Integrating technology into my visual art classroom has been a slow process. It is hard to see how technology can become part of the daily routines when so much of the time we spend doing stuff. Learning is mostly a hands on and dirty experience, rather than a process of “reading” texts to piece together knowledge. As a result I have typically been using technology as a means of helping students with the theoretical aspects of visual art. Students can easily use technology for learning art vocabulary, assisting with the early stages of these creative process (I.e the visual research) and the critical analysis process. As a result, much of what I have seen as technology integration in het classroom has been technology integration into homework. The way that I currently have the course set up is that they use an LMS to guide them through the course, but a lot of what is happening is at home through the flipped model of learning. The use of technology in my art program itself has become an organizational tool and a way of monitoring students, rather than a way in which I can leverage technology to actually enhance student learning while they are with me in the classroom.
Over the past school yer and a half I have been trying to use Instructure’s LMS called Canvas. It is a great tool with considerable functionality, but it is taking me such a long time to build, organize and get students involved with it. For an individual who is familiar with participating in a digital classroom it is very intuitive, but for those students that have never had the necessity to participate in a digital space then it is more difficult. What I am finding is that I am continually overestimating my students ability and familiarity with how to use this tool. Although I spend more time introducing it to my classes this year, it still wasn’t enough. What am needing to do is book lab time to go through engaging activities to
Brian Leichnitz 