Okay, this will be my first personal entry on this blog, but why not?
The last class was really cool and I have to say that the gadgets are really cool. Has anyone seen the movie Agent Cody Banks? I felt like I was in the at movie and the gadget were being shown to me one by one and all I could saw was: COOL! WOW! and AWESOME!
Each item has a spectacular range of applications. I think the camera microscope is fantastic, the idea you can take movies and put data right into graphs. These kind of applications really being meaning and real life application to teaching. Plus the students have a blast because they are creating their own learning.
Being an artist, my favorite was the the art pressure sensitive pad. This tool is the coolest and it can work on PCs as well as on Macs. There are so many specifics that can be chosen in the painting program that the pad comes with. These include medium, color, blenders, brush/pencil size and shape and well as more graphic oriented functions. These choices make it really well designed for instruction and texture.
My only caution I have about this tool is that when doing all the motions your hand is in the "holding a pencil position". And one of the things in painting and drawing you want to do is to use big arm motions. That way you get out of thinking with your left brain, like with the little details and analytical aspects of drawing. It is important switch more into the right brain, to create the line and shape of the object you are trying to represent on the paper. Of course that is only my opinion, but it is something to consider.
The other thing is that this program gets the students out of touch with the paper and the feel of the paint and brush.
But I can see the art pad as a great extension of other art lessons done in the real media, or a quick activity that you can all do much faster on the program rather than getting all the materials all out and the project take half the day.
Also it gives the students another way to see art. There are graphic designers and computer artist out there and some students might really connect with this kind of art. Where they balk at using water colors and such.
I would like it as an addition to the classroom, but not a replacement of all art.
1 comment:
Good points about art. You're entirely correct-- a graphics tablet is not a substitute for the "real" tools that artists use. We still need to make sure that kids can use chalk and crayons and paints and clay. But it is a nice (and engaging) tool that can create some very impressive artwork. There is one feature about graphic tablets that really cuts two ways--the fact that you can't watch your hands as you draw, since you're watching the screen all the time. In once sense, I don't like that because it's not like "real" art. On the other hand, it does produce some amazing refinements in eye-hand coordination.
Post a Comment