The art teacher’s guide to the internet

The art teacher’s guide to the internet is a blog that was started in 2005 by a writer looking to share and expand other teachers knowledge of learning and teaching through the use of the internet. He devoted much attention to exploring the question “How can we use the new tools and capabilities of the Web to enhance or even transform art education practices in schools?” In his blog he tries to answers to this question as well as keep teachers/educators informed of valuable online resources and tools that can be used in the classroom. He also shares with readers practical strategies for integrating the Internet into the classroom, news items, videos, etc.

One interesting post I came across was Are you up to the TASK?. This was created by contemporary artist Oliver Herring, TASK is ‘a collaborative, improvisational art event that can be planned and played by anyone, anywhere, with any budget.’ TASK events generally cab be divided into 2 parts: which are tailored for use in schools or classrooms. The two basic rules that participants follow:

1. Write down a task on a piece of paper and add it to a designated task box or pool.
2. Take a task from the box and interpret it any way you want, using whatever materials are available. When your task is completed, write a new task and place it in the task box. I really enjoyed this post and found some fun tasks amongst the 24 possible tasks listed. No. 6 was fun to me, “Make a hat and coat out of newspaper and tape for a companion. Have them wear it at the party.” I can see the kids really responding to this and also learning about recycling as well.

Teachertube

In my search for an educator blog, I came across Teachertube. This is like a youtube for teachers, I was so thrilled such a thing existed. This blog site is to provide a platform for teachers to share and exchange views and opinions with each other. It comes across as kind of a support group system for teachers. The post that I really like “The importance of art in education“. This is a video showing the reasons why art is important in education. This video could be used as a campaign in a school where there is a debate about the art education program. I liked the use of kids holding up their art work, lots of those kids were just so talented. The video got lots of support from other teachers especially art teachers. I felt the language used was beautiful and appropriate for the subject.