M3 Blogging Assignment

Search Engines

There are a couple of keys to using search engines effectively. Recognizing specific URL syntax and being able to save/organize website lists is very important. Outside the basic understanding of keyword searches it is important to know how to navigate the advanced search options. This will save you the time of having review hundreds of "hits" you might get as a result of simple keyword search (Roblyer & Doering, 2013).

Website Evaluation Video

This video from the teaching channel website highlights some ways to integrate the importance of website evaluation into the classroom. I thought it useful as a teacher reference more than as a video to show students.  I think it would be important to cover  the "potential problems", "safety" and red flag issue that may arise from poor navigation practices. Roblyer & Doering (2013) cover five main controversies including topics on 1.inappropriate materials, 2.safety & privacy, 3. fraud, 4. viruses & hacking, and 5. plagiarism (p.214-16). Student awareness beyond the list of basic source credibility standards may save teachers, parents and students from future headaches. I pulled this list from the spartan guides library website. 

Use CARRDSS to evaluate your sources
C	REDIBILITY : Who is the author? What are his or her credentials?

A	CCURACY: Can facts, statistics, or other information be verified through other sources? Based on your knowledge, does the information seem accurate?

R	ELIABILITY: Does the source present a particular view or bias?

R	ELEVANCE: Does this information directly support my hypothesis/thesis or help to answer my question?

D	ATE: When was this information created? When was it revised? Are these dates meaningful in terms of the subject matter?

S	OURCES BEHIND THE TEXT: Did the author use reliable, credible sources?

S	COPE: Does this source address my hypothesis/thesis/question in a comprehensive or peripheral way? Is it a scholarly or popular treatment?

Favorite Website #1

One of my favorite websites is TheArtStory.org. This educational site gives several ways for learners to access information about modern art history. The website utilizes social networking site (SNS) links and i was originally introduced to the art story though Facebook. In this way it fits into the idea of LMS or learning management system (Roblyer & Doering, 2013). I find the navigation options interesting in how topics can be searched by timeline, movement or artist. This resource would be a great for student research projects as they have links to current articles and teachers could use it to download images with copyright permission or develop web based lessons (Roblyer & Doering, 2013).

Favorite Website #2

Researching Wiki style website pages seemed to be more challenging than i originally thought. I found several sites but couldn't really relate any to a project i might be interested in teaching. Then i stumbled upon the Davis City Local Wiki page and thought it looked interesting. I was unable to find any similar pages for Birmingham. This would make a great project for kids in a local school district to have to come up with a story, photograph, travel tip, etc to add to the page as a semester progressed. Further project might be prompted from simple things that interested the student while interacting with the local wiki page. Things as simple as train tracks or street signs could lead to journalism style video projects. I think it could be a great continued development of collaboration skills as each student would be interacting to contribute to the overall content and appearance of the local wiki page (Roblyer & Doering, 2013).

works cited 

 Roblyer, M.D., and Aaron H. Doering. Integrating Educational Technology Into Teaching. 6th ed. Boston: Pearson. 2013. Print.

Using Critical Thinking to find Trustworthy Websites, retrieved 2.25.15 from https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/analyzing-websites-with-students

CARRDSS, system for validation of website resources, retrieved 2.25.15 from http://sdst.libguides.com/content.php?pid=184760&sid=1555556&search_terms=web+site+evaluation

Excerpt from the NBC television show, The Office, retrieved 2.25.15 from youtube

Module 2 Blogging Assignment

Commercial Hypermedia Product

In deciphering an applicable hypermedia product an art teacher might first decide on a particular artist, style, and/or historical movement in which their intended project can be related.  It may seem easy to pull images from the web as a reference to say a Van Gogh portrait or a still life painting by Cezanne but, without a strategy of explaining the complexity of both meaning and process a teacher may loose the interest of an unengaged student. This is where commercial hypermedia products can add an abundance of content to keep the student focused. Veronikas & Shaughnessy (2005, p180) noted from their research that "when learners engage in appropriate cognitive processing during learning, such as... mentally organizing the selected information into coherent pictorial and verbal models," a deeper understanding is possible (Roblyer & Doering, 2013).  I have discovered interactive CD-ROMs to be very effective in covering a wide range of historical and contemporary artist works and many public museums offer these on their websites. One such product entitled "Frames of Reference: Art, History, and the World, by J.Marquardt, S. Eskilson discusses view points from artists and critics while navigating the historical movements by theme. This could be combined with a tutorial video and in class demonstration to introduce a week long lesson plan or even a longer unit. Scheiter and Gerjets (2007) pointed out that Hypermedia can "provide affordances for active and constructive information processing" (p.301). It was also noted that these types of hypermedia platforms can provide captions for the hearing impaired (Roblyer & Doering, 2013).

Chosen Multimedia Authoring Tools

Upon further review of the options for multimedia authoring tools it seemed audio/video production & editing software would be the most effective for interactive art education. Roblyer & Doering (2013) stated that "as students gain more knowledge in the theory and aesthetics of music and art, they will use these resources more productively in the authoring process" (p.184), There would many applications where students could use phones or provided video cameras to collect the progress of created works to be combined in fast animation films. Examples of these videos could be taken from YouTube to be shown during a lesson. There are many video editing programs on the market that fall under the category of multimedia authoring tools but i have been most familiar with Microsoft Movie Maker. This program allows the user to "stitch" excerpts from several minutes of footage into one seamless film. Audio tracks could also be edited and dubbed over the final video. It might be fun to record the students describing their artwork and recording it over a time lapse video similar to the one shown below. It is likely students will "invest more effort" if they think that others will be able to enjoy what they have created (Roblyer & Doering, 2013)

References :

Roblyer, M.D., and Aaron H. Doering. Integrating Educational Technology Into Teaching. 6th ed. Boston: Pearson. 2013. Print.

Time-Lapse of Artist Shantell Martin Creating A New Art Installation About Financial Literacy  retrieved on February 12th, 2015 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yRelcGB7Tg