great insight into where our students are coming from in the digital world of today. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/

Additionally, I think my best, favorite, and most informative resources on the subject are the students that I work with daily.  They are ever changing and are so open minded about the world we live in.  I learn as much from them every day as I teach them. They are a great motivation and inspiration for learning much about the digital nation.

Digital Natives
by: rldoty

Do What You Love!

I am an elementary art teacher with about 500 students K-6! I graduated in 2005 from the University of Evansville with a degree in Elementary Education and went back later to add on my middle school Visual Arts endorsement. My first year of teaching was at Delaware Elementary teaching third grade in Evansville, Indiana. Next, I moved to Newburgh, Indiana to teach art at 2 elementary schools with a stint teaching fourth grade, as well.  In the past I have also worked as a Title I math aide. Three years ago, I came full circle back to Delaware as the art teacher and have been here ever since!


I love art and I love teaching...so it would seem that I have the perfect job for me! I believe that in order to truly be successful in your job, it helps if you actually LOVE what you do.  Lucky me! Delaware Elementary is an Equity School in the EVSC and we have an extended school year, as well as and extended school day. The extra class time allows our students to have not only gym, art, and music, but also technology, Lego engineering, and Spanish classes.  We are lucky enough to have many technology resources at our school such as class sets of netbooks, iPads, iPod touches, Promethean boards in all rooms, among others.  We do not have textbooks anymore and we utilize these resources daily! I am pursuing a Master's degree in elementary education with an emphasis in technology for this reason.  While most of the art we work on in my class is hands on with art supplies, there are many ways to incorporate technology into my lessons.  I am hoping to learn more about the resources available and how to expand my students' knowledge base for art.  


At this point, somewhat early in my career, I'm not sure I truly see myself moving out of the classroom because I love it so much.  There may be a time later that I feel differently but for right now, I am doing what I love!