I attended two face-to-face workshops at the College of Education this semester.
The first was Booksnaps, with Tara Martin. Tara in an educator who has been using the application 'Snapchat' to connect her students to the curriculum in a fun and exciting way. She stated that using applications, such as Snapchat, can be utilized to help kids connect to curriculum that is meaningful to them and gives them a voice. Tara has her students take a photograph of passages from books that they connect to. They import the images into Snapchat, and use filters, text boxes, and stickers to emphasize how they feel about what they are reading. The students can share the images with the class via Padlet, or other content sharing applications. She referred to this method as "a digital highlighter" to help students express themselves. Personally, I don't know how I feel about this method of learning. I feel that if there is an application that students already associate with 'leisure', such as Snapchat, this can create a distraction to students. There are other applications that have similar functions that might be more helpful and less distracting. As a future educator, I'm unsure that this method is something that I would seek to employ in my classroom.
The second workshop was Art with iPads with Anne Beck. I was so happy to go to this workshop because I plan to teach high school art, and I'd love to learn as much as possible about creating digital art. I learned about many different drawing applications, some that I was familiar with and some that I had never heard of. The app that I learned the most about was "Procreate." Procreate is an iPad app that is much like Adobe Photoshop, and allows the user to draw images using many different tools and layers. Layers can be used to created animated gifs within this app as well. I felt that this app was very easy to learn, and felt very intuitive. I used a regular stylus when drawing on the iPad, and it was easy to use. I additionally got to use the Apple pen with the app "57." This app does not allow the user to create layers, but it is very nice for sketch noting. The apple pen was wonderful to use, it is pressure sensitive and creates very nice varying line weights with great ease. I think that students could use both of these apps to create and experiment with drawing in a very helpful way. There is no mess or clean up associated with digital art, and it is very easy to "undo" if you make a mistake. iPads have a large upfront cost, but you don't have to continue purchasing art supplies which can become very expensive. Additionally, I think that art is moving quickly into a digital age, and it is very important for students to keep up to date with technology, especially if they are interested in pursuing art as a career. I will definitely consider using apps such as these in my classroom someday.
The first was Booksnaps, with Tara Martin. Tara in an educator who has been using the application 'Snapchat' to connect her students to the curriculum in a fun and exciting way. She stated that using applications, such as Snapchat, can be utilized to help kids connect to curriculum that is meaningful to them and gives them a voice. Tara has her students take a photograph of passages from books that they connect to. They import the images into Snapchat, and use filters, text boxes, and stickers to emphasize how they feel about what they are reading. The students can share the images with the class via Padlet, or other content sharing applications. She referred to this method as "a digital highlighter" to help students express themselves. Personally, I don't know how I feel about this method of learning. I feel that if there is an application that students already associate with 'leisure', such as Snapchat, this can create a distraction to students. There are other applications that have similar functions that might be more helpful and less distracting. As a future educator, I'm unsure that this method is something that I would seek to employ in my classroom.
The second workshop was Art with iPads with Anne Beck. I was so happy to go to this workshop because I plan to teach high school art, and I'd love to learn as much as possible about creating digital art. I learned about many different drawing applications, some that I was familiar with and some that I had never heard of. The app that I learned the most about was "Procreate." Procreate is an iPad app that is much like Adobe Photoshop, and allows the user to draw images using many different tools and layers. Layers can be used to created animated gifs within this app as well. I felt that this app was very easy to learn, and felt very intuitive. I used a regular stylus when drawing on the iPad, and it was easy to use. I additionally got to use the Apple pen with the app "57." This app does not allow the user to create layers, but it is very nice for sketch noting. The apple pen was wonderful to use, it is pressure sensitive and creates very nice varying line weights with great ease. I think that students could use both of these apps to create and experiment with drawing in a very helpful way. There is no mess or clean up associated with digital art, and it is very easy to "undo" if you make a mistake. iPads have a large upfront cost, but you don't have to continue purchasing art supplies which can become very expensive. Additionally, I think that art is moving quickly into a digital age, and it is very important for students to keep up to date with technology, especially if they are interested in pursuing art as a career. I will definitely consider using apps such as these in my classroom someday.