M3 What is Hypermedia?!? Let me fill you in...

There are many great hypermedia resources online to utilize in an art classroom. One great reference material is Oxford Art Online (Roblyer & Doering, 2013, p.175). This art encyclopedia is a gateway to numerous art resources such as The Benezit Dictionary of Artists, The Grove Art Online encyclopedia, The Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, and The Oxford Companion to Western Art. This is a great tool for teachers because it is very comprehensive and is updated regularly, which is uncharacteristic of many art publications out there. The sites also include tens of thousands of images that would be of great use to both teachers and students. Students can reference and compare numerous pieces of art by an artist, and explore works by famous artists that aren’t shown as often or are less popular.  It is often interesting to compare an artist’s development and changes in style by viewing work from very early in the artist’s career, however often these images are difficult to find. The encyclopedia is a great tool for that, since it is "accompanied by search tools that make searching for information in the application both easy and efficient" (Roblyer & Doering, 2013, p.176).

Another great hypermedia resource for teachers is a virtual environment, such as a virtual field trip (Roblyer & Doering, 2013, p.195). Though most teachers can’t take their class to the Met, the Vatican, or the Smithsonian for a field trip, students can view the exhibits at those museums and experience the essence of the museum virtually. Many of these tours are made using a compilation of photos taken 360 degrees around a single view point, as if you were standing in one place and spinning in a circle (Roblyer & Doering, 2013, p.195). Others allow you to view the museum as if walking around in it. Because viewing art that's hanging on a wall in a museum is very different from seeing it in a book or as a poster in a classroom, a virtual museum field trip gives students a different perspective by using "multiple senses: a true multimedia environment" ((Roblyer & Doering, 2013, p.193).  A virtual field trip can also be helpful for teaching about art history so that students can see works or architecture in their original environments. Here are a few virtual field trips that I really enjoyed:

Virtual Tour of the Sistine Chapel

Virtual Tour of The Smithsonian Museum of Natural History

Virtual Tour of the Museo Galileo - Institute and Museum of the History of Science

Another great resource is MetMedia, an online collection of video, podcasts, and interactive media that relate to collections and visiting exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This site goes through the range of hypermedia catergories, and I thought it was worth sharing and something many of you would enjoy exploring. Though I find it interesting as an art education major, it could also be used in a music, history, English, or foreign language classroom. The possibilities are endless! A few of my favorite interactives are The Dancers and Degas and Aaron’s Awesome Adventure. The Dancers and Degas would be a great new artist introduction or a fun follow-up to a Degas project. 

I also stumbled upon an old favorite: a virtual Book of Kells. In the spirit of St. Patty's coming up soon, I thought I would share. Nothing beats seeing the book in person at Trinity College in Dublin (a highlight of my college Maymester trip to Ireland!) BUT this is pretty cool too! You can even get the iPad app now!

What are some of your favorite museum tours? Comment and share!

Doering, A.H., & Roblyer, M.D. (2013). Integrating educational

technology into teaching (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

Instructional Software: So much to do, so little time...

Welcome to the world of Instructional Software!

Drill and Practice software gives students the opportunity to “work example items” and see their results quickly to grasp their strengths and weaknesses (Roblyer & Doering, 2013, p.81). By seeing immediately that their work is incorrect, students avoid reinforcing incorrect methods of whatever they are learning (Roblyer & Doering, 2013, p. 84) You won’t worry about losing your flash cards with Flash Card Machine (http://www.flashcardmachine.com)- they’re safe online!

Tutorial software is more of an “all inclusive” tool than a supplemental one. Tutorial software should teach an entire topic on its own “without any other help or materials” (Roblyer & Doering, 2013, p.86). Kids Typing Skills teaches students every aspect of keyboarding (http://www.rapidtyping.com/best-typing-tutors/kids-typing-skills.html).

Simulation software teaches about something, such as a virtual chemistry experiment, and or gives a “how-to,” such as a step-by-step medical procedure (Roblyer & Doering, 2013, p.90). Simulations allow students to experience, as much as possible, situations that in real life might be too dangerous, costly, or time consuming.  Many great examples can be found at http://www.vagueware.com/top-10-simulation-software-for-children-and-teenagers-for-home-and-school-fun/. For students who enjoy Farmville, Third World Farmer may get their attention (http://www.3rdworldfarmer.com/).

Instructional Games are a fun way for students to reinforce concepts they learn about in the classroom. Though similar to drill-and-practice, instructional games usually have a higher fun factor (Roblyer & Doering, 2013, p.95). Back in the 90s we used to love to play Super Munchers, an educational mix between Jeopardy and PacMan, where the Super Muncher eats things that belong in a category before the villain gets it. The game can still be downloaded online (if you’re willing to risk getting a virus along with it!) at http://www.myabandonware.com/game/super-munchers-the-challenge-continues-19x. A better option might be to check out newer games at http://www.funbrain.com. The site offers games for numerous K-8 topics, such as math, reading, and social studies.

Problem Solving software is specifically targeted at teaching problem solving skills, both generally and in content specific areas, such as math and science (Roblyer & Doering, 2013, p. 99). A great example is Geometer’s Sketchpad, a “mathematics visualization software” (http://www.dynamicgeometry.com/). Visit http://www.keycurriculum.com/products/sketchpad to watch a video about the software.

Integrated Learning Systems are very helpful to students and teachers, allowing for virtual instruction and grade/progress tracking (Roblyer & Doering, 2013, p. 102). Check out the Cognitive Tutor software (http://www.carnegielearning.com/specs/cognitive-tutor-overview/) for a great example of ILS.

Word Processing software, such as Microsoft Word, enables the user to create pages of text and images, such as simple letters or papers or even newsletters or flyers (Roblyer & Doering, 2013, p. 114). It is hard to imagine the days of typing on a typewriter, when the slightest mistake was much harder to fix. Now it is very easy to copy and paste words or paragraphs to edit and improve compositions. Word, one of the most popular word processors, is available at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/.

Spreadsheet software also is a useful tool to teachers and students for organizing data, especially numerically (Roblyer & Doering, 2013, p.122). Microsoft also has popular spreadsheet software called Excel: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/.

What is some of your favorite instructional software? Feel free to comment and share your feedback! 

M1 Blog Posting: The Technology Takeover

For many students, parents, and teachers today, the overuse of technology is a major cause of concern both inside and outside the classroom (Roblyer & Doering, 2013, p.13).  As I write this post on my laptop while streaming Pandora, referencing my textbook on my iPad, and trying to ignore the constant buzz of my iPhone’s text and Facebook alerts, I can’t help but think about the technology overload in my own life. How can anyone get any work done in this environment?

The increasing use of technology in the classroom opens up a number of distractions for both students and teachers. Now that many students, even in elementary school, use iPads or mobile devices in the classroom or for homework, it has become increasingly difficult to eliminate the distractions that these gadgets bring with them. It is so tempting to listen to music or to constantly check Facebook. For my generation, the integration of technology into everyday life and multitasking with technology is normal (Roblyer & Doering, 2013, p.13). Most young adults live amongst a constant stream of texts, tweets, and notifications that seemingly cause little disruption. I can have lunch with a friend while simultaneously having a text conversation with another friend a state away.  But in this situation, am I truly engaged? While we drive, we listen to music, follow Google maps, and talk to Siri. But are we really focused on the road? As Roblyer and Doering point out, “studies have shown that accuracy and safety usually suffer when people try to attend to more than one task at a time” (p.13). If we are learning through technology, watching videos, playing games, searching the internet, and overloading our brains with digital media, how much are we really learning? What are we missing?

A recent study from the Pew Research Center points out a number of problems that the overuse of technology has caused students.  In his response to this study, Matt Ritchel writes that “in interviews, teachers described what might be called a ‘Wikipedia problem,’ in which students have grown so accustomed to getting quick answers with a few keystrokes that they are more likely to give up when an easy answer eludes them” (Richtel 2012). We live in a technology savvy society where an answer is just a quick Google search away, and have gotten too used to technology doing our work for us. 

[Click HERE to read Richtel’s article in its entirety]

We are reminded that “technologically possible does not equal desirable, feasible, or inevitable” (Roblyer & Doering, 2013, p.10). Many technologies we could use for teaching may not be the most beneficial to the overall classroom or to all students. As technologies advance and integrate into learning, we must be careful what we allow in our classrooms. “Better technology demands that we become critical consumers of its power and capability,” reminding us just how much technology impacts our lives and our brains (Roblyer & Doering, 2013, p.10).

Doering, A.H., & Roblyer, M.D. (2013). Integrating educational

            technology into teaching (6^th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ:

            Pearson Education, Inc.

Richtel, Matt. (2012, November 1). Technology changing how students
            learn, teachers say. New York Times. Retrieved from
            http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/01/education/technology-is-
            changing-how-students-learn-teacherssay.html?

            pagewanted=1&_r=0

First Post, y'all!

I LOVE technology. I can hardly go 2 minutes without using my iPhone to check texts, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, my email... the list goes on. That thing doesn't stop buzzing, and rarely does it alert me to something worthy of my time. I am using an Apple product probably 18 hours a day, for playing music, my alarm clock, GPS... those are useful, I guess.

I am looking forward to learning about technology that will actually be beneficial to my personal learning and in the classroom!