Art and Technology...In need of "cool tools" to use!

[Jessica Maynard]

I am a third year elementary art teacher and I am always desperately trying to find ways to incorporate technology into my art room. We have a computer lab, whiteboard, digital cameras, scanners, and color printers in our building, but I don't always have direct access to these tools. Does anyone have any suggestions on cool techy tools that may be a great addition to an art classroom? I want to try writing a grant for combining art and technology but I would love to hear some suggestions about techy gadgets that are out there!

[Joe Rohrhoff]

I think its great that you're trying to incorporate technology into an art classroom. If you have access to a computer lab you could try www.mrpicassohead.com. I have found my students on that site when they get off task. Its actually quite interesting.

If you try it let me know how it goes!

[Kecia Waddell]

I love Web 2.0 tools for creative demonstration of student understanding. Jessica go crazy with the following tools I use and love as a special educator to differentiate instruction for various learning styles.
http://www.wordle.net/advanced (text visualizations) Learn about the ADVANCED features at their blog See this one: http://blog.wordle.net/2009/02/word-vader.html

http://voicethread.com/about/k12/# (art appreciation/image sharing and feedback)

Further, start a RSS feed with http://artjunction.org/blog/ and others you'll find at this blog. Hope this helps!! ENJOY... your students are blessed to have YOU as their teacher!!

[Ben Rimes]

Don't forget ArtRage. There's a free starter edition, and it simulates painting with real paints and brushes. The full version is only 25 if you want all the tools, but the free version rocks on its own.

[Jessica Maynard]

Awesome...thanks so much! I did hear of that before but kind of filed it away in my brain, never to be used in the classroom. It is now noted and will be used next year. Thanks!

[Karen Bosch]

Here is a blog post I did about Eight Interactive Sites that let you paint like a famous artist:


http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/kbosch/2009/04/06/eight-great-in...

And I have a lot of great art websites here:


http://www.southfieldchristian.org/elem/learninglinks/html/linksart...