What Does Technology Integration Mean to You?

When asked a question about our contemporary society and the changes that happen within it I have to answer twice.  I identify myself as an art educator and an artist.  At times these personalities work incredibly well together, but there are those moments when it’s not the best to cross these paths.  When asked about our society and the current move toward technology integration, when asked what it means to me, I have to answer twice.  Luckily, this is one of those times in which my answers benefit from each other.  As an artist technology integration means a drastic shift in creative medium, and as an art educator technology integration means a more accessible curriculum.

Traditional art has always been held in highest regard by the social consciousness of humanity.  Oil paints gently brushed on to stretched canvas, marble finely chiseled into the likeness of another, and inks of various colors pulled across paper to form a composition that speaks to the very soul.  These are the things we think about when we discuss art, at least, they were.  Now the digital age has brought about tools that can near perfectly mimic traditional mediums, and with those tools the clever of us have created new types of art.  The greatest moments in art history, the times in which the world was changed by art, were all caused by boredom with the known.  It is when someone does something new, makes something unexpected and unseen, that the world notices and remembers.  With technological integration the world of the past has become available in the palm of your hand.  Any artist can use new devices to replace entire tool kits of artistic materials.  Any artist can find that new way to create something, that unexpected and unseen thing anywhere they are by merely having the right type of tool.  And so many tools have become available as we understand our technology more and further its reach back.  Many of these tools make art creation an available pursuit for anyone.  Of course the truly great will take their time to experience their craft, hone their ability, and learn all there is to make something great, but it won’t cost them a life savings and a lifetime anymore.  As an artist, technology integration means that art is becoming something beautifully new, something that has more mastery over a universal language than it has ever before.  Technology integration means art can be for everyone.

The art classroom is a place that teaches to tradition.  We teach the famous artists of old, discuss why they are so famous, and wish to understand how our own work can speak to as many people as their art did.  However, classes find themselves limited.  The arts are never placed in high importance when it comes to funding, and art educators know this all too well.  With the push in schools to have a 1:1 ratio of available technology to students it means that technology integration allows for greater access.   The art classroom can now be created through the use of devices that mimic the expensive tools and materials used in art creation.  Students won’t have to study just the artists that are in their textbook.  They can explore the world of art through their digital device and discover what type of art truly speaks to them.  I have been wishing to move the art classroom to a more contemporary mindset, helping students understand that traditional visuals and the importance placed on traditionally “good” art is not what matters.  What matters is making something that speaks for you, about you, something that you feel good making.  Through technology integration students have the entire history of art in the palm of their hand.  They have access to every artist new and old.  They have access to every work that has ever been made.  They are no longer limited to what is held in a school-mandated textbook when they have the ability to read any book.  Now I am not speaking against traditional art in any way.  The fine forms and figures devised by artists of old still allow us to create amazing work.  We still need to understand these principles and elements of art to speak properly with it, but we do not need to use the tools of artists before us.  We have access to new tools, to entirely new mediums.  Technology integration brings us the entire world of old art and all that is new art.

As an artist technology integration means a drastic shift in creative medium, and as an art educator technology integration means a more accessible curriculum.  Young artists are mastery the old world with new tools and students are discovery so much more with what they can access.  Technology integration brings an end to many things as traditional artists and traditional teachers, and many of us fear the loss of those aspects.  We fear the change that is coming.  But, those of us that can grasp this change and focus it within our classrooms can help our students understand so much more than we ever could.

Supporting K-12 Learning in Michigan

The website Supporting K-12 Learning in Michigan, found here, is a nice resource that can help in understanding how to best integrate the online learning graduation requirement into your main curriculum for students ranging from Kindergarten to 12th grade.  Starting with the 2011 graduating high school classes in Michigan, students are required to have completed and online course.  Presented here will be three scenarios from the site and answers to the questions prompted in each.

The first scenario, found here, has to do with the implementation of the online requirement by the state of Michigan into K-12 learning.  Students have 3 options on how to meet this requirement: by completing an online course, by completing 20 hours of online learning in a face-to-face classroom, and/or by adding technology infused lessons within the classroom where the students use online resources to complete learning objectives.  The resources included in the scenario bring an educator to the updated list of Michigan Merit Curriculum Guidelines and ways on how to best integrate them into the classroom.  At the end we are prompted to, "Brainstorm some challenges that students might face in each of the methods of meeting the State's online learning graduation requirement."  Now the biggest challenge with many schools, especially older schools, with the first method would be the integration of online learning courses.  Many are strictly face-to-face learning experiences and the administration could be stuck in their ways.  This would prevent the school form offering courses online and thus hinder that method.  However, many schools and administrators are embracing online courses and understand their necessity.  Method two and three can both be challenged by the classroom teacher.  If they have not been trained in how to properly incorporate online learning into their classroom then the student requirement will suffer.  This is very much up to collaboration between the administration and the teaching staff to train in online integration and help learn how to best utilize this resource.

The second scenario, found here, focuses on students that are not prepared to participate in online learning. Many students are unprepared for the more independent learning environment that online integration brings with it.  There are "soft learning skills" that can be fostered within students that will help them succeed in this independent learning atmosphere.  These focus on proper time management and self regulation.  Orientations should be given for students that focus on these "soft learning skills" that can act as an introduction to the online learning experience while helping them understand what they will personally need to bring to the table.  This orientation should also include introduction of and instruction in all the tools they will be using in their online experience.  This orientation can be gradually introduced throughout the early years of schooling and more effectively taught in higher education.  The resources provided help identify and describe the characteristics needed to be successful in an online learning format.  These help build an appropriate orientation for students that are not as of yet ready.  At the end we are prompted to, "Create a list of strategies that students could use to develop independence, self-motivation, self-regulation, self-direction, time management, and other soft learning skills."  Within the art classroom a great way to build soft learning skills is a weekly sketchbook assignment.  Completed outside of the classroom time, students are required to create a work of art that is mildly regulated by a rubric or instructional worksheet.  This helps the students understand that they must choose what to draw and how much work to put into it.  Timed drawing exercises also help with these "soft learning skills."  By having progressively difficult drawing exercises done in a timed fashion students understand that they need to regulate their work and focus on what is most important for the given assignment.  Group projects also always help foster motivational and directional skills.  The groups work together, judge their strengths and weaknesses, and decide on how to best complete a project.  This helps individual students understand their own abilities and how they must be responsible for their own end of the work.  These are just a few ways to help foster "soft learning skills" in the art classroom.

The third scenario, found here, focuses on how students can seek resources outside the physical appearance of a teacher.  Online courses generally have built-in tutorials that assist the student in understanding the course as well as contact information for any teachers that can answer questions via online and offline messaging sources.  Accompanying the course should be instruction in effective search strategies for appropriate online sources to assist in learning.  Students should be given a list of local teachers and tutors, as well as fellow students within the online course is imperative in aiding the students learning.  Through these resources they can seek out "study buddies" or tutors to help with problem areas.  It is the appropriate use of supports with the online course content that will be most effective in student online learning success.  The resources added to this scenario help understand how best to locate supports for online learning and identify what supports are needed in online learning.  At the end we are prompted to, "Identify what your school is doing to support students in their online learning.  What are some things that your school could do to better support students as they meet their online learning graduation requirements?"  Mona Shores Public Schools has an amazing setup when it comes to online and digital integration.  At the higher ed level all students are given access to Google accounts that allow them a quick and easy introduction into online schooling tools.  Each teacher provides a blog site and Moodle learning site to accompany their physical classroom.  There is even a move to getting efficient 1:1 technology to the students in the coming school years.  However, many of these classrooms only provide secondary or supplemental material, and don't fully access the flipped classroom aspect that online resources provide.  I think instating a required unit or lesson that integrates the flipped format will do wonders for helping foster positive online learning skills.  There aren't required classes that focus on positive online presence and citizenship.  Classes like these would be imperative for any student wishing to enter an online course, or truly any individual in general in this technologically advanced day and age.

The website offers a great deal of resources for anyone that wishes to enter or create an online learning format.  It works as a great introduction to the requirements of the teacher and the student in an online learning environment, and helps understand how best to accomplish those requirements.  Personally, I think it could use some visual work but hey, it does what it sets out to do.  Doesn't always have to be aesthetically pleasing as well as utilitarian.