Is There an App for that Brushstroke?

In deference to the safety of the museum’s collection, painting in the Art Institute has traditionally been restricted to a limited number of students and professionals. But thanks to creative uses of mobile devices, the museum has been able to extend that artistic experience to a wider audience without spilling a drop of paint. In a recent Teen Studio Workshop on Experimental Painting, museum education staff—using an iPad app that simulates painting techniques—provided teens with a digital canvas and virtual brushes and paints. Inspired by artworks like Gerhard Richter’s Ice (1-4) shown below, participants “squeezed” virtual paint onto their simulated canvases, blended and smudged colors with a palette knife, and built up layers and textures, all through touching or dragging their fingers over iPad screens.

Museum lecturers also use iPads as virtual portfolios to show images that supplement understanding of artworks discussed on public gallery talks. Digital images on the iPads permit the audience to view sculpture from different angles, and to explore related works from the collection not on display, or comparative artworks from other museums or collections. The speaker below, for instance, shows the image of an ancient coffin to help convey the original purpose of the Egyptian funerary objects in the cases behind him. Lecturers use them to zoom in on minute details, some not detectable to the naked eye, and the highly visible backlit screen gives iPads an advantage over their paper analogues.

Lecturers have even begun to incorporate audio and video into their tours. During a gallery talk, for example, visitors might listen to the atonal music of Arnold Schoenberg and compare it to the abstract compositions of Vasily Kandinsky; or they might compare movement, rhythm, mood, or repetition in an artwork to that found in an example of jazz or classical music. A lecturer might invite visitors to explore Richmond Barthé’s bronze sculpture The Boxer and watch an archival video showing the artists process and sculptural techniques in his studio. Most recently, children were introduced to the illustration exhibition Animals around the World: Picture Books by Steve Jenkins in the Ryan Education Center both literally and virtually. First, students looked closely at the dynamic paper collages combined with amazing facts about inhabitants of the animal kingdom. Then an educator showed videos on an iPad of the animals in their habitats, enabling some of our youngest audiences to see examples of where an artist drew inspiration for his work.

Mobile technology is increasingly demonstrating its potential to connect museum audiences of all ages with the artists and their works and to provide opportunities for creative experiences through dynamic interaction with the collection. Stay tuned for more ways in which the Art Institute of Chicago will engage 21st century visitors with mobile and touch-screen technology, bringing them closer to the collection in new and exciting ways.

—Carolina K., Education Technology Manager, Digital Information and Access

Evernote

My “must have” cloud application is Evernote.  I keep a running list of supplies needed, track students who need to complete artwork, and use images to organize and plan for future lessons.  The video below shows how I have used the Evernote desktop application to sort out and sync all the details of my teaching life.

iCal and Google Calendar

Since I have hundreds of students and lots of classes to track, keeping a planning calendar is essential to my sanity.   Instead of using one calendar, I create a separate calendar for each grade level as well as one for school events that can be viewed individually or all together.  Like Evernote, a “cloud” calendar travels wherever you are, viewable from any computer or mobile device.

Here is an example of my iCal calendar.

Another great option is Google Calendar.  Here is an example:

While I don’t exactly teach painting or ceramics in “The Cloud”, my schedules, lesson plans, and “to do” lists certainly do live online.  As a result, I am a more organized and thorough teacher ready to get my hands dirty with art supplies.

How do you use the cloud? What works best for you?

Tricia:  In late 2010, I wrote a grant to receive an iPad for the art room. I hadn’t any experience with one at the time, but thought that they may have a use in the art room some how and I was curious to explore the possibilities. I imagined that students would publish a collaborative book, record their voice for video, or access the Internet. The iPad 2 hadn’t been announced yet with camera/video so my thoughts were mostly on apps for exploring art and making art.
I asked my building tech assistant to allow me to play with an iPad over winter break.

That’s when it happened. That winter I was completely smitten with the touch- swipe-pinch-zoom-undo-ease of the iPad. I loved the “tweet this”, “email that” simplicity of use.

Portrait created using Brushes app, 6th grade

I started to play with the Brushes app with layers, transparencies, textures, and playback mode and thought…this is transformational!

For years I’ve been trying to do technology based lessons with my elementary art students and found that they needed a great deal of instruction in how to use the tools, where to click, and how to troubleshoot issues. This meant that I was more of a tech teacher than an art teacher during class time.

Since those days my school purchased 100 iPads that travel throughout the school one grade level at a time each month. This means that I have the opportunity to create a digital art lesson with every grade level on the iPads in my K-5 elementary school. I jumped right in with uncertain expectations. I didn’t know how much my students could accomplish, how many issues we might have with network connectivity, and how I would deal with image management.

Some of the things I’ve learned:

• Find a way to project the ipad as you teach (I use Apple TV to wirelessly mirror the iPad through my projector. View my blog post to learn more)
• Learn the vocabulary for the ipads (home button, settings, wifi, share button, swipe, pinch, zoom, undo, double click, tap, shut down, mute, etc.) Manual
• Teach students to respect the iPads as learning devices (not for playing Angry Birds and filling the camera roll with silly pictures)
• Teach what you would have normally, but digitally if you can. Don’t let the ipads disrupt learning, but rather transform. Here are some examples.

Suzanne: Over the past four years, I have been taking steps to acquire touch screen devices for my students to use as art making tools. In 2009, I took photos of my family and friends with my iPhone and created silly portraits of them with bulging eyes and very lopsided features using the app, “FaceMelter”. Salvador Dali’s “The Persistence of Memory” popped into my mind, and I thought that if I was having this much fun creating images in this style, my students might like it too. I found myself lending my iPhone and iPod Touch to my students. It was both hysterical and inspiring for them to learn about surrealism by creating “Melting Self Portraits” . Their excitement about using the touch screen to create made me look past the possibility that my devices could suffer any casualties. Fortunately, students took great care of my technology. The administration in my district believes in demonstrated practice; therefore, I was determined to prove that my students needed touch screen devices in the art room. At that time, I began uploading student work to their online Artsonia galleries and printed others to display in my school.

Love Bird, Created Using Phantasy App, 2nd Grade

In 2010, I invited my supervisor to observe a lesson where my students were using my iPod Touch to create digital collages using the app Faces iMake. To this day she recalls how amazed she was that first graders were all completely engaged and in awe when trying to watch a demonstration on one tiny iPod Touch. She was equally impressed with how intuitive they were when it was their turn to create digital collages on such a small screen.

Polar Bear, Created Using Percolator app, 3rd Grade

At the end of the 2011 school year, my district acquired iPads through a grant. Select classroom teachers and a couple of specialists, including myself, were invited to be a member of the iPad Pilot Program. I was given one first generation iPad to use with my students. We explored digital storytelling, augmented reality, graphic design, photo and drawing apps and more. Each week, I was required to submit a form to my technology leaders that described how I was infusing the iPad in the art room. It was a super exciting time, but only for a select few. Students wanted to use the iPad, but only having one iPad for 550 students meant that the odds of using the iPad were pretty slim for most.

Some of the things I have learned along the way:

• Publish your students’ digital work online if possible and share the work they are creating with your administrators and technology leaders. Demonstrated practice could possibly go a long way. Read about how the iPad has been infused in the art room B.A. Art/iPads and see my students in action by viewing our B.A. Vimeo iPad Library.
• Download and install Dropbox on your computer, iPads and iPhone. I cannot imagine managing and uploading my students’ digital files without it.
• Talk to your students about your efforts to acquire technology for them. My students seem to appreciate that I include them in on the process. This could possibly be part of the reason why they take proper care of the technology when it arrives for them to use.
• If you do not have a class set, create an iPad station where students can cycle through and take turns using the iPads while others are using traditional tools at their tables.
• If you do not have a class set, provide time for students to work in groups. They enjoy solving problems together and are less frustrated when navigating tools for the first time in apps like “Brushes”.
• Apply for grants when possible and look for opportunities that may help you acquire more iPads and perhaps a class set. Having an iPad station makes it possible to offer basic digital lesson extensions. A class set will allow you to teach digital lessons to an entire class on some days while using traditional tools on other days.

Suzanne Tiedemann and Tricia Fuglestad spent the last year exploring uses for the iPads in the Art room. They presented on their findings at the National Art Education Association on Saturday, March 3, 2012 in NYC.  Fnd their resources on their iPads in Art resource site.

The interactive adventure begins in a 16th century French parlor with a cryptic note explaining details to escape the mansion. Clicking on different areas of the image reveal verbal clues at the bottom of the screen and open doorways to gain entry into the next room.  Your students will enjoy the challenge escaping the labyrinth of rooms using the clues found along the way.

Escape from Thorne Mansion could be easily integrated with a study of linear perspective, composition, or design.  Alternatively, create a literature connection at school or at home incorporating the book, The Sixty-eight Rooms reviewed in an earlier post.

Connecting with Music
Other than the light strum of a harp in the French Anteroom, the Escape from Thorne Mansion interactive missed an opportunity to couple era music with the room design. So, I’ve decided to pick up where the Art Institute of Chicago has left off and pair a few Thorne Room images with sounds from the time (click the widget to the right of the image to listen).

California Hallway, c. 1940

French Boudoir of the Louis XV Period, 1740-60

Japanese Traditional Interior, 1937

The Thorne Miniature Rooms create an amazing opportunity to connect history, literature, and music with art and design.  How else do the Thorne Miniature Rooms connect to your curriculum?

1. QR Codes.  These black and white pixelated squares can be found on TV, in magazines, and now in classrooms.  Using a mobile device with a camera such as a smart phone, iTouch, iPad or free software downloaded on a computer, a QR code can be quickly created to link directly to text, images, or web addresses.  Try it yourself by scanning QR code below:

Don’t have a QR reader? Type getscanlife.com into your Internet browser on your mobile device to download a free QR reader.  Now imagine using this in your classroom by linking to online resources, creating a scavenger hunt, providing the answers to quiz questions, or extending art room learning by sending students home with QR code resources. Read my article on QR codes for additional resources and ideas on how to use them in your classroom.

2. Create a Photo Peach Quiz.  Photo Peach is a super easy way to create an interactive quiz game using images.  Learn how to create your own quiz here.

3. Animoto.  Want to look like a master movie-maker? Simply upload images or video clips, select music, and click to create an amazing movie.  Just by registering for an educator account you get access to full-length movies without paying a dime.  (If you’re looking for a good alternative, Flixtime has some very similar features with a good selection of music).

4. Blabberize. What isn’t funny about an artificial talking mouth?  Start with any portrait, define the mouth area, and talk.  The mouth will follow your voice. Use Blabberize to present information about an artist, convey classroom rules, or give studio instruction.  While this may not change your teaching world, incorporating Blabberize into your lessons can certainly enhance instruction and get the students to take notice.  Check out this brief example: (Can’t see this video? Click here).

Tip: Use a screen-cast tool such as Jing or Screencast-o-matic to record your Blabberize and save on your computer.

5. Twitter. If you want to take charge of your own learning, Twitter is the way to do it.  Every resource I reference in this post I have learned because of Twitter.  It is all about following the right people.  See my list of art educators on twitter to get you started and develop your own PLN (Personal Learning Network).

6. Wallwisher.  Want to have a class critique and involve all your students?  Wallwisher lets you quickly set up a virtual “wall” so that anyone with the URL address can add a comment and interact.  One of my favorite features is the ability to moderate comments, ensuring all posts are appropriate.  Learn more about Wallwisher in this article and see how to embed a image in a wallwisher wall here.

7. Delicious is an online bookmarking tool I have been using for several years and blogged about it here.  Since your bookmarks are accessible online, you can access them from any computer.  Using multiple “tags” makes finding your bookmarks easy.  Thankfully you can import your existing bookmarks into Delicious, so you won’t lose your previously bookmarked sites.  (A similar, just as awesome, bookmarking alternative to try is Diigo)

8. Pinterest might just be the ultimate bookmarking tool for art teachers.  Instead of bookmarking using text, images are used instead.  The best way to describe Pinterest is with this video walkthrough:

Read more about Pinterest in my Tech4Arted column and join the collaboration starting with the iPhone/iPad Apps for Art teachers board.

9. Livebinder  I first wrote about Livebinder as a way to organize digitally here. Livebinder is an electronic binder used to collect web resources or your own files in one organized spot.  Here are a few examples of binders I have created for students and for my own professional reference.

10. Google Maps. I am a huge fan of Google Maps to help students connect art to our world. My favorite trick is to embed images into the placemarks on the map.  Watch video on how to embed an image into Google Maps.  Here is my example on using Google Maps to teach about Georgia O’Keeffe:

View Georgia O’Keeffe Life Tour in a larger map

Do you have a web 2.0 tool you can’t live without? Share it be leaving a comment below.  Also, check out additional resources in my Web 2.0 Tools Livebinder:

Click here to download Mac keyboard short cuts poster.

 

Share your tech tips for making technology in the classroom a little easier

to organize in the comments section below.

Image: Letters Book, Altered Book, Jean Fitzgerald, 2009

As art educators, we know that images are powerful tools to communicate ideas.  However, our world also relies heavily on written communication to share information. This makes it necessary to have good writing skills.  Good writing is key to effectively advocating for your art program, communicating art concepts, and sharing ideas with colleagues. New media, from blogging to tweeting to collaborating on ArtEd2.0, has made it easier for us to do just that.

Despite having a blog and the Tech4Arted column in SchoolArts Magazine, I simply don’t like to write. Words just don’t flow smoothly from my head to my fingertips.

What I do love to do is communicate and share ideas. I just finished my first year writing the Tech4Arted column (check out my articles below) and I have been getting great ideas from SchoolArts for years so it has been exciting to contribute to a large audience.

I know many of you who are reading this may think: “If I could just show you what I want to say with a picture instead of words, it would be so much easier!” You have a great idea on art education, but you may hesitate to share if you dread the thought of writing.  Here’s the writing process I have developed over the last couple years that works well for blogging, writing for SchoolArts, and writing e-newsletter communication to parents. Maybe it will inspire you.

1. Choose your topic. What art lessons have been successful? How have you improved on someone else’s idea? Don’t reinvent the wheel.  All great ideas are inspired by something else, right?
2. Start typing. Don’t worry about how incoherent you sound. Just get the ideas out of your head and written down.
3. Read it afterwards and fix the things that do not make sense.
4. Go do something else for a few minutes, a few days, or a week.  This is the magic time when you will think of a new idea or perfect phrase.  Then run —  don’t walk — back to your writing to make your edits.
5. Read what you wrote and ask yourself: Did I communicate my ideas? Revise your writing. Repeat steps 3-5 until you communicate your ideas effectively.
6. Choose a friend or colleague to read your rough draft.  I always do. Make revisions and let them read it again.

In case you missed my first year of the Tech4Arted column for SchoolArts, I have linked to the articles below.  I share my writing with you with hope that you will take the leap and share your ideas with us as well!

Creating a Compassionate Curriculum
Take an Art Tour in Google Maps
Wallwisher: Collaborate and Interact
Twenty-First Century Storytelling
Out of Place
Re-Making Time
Create Your Own Customized Art Quiz
Technology Transformation [Infographic]
Wired to the Natural World

Ready to share? SchoolArts is always looking for lesson ideas and art expression in your school and community. Or write a guest post on The Teaching Palette. Check out some of our fantastic guest post submissions here.

Special Note: A great resource for grammar is the Associate Press Guide to Punctuation.

Can’t see video above? Click here.

Not sure how to start with your technology transformation? The infographic below can help you begin your technology journey.

View larger image on Flickr.

I originally created this graphic for SchoolArts Magazine in the Tech4Arted Column.

The resources listed in the image above are hyperlinked below:
Get the technology you need with grants. See Supplementing Your Art Budget and Expand Your Art Room Budget.

Don’t do it alone . . . develop your PLN: (Personal Learning Network)
Twitter (here is my list of art educators on Twitter to get you started)
Art Ed 2.0
Art Education Blogs
Art Ed Yahoo Group

Web Tools:
108 Web Tools
Wix (website creator)
Glogster (interactive poster)
Aviary (image editor)
Art Babble (art videos online)

Another great place to start for beginners:

How have you integrated technology into your art curriculum?

Create a detail detective game. Use the amazing detail found using the zoom feature and take few quick screen-shots. Have your students match your detail to the correct location on the artwork. Learn more in this earlier post.

Integrate into other online media. The first of the three “Bedroom” paintings created by Vincent VanGogh is featured in Google Art Project.  See an example on how these Bedroom paintings are used in a Livebinder format.

Create an art scavenger hunt. Present a series of clues about a work of art featured by Google Art Project. Here’s an example (see if you can figure it out): Start at the Google Art Project home page. Clue 1. Painting is located in Spain. Clue 2. Created in a Cubist art style. Clue 3. Contains a musical instrument. Clue 4. Uses a neutral color scheme. Clue 5. Signed artwork in the lower left corner  (Click here for the answer.)

Explore Perspective. The zoom feature enables you to reach deep into a picture and see items otherwise missed. Does the artwork follow the rules of perspective? A few examples include Young Knight in a Landscape and Mary Enthroned with the Child.

Discuss copyright and fair use.  Older students can tackle copyright and fair use issues in our digital culture. Here are some resources to get you started: Columbia University, BlackBook, Curator the Museum Journal, The Official Google Blog.

Use Google Maps to Explore Google Art. See a thumbnail view the exact location of each museum in Google Maps while exploring the artwork room by room.

Compare and Contrast. Easily toggle between works or art using the collections feature. Compare by genre, media, or artist.

Integrate writing. Ask students to reflect on how viewing artwork in the context of a museum or with increased detail impacts their opinions about a work of art. Students can write out ideas and share with the class or use a Google Form for idea collection.  See an earlier post on how to create your own Google Form.

Create a Picture Book. Get inspired by Istvan Banyai’s picture book Zoom. Create your own picture book by printing detail images in a series that zooms out from an unexpected perspective. You can click here to see an example of an art collection zooming out. You can also create a group problem solving  and communication activity by giving each student one picture. Then have students try to organize images from most zoomed in to most zoomed out by using only words to describe their picture. Click here for activity details and an example using the Zoom books.

How do you plan to use Google Art Project with your students? Share your ideas in the comments area below.

Update 4/3/12 See the Art Lesson Plan from art teacher, Holly Bess Kincaid who was featured NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams.