Technology in the Art Class Room?

[macberly m]

The art department in my school district is up for text book adoption and the money we are using would be best served to add more technology to our curriculum. Does anyone out there teach art? If so I need some ideas for brands of projectors so that instead of gathering 20+ students around one computer for demonstrations on PhotoShop etc that I can project the demo on a screen for the entire class. Also we are interested in some sort of opaque projector that would allow us to project hand made project demo's onto the screen so all students can better see (i.e. demonstrating shading techniques, How to use a graph, etc). I usually gather them around one work space but it is difficult for all of them to see at once. Any help would be greatly appreciated. With so many kinds of digital projectors and technology it is hard to determine what is best. Any Art Teachers with technology in your rooms, please, any help?!?!

[lola]

Great that you can use your so-called text book money for graphics and art technology! Here are some suggestions: instead of an opaque projector go for the Smartboard - or the Interactive Whiteboard. You can project right from your computer (internet too) and do a Photoshop demo SO much easier. It is also interactive in that you don't have to use a mouse. You can move things ON the board with your hands and fingers (great for special needs kids - they can just tap the board!). Get a digital camera if you don't already have one and photograph the projects, download to computer and project those. Use a video camera for demo's and do the same - and guess what, you can REPEAT it as many times as you like! AND - if you have kids who were absent that day, you can repeat it without having to take valuable time out from your other students. Good idea? Takes minutes - you have kids in your classroom who know SO much more than we do when it comes to doing this. Learn from them! Get REALLY friendly with your IT person. They are worth their weight in gold.
The Whiteboards are costly, but worth it. You will have to do a bunch of convincing to those who hold the purse strings. They don't like to see ART get anything but crayons (as you probably know). Convince them that textbooks just won't do it for this world's tech savvy kids. You need to get THEM involved in the technology available. Remember, this is for the kids!
Good luck! ANd don't give up - admin and those who know nothing of art education will not support you very much. You don't need textbooks - you need technology!!!