SMART Boards
and Wacom Tablets:
The newest fad that is sweeping classrooms across North America is the latest invention of the “SMART Board.” The SMART Board is an interactive whiteboard system that allows the students to participate in the access of the classroom technology and become the center of the lesson experience.
SMART Boards can be great for enhancing lessons in an arts classroom. Teachers can access programs such as Photoshop, Sumo Paint and imovie while interactively instructing and showing students how to use the programs while the students watch and participate with the media.
The best example that displays how the SMART Board can be used in a classroom is shown on a teacher’s blog, “the virtual classroom,” where an elementary school teacher Tricia Fuglestad shows how she uses the technology in her classroom on a regular basis.
Check out the video: http://www.blog2008.thevirtualclassroom.org/?p=45008.thevirtualclassroom.org/?p=450
The invention of the SMART Board is definitely a positive step in technology and programs intended for use in the classroom. It allows the teacher to access any resources or tools that they require in teaching a lesson at the touch of their finger tips.
As one teacher comments: “...it helps the students understand concepts much better than just teaching using another type of board.” Loiselle (a veteran teacher) said that when teaching a new program to a boy, who was watching her make the new document, he picked up on how to create it and was able to do it himself.
Pedagogically the SMART Board is a great tool for enhancing one’s creative experience in an arts classroom. The only problem that may arise is that teachers may depend too much on using the SMART Board to create lessons for their classes. As shown in Tricia Fuglestad’s video, she creates videos of slides and power points to instruct her students. Although this is a great diverse way to capture the audience of her students, it is important that she physically does some of the teaching and talking in her classroom, to create a more personalized lesson. One might worry that the students may get too used to her teaching through a virtual-cartoon-character and will not be able to establish a more intimate form of trusting student-teacher relationship.
To Learn more about the SMART Board visit:
http://smarttech.com/_________________________________________________
Wacom Tablets are another form of technology that allows students to create art on a whole new level. The Wacom tablet is a wireless pad and pen instrument which allows an individual to use the technology of a computer, while maintaining an “organic” feel of holding and writing with a pen or writing instrument.
This type of technology is great for use in not only graphic design classes, but regular art classes as well. They can be used to sketch out ideas (just like in a sketchbook) or for creating computer collages, designs, movies, animation and much more. The Wacom tablet enables students to create designs and pictures and immediately post them on web pages and the internet to share with their friends and family.
Wacom tables can be expensive and not all schools have access to them.
To learn more about Wacom Tablets and how they work visit:
http://www.wacom.com/index2.php
Images used on this page:
http://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/Teaching/COMP134B/projects/smartboard/smartboard2.jpghttp://www.khulsey.com/products_wacom_tablet_6x8.jpeg
http://www.pposti.com/uploaded_images/24012008-743858.jpg
No comments:
Post a Comment