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Patricia C. Whittington

AED5000 Research Art Education

Masters Research Seminar

04-23-2014

iMedia for Art Educators

Art education is facing many changes to keep up with technological society.

Art educators traditionally study to learn how to develop visual art projects and lesson planning catering to elementary, middle and high school grade levels.

Art educators are now faced with new challenges to apply technology into their teaching strategies because children are exposed to computers and smart phones at a very early age. It is important for art educators to learn digital art and implement computer technology into their classroom. Art educators must realize the effects technology will have on lesson planning, teaching strategies, research as well as assessments, student learning objectives and grading processes. Incorporating digital art technology and web portfolio into the art educators curriculum will help develop technical experience, train educators how to teach software applications to others as well as develop digital art projects to incorporate on a online portfolio website for future employment opportunities.

The visual arts are traditional studio methods to create works of art that are visual in nature, such as drawing, painting, design, photography, ceramics and sculpture to name a few. Art Educators traditionally learn studio visual art skills and craftsmanship as artists before moving towards teaching methods for educating the young to the old. A digital artist is an artist who uses digital technology to produce their artwork. This means an artist can use digital cameras or use computer scanners of traditional artworks such as photography, paintings, drawings, sculptures and bring them into a digital software program on their computer, iPad, or smart phone. If the computer hardware houses the software applications to work with digital imagery, artists can use software applications to manipulate images into a digital artwork that represents a form of communication and visual literacy.

Graphic design is the art of communication, stylizing, and problem-solving through the use of type, space and image. Graphic designers use various methods to create and combine words, symbols, and images to create a visual representation of ideas and messages. Digital software packages including Adobe software packages are used specifically for creating logo designs, packaging design for products and advertising for businesses.

Integrating Technology into the Art Classroom.

Technology has become an integrated part in today’s society. The internet, computers, smart phones, ipad are commonplace in business and the home. It controls how we communicate with each other, conduct daily business, access information and now found it’s way into our classrooms.

Technology in the classroom is common in elementary and middle schools to give power point presentations and short videos to demonstrate the lesson plan for the class period.

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Students are learning about technology and applications that expose them to new ways of learning traditional academic content areas such as English, Math and Science as well as basics to online learning curriculums on the internet to upload, download and research materials.

Learning what is age appropriate.

Babies in today’s society play with mock toy computers and keyboards.

Preschool children are watching educational programs on LED television screens, laptop computers or iPads. I recently watched a children’s educational series called Super Readers. The series airs on PBS Kids and Sprout in the USA, Kids' CBC in Canada. This series is based on computer animated characters that formed a book club and encounter reading, spelling and correcting a storyline using a computer and smart phone technology as resources to solve problems.

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Children use iPads to play leap frog, learn their ABC’s and play computer games.

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Public libraries have small computers in the children’s reading section for children to play visual art games. In some elementary schools, third graders are sitting in front of computers learning how to work with basic software programs and saving files. Children are learning to rely on technology at a very young age.

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What used to be considered vocational training is now career technology.

High school students are now offered career technology classes in many fields including interactive art media and advertising. Many school systems let their students use iPads to research and download class materials online from the internet for class assignments. Eventually most classes will be conducted online to access course materials, test taking and grading to reduce any use of paper or traditional textbooks. Technical career school systems dedicated to career technology are offered to high school students if they choose not to attend a traditional area content school system. Penta Career Center in Oregon Ohio is a career technical school that offers computer art and interactive media classes:

“Provides students with entry-level knowledge and skills needed to enter the business and artistic job markets and/or articulate to further educational programs. Students create portfolios in visual and digital media, learn digital photography, study videography, and basic Web design.”



Penta Career Center 9301 Buck Rd. Perrysburg, Ohio 43551. 

Will the traditional studio visual arts a thing of the past? If studio visual art projects taught today in the classrooms are going to survive a digital transition, a few questions need to be answered. Jack Tovey, who is an art technology specialist at Pinellas County Schools in Texas states:

“Why should we integrate technology into the art classroom? The most important reason that Digital Arts need to be in our Visual Arts curriculum is because that is where the students are. They live and breathe digital art though cartoons, animated films, movies, games, television, youtube, Internet web pages, and multimedia presentations. Artists have always explored using the technologies of the day to personally express themselves in new and exciting ways and using Digital Arts Labs make this possible.”

Wendi Glick, a teacher reinforces Jack Tovey’s view by stating:

“I am currently awaiting a class set of iPads and am super excited for the opportunity to have technology as another avenue of visual exploration. Hand held technology like the iPad allows me to take the students outside, take their own reference photos and then manipulate their own images. The importance of the technology is as Jack mentioned - it's where the kids are now. Not only that, but it also offsets the cost of materials. If they are able to draw on an iPad and send me the image I waste no paper or other materials. And not every piece of artwork needs to be printed. And just as with any other media, once students have the opportunity to explore the media they can then begin making personal choices about their specific preferences.”





The surprising effect that technology may have on children is how they use their knowledge and visually incorporate it into their visual art works. A third grade student was working on his art project and asked me if I knew the meaning of the symbols he drew on this art project. When I told him no, he explained to me that the symbols represented computer keyboard short cuts. The “ ................
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