Education:
learning, teaching, researching,
investigating, expanding knowledge, exploring.
Technology:
learning,
teaching, researching, investigating, expanding knowledge, exploring.
Why
not mix the two? To me, trying to explain “educational technology” would simply
be integrating technology into educational experiences, lessons, procedures and
experiments. When brainstorming definitions of the terms “education” and
“technology,” I found I basically was creating the same definition for both.
Both including ideas of teaching, learning, exploring, finding solutions,
enhancing lives of both young and old in a variety of environments and subjects.
And often times, both enjoyable, creative, fun or at times areas of passion for
some.
In
looking at our readings about social media and art education, it shows clearly
how there are many benefits to blending technology and classroom
lessons/activities. Social media is such a popular, growing, expanding and
fantastic thing in our current day society. Networking, expanding relations and
ideas, sharing, critiquing, exploring, viewing, giving feedback, “friend-ing,”
“thumbs-up-ing,” “liking,” “commenting,” “re-blogging.” The list goes on and
on! Of course social media may be looked at as your aunt sharing pictures and
bragging about her recent cruise to the Bahamas on Facebook, but social media
can also help provide future employees/employers, online art exhibits, virtual
tours for learning, tutorial videos on YouTube and sharing important news. Many
more people, especially people that may be less likely to share, are finding
their voice through the Internet and social media tools.
Visual
culture is best friends with technology. Print ads, commercials, television,
films, photos, websites, blogs, video games, I could go on and on for days!
Visual culture is also best friends with art education. We must admire the
large variety of images that swirl around ourselves and our students, day in
and day out. No longer black and white newspapers but computer graphics, moving
billboards, and websites we can conveniently pull up on our cell phone screens
at any moment. We must also educate them about visual culture. The pros, the
cons, interpreting it all and the impact it collectively makes. Showing
examples of visual culture in the classroom would take technology! A large
amount of visual culture is created or distributed through technology! It all
is quite full circle really!
Today
was full of great presentations by the class! I was aware with some of the
applications/interfaces such as tumblr and etsy but also learned of many new
ones! I really enjoyed the “Art Assignment” Youtube video that Madi shared. The
couple in the video was charming and funny but I really enjoyed the concept
behind opening up art assignments and ideas to the whole Youtube community and
allowing everyone to participate. When they showed a large selection of
submissions they received, you truly understood the social media/networking
aspect the videos have to them. As an artist I was also quite fascinated with the
art making apps that John shared, such as “Sketches.” Many artists young and
old, new and experienced and broadening their horizons and adding many
technological tools to their art tool kits! I would easily share apps like this
and many more with future students as one of many options/mediums to explore.
And finally, another option that stood out during presentations was “guerrilla-innovation.”
presented by Mary Cate. This website is very visually pleasing with a constant
stream of images, catchy titles and all sorts of videos, websites, products and
people involved. The website really helps people to see how constant invention,
exploration and sharing is in the art world to this day. I could get lost in
this site for hours! A website I plan to keep under my favorites bar on my
laptop and one I would share with fellow students or possibly future students.
Today really continued the learning from the readings and appendixes I explored
over the weekend, into my Prezi presentation
and finishing with a quick video chat with Robert Sweeny!
"Social media are no more and no less than the sum of the interactions they facilitate." (Robert Sweeny)
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