Last Friday at the Maryland Art Education Association fall conference I went to a session called "Technology in the Art Room." I was excited because I wanted to ask other art teachers if they use a blog and if so how effective was it and what age groups did it work for. Unfortunately this workshop didn't have a lot of group discussion. The two leaders presented on using a digital camera to create a digital portfolio for the students and at the end of the year write and reflect about there work and the use of graphic organizers. I thought at some point they have mentioned how using a class blog would be a great avenue for this, but it never came up in the lesson.
With five minutes left we finally had question and answer time and I was the first one with my hand up. I was pretty excited because I was going to be asking a question that could lead to a great discussion and I could get a lot of information out of. I asked my question: "Do any art teachers have a class blog or have students blog about their artwork? Is this effective? What are the advantages and disadvantages? What age groups would work best for this?" The some then had an awkward moment of silence. In a room full of 15 art teachers, nobody had any experience with blogging. Then somebody spoke up and said that she has a friend who teaches high school and uses flickr for a similar purpose. She makes it part of their homework assignment to post up their work and comment on each others art. Then, another person spoke up and said that she would be reluctant to use a blog with her students because of how nasty the comments could get and that if she did it, she would only do it for high school but it would be too much to monitor it. Just as the group started opening up and a potentially good discussion was about to happen it was time to move on to the next session. I was a bit let down.
When searching online for good class blogs I found a little bit of the same disappointment. I found a lot of blogs that teachers used to share lesson plans and good resources, but I didn't really find anything where the students were taking part in the blog. The search led me to some really cool sites, they just weren't what I was wanting to find. Some teachers are taking advantage using this blogging technology but not to it's full capacity. I know the ideal classroom blog is out there, but I couldn't find the one that was ideal to me. When I say "ideal classroom blog" I mean a student centered blog thats not all about the teacher, or all about the assignments, but another tool to help the students not only understand the material and art medium, but themselves.
Here are some of the sites that I did find as useful blogs and tools for educators to use:
Mrs. Fuglestad's Art Class Blog at Dryden Elementary
Incredible Art Blogs and Podcasts
The Art Teacher's Guide to the Internet
The Teaching Palette
DIGI[cation] ePortfolio
Art Education 2.0
Collaborative mind mapping
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Congratulations for initiating this discussing and possibly inspiring an art teacher or two to think about blogging as a classroom tool. Digital media, as we certainly know, goes far beyond digital cameras and portfolios.
ReplyDeleteI am curious about this notion of the blog being a place for mischieve and negative peer interaction. We talked about this in class too, but isn't it interesting that this should instill fear and resistance as opposed to an opportunity. Critical blogging, which could involve student critique, is similar to artistic critique. Learning how to engage in constructive dialog is a way to build critical assessment and language skills. At the same time, teaching students to be kind is a kind of character education.