Read & React

For this week’s read and reflect, I would like to start out by discussing a few of the ways I could use the technology we used this week in my future classroom. I want to be able to remember my ideas for these resources! J

Voicethread: I think this application is a great tool for reflection and critique. I love the idea of giving students the ability to talk about their artistic process, as another form of reflection. The incorporation of voice and photos would give them the power to show evolution of an idea and the reasoning behind their choices.

Mural.ly: While I loved the concept of this application, I personally found it to be very slow and not the most user-friendly. I know that it is a new application, but if it becomes more advanced in the future, I think it could be a great tool for creating idea boards, documenting artistic research, reflection, and particularly a personal aesthetic unit I have been working on.

Thinkling: This application is practically made for VTS! I think it would be a cool way to see how students critique a work of art before introducing VTS. It would be a great way to assess their ability to look and think critically before and after learning and utilizing Visual Thinking Strategies. Also, because it is collaborative, I think students would enjoy commenting on the thoughts of others and reflecting on multiple perspectives.

After reading Manning & Johnson, I realized that I had not thought of discussion forums as a useful tool until the authors talked about the way consumers use discussion forums. Many times have I relied on technology problems or further information about a product or service through discussion forums. In this sense, I think that forums could be made applicable and useful in education, but I think that a major factor in it’s success is the “friendlyness” of the software. I often find myself frustrated with Blackboard and other education sites because they function much differently than many other sites commonly used. For example, these sites usually do not have the option to search for a specific topic you would like to know more about. I find it more difficult to make connections on these sites because it is inconvenient to comment or reply. Perhaps one of the most important things for us to consider when selecting technology for the classroom is: how intuitive is this site? Will my students become disengaged because the technology is unreliable or inconvenient? I think for technology in the classroom to work successfully, it should work almost seamlessly and be engaging to its audience.