Final Technology Integration Plan

NATURAL COLLABORATION:

Building with the Five Elements of Art

Andy Goldsworthy

TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION MATRIX

The lesson plan I chose to work with for this final project uses the artwork of Andy Goldsworthy to increase student understanding of the five elements of art – line, shape, color, form and texture. Students will gain in-depth comprehension of the five elements of art and demonstrate their knowledge by creating and documenting their own artwork, requirements of the NJCCC standards. The lesson provides opportunities for students to integrate environmental art and technology usage, individual work and collaboration, and includes multiple forms of assessment to optimize their success and ensure achievement of the NJCCC and NETS-S standards. It should be assumed that computers, a printer, basic word processing software and internet access are readily available within the school.

Days 1-2: Access Information

Several strategies will be used to orient the students to the work of Andy Goldsworthy. The teacher will provide an introduction to the five elements of art and an overview of the lesson's components. Next, students will use Artcyclopedia to research Goldsworthy’s work and begin to identify how he uses the five elements in the creation of his art. Students will acquire a deeper understanding of the artist’s purpose and methods by reading a brief biography using the Read-Write-Pair-Share method, then view a portion of Rivers and Tides, a film about the artist on a Smartboard. Information gathered from all sources will be reviewed and categorized in a large group discussion, followed by a teacher demonstration of the art project students will create.

Days 3-4: Analyze & Evaluate

Students will begin to analyze the information they have learned about the five elements of art through Goldsworthy’s work. They will use small One Minute Answer Circles to review and assess each others understanding of the five elements of art with their peers. Responses will be shared, discussed and clarified as a large group. Next, the class will scour the school grounds for natural art materials and possible locations for their sculptures, the products of which will help assess student understanding of material and process requirements. Students will experiment with artistic arrangements of the materials they have collected and keep a record of the results with sketches, in order to make evaluations regarding their final art design. They will continue to consult Artcyclopedia and the other resources used on days 1 and 2 to reference Goldsworthy’s work as needed. A brief question and answer session and peer critique to identify the five art elements in the sketches will ensure that students have acquired the knowledge necessary to move to the next steps.

Days 5-6: Produce

At this point in the lesson, students will be prepared to use what they have learned to produce their own art. They will construct their sculptures, document their work photographically using digital cameras, then use Adobe Photoshop to crop and manipulate lighting in their images. Students will each write a brief narrative for their piece, which describes and supports how they incorporated the five elements of art as well as the relationship between their art and the environment. They will print a composite containing the manipulated photograph and typed narrative to keep in their art portfolio. Next, students will collaborate as a class to produce an art slideshow presentation consisting of one digital photograph and the accompanying narrative from each student. They will produce this using the presentation software in Google Docs as a homework assignment.

Day 7: Communicate

Students will communicate their knowledge and usage of the five elements of art and evaluate their own work as well as that of their peers. The collaborative student art show they produced will be presented via Smartboard, with each student providing an oral narration to coincide with their digital slide, describing how he or she created his or her artwork, the elements of art which dominate the work, difficulties they encountered throughout the lesson and how they found solutions. Students will be assessed on the visual, written, and oral and technical components of their portion of the presentation. Classmates will listen to the speaker respectfully, ask relevant questions and provide constructive feedback to their peers throughout the presentation. A class discussion will be used to close the lesson, and students will complete and submit a self-assessment of their own learning from this lesson using a teacher-created form on Google Docs.

The lesson plan used for this project was edited and enriched according to NJCCC and NETS-S standards and course requirements. It may be viewed in its unedited form here: Original Lesson Plan - Natural Collaboration.

Just When I Thought I Was Finished....SPACE?

Ok, so I already posted some final thoughts about this semester, but I read an article this afternoon that I absolutely must share: NASA's dwindling budget: Why has America stopped reaching for the stars? "Space travel inspires us to dream about tomorrow, says Neil deGrasse Tyson. So why did we give up?

The space shuttle Endeavor made its way to NYC yesterday. My mother watched its televised progression up the northern seaboard with such delight, you would have thought she was actually on board the spacecraft. We had a brief phone conversation about how her generation was much more enamored of space travel than mine is. This afternoon I was flipping through The Week magazine and stumbled upon this article, and it flipped my opinion of the necessity of the space program. I love when something stops me in my tracks and makes me think.

Dr. Tyson's article will naturally appeal to astronomers, science and mathematics enthusiasts, economists and politicians. But educators? And me, the pre-service art teacher? Frankly, anyone who cares about the future success of the USA should read Tyson's article and reflect on where they stand in regards to space exploration.

Scroll back up, click the link and read the article. It's not that long, and Tyson's writing style is enjoyable.

Creativity. Imagination. Innovation. Those are three things which Tyson claims will propel our country not just into space, but back into economic stability and growth. Those three qualities are why we live the way we do today in regards to technology and media. Those are also three things that the arts cultivate intrinsically - the ability to release the imagination in order to come up with creative ideas which become innovative possibilities and realities.

Share comments on how your subject area supports the future of our country!

Final Thoughts

Spring 2012 has been a busy semester of growth and progress for me. I feel prepared and excited to begin student teaching in September. I know what I want to improve upon or explore further over the summer regarding education and lesson planning, and I'm looking forward to having time to resume my own art production which has suffered greatly over the past few years.

Last week I was revisiting the teachings of Sir Ken Robinson (check out the link if you are not familiar with him!), particularly thinking about creativity and how our students will be living and working in a future we can neither see nor imagine, yet we are responsible for training them now. Technology is already an integral part of our daily activities and social lives. No matter how tricky it may be to incorporate it meaningfully into the classroom, we would be doing our students a disservice by failing to do so. Essentially, we would be denying them tools for a successful future of their own. I hope we will use our training and creativity to make public education everything we wish it had been for us. 

Some of us have come to support and/or respect each other's ideas, and I've started a blog so we can share student teaching experiences, remain networked for the job hunt, and generally help each other out.... keep in touch and good luck!

http://lauraevansart.weebly.com/blog.html

Environmental Art & Technology

I was recently searching the internet for a safe, exciting method for students to create bas relief sculpture for an 8th grade lesson plan I was writing. I came across the attached lesson plan during my search, and decided to share it with all of you art education majors in CURR 316. While I did not choose this method for the lesson I just wrote, I really liked how the plan incorporates environmental awareness, sculpture and technology in the form of digital cameras and usage of Photoshop. The teacher also created a slideshow of completed student work, but I would change that and have my students create the slideshow themselves. Using Google Docs, each student can upload the digital photo of their work and design their own slide, then the full class slideshow can be viewed in class for critique, feedback and discussion. It was nice to find that real working teachers are finding ways to incorporate technology into their art classes.
ENVIRONMENTAL ART & TECHNOLOGY LESSON PLAN

Interactivity #5

For this interactivity I interviewed my cooperating Fieldwork teacher, who teaches preschool through fifth grade art in the Rockaway Township district. She said she had heard of the NETS, but was not familiar with them herself. Her school has not yet implemented the NETS, and she did not know whether or not her district had begun to. She had no idea how the NETS would be used since she had not seen them prior to looking at the material I had provided for her, but she thought professional development would definitely be necessary for implementation.

While I was conducting the interview, an Assistive Educational Technologist (A.E.T.) for the district came into the room to fix my co-op's computer. She overheard our conversation, volunteered that she was familiar with NETS due to the nature of her job, and offered to be interviewed as well! She verified that NETS had neither been implemented in that school, nor anywhere the district, but she did not know whether or not implementation had begun in the state at that time. When I asked how she thought the NETS will be used when they are implemented, the A.E.T. said that the curriculum will have to be entirely rewritten to include them. The Rockaway district just finished rewriting their curriculum to reflect the newest NJCCC standards, so she said that resources needed to include the NETS will definitely be professional development, funding, access to necessary equipment, but mostly time. Since she has been involved in revamping curriculum at the district level, the A.E.T. said the time investment of the re-writing process and training educators is commonly underestimated. She did not expect her district to accomplish integrating the NETS until at least 2014 or 2015.

Rockaway school district does not offer technology initiatives for student media literacy at the elementary school level. Most of the technology that exists in the school supports teachers rather than students, with the exception of iPads for some students with learning disabilities, and those are used only in occupational therapy according to the A.E.T. I was  not surprised at my cooperating teacher's responses to my questions, since I knew from spending time with her that she does not use much technology in her classes, with the exception of her computer and digital projection equipment. I was extremely grateful for the opportunity to speak with the A.E.T. about the NETS, and was surprised at her concern with the time required to implement major curricular changes. I never would have considered how long it takes to successfully integrate new standards if I had not spoken with her.

As a future educator, I would encourage my fellow staff members to become familiar with the NETS-S and NETS-T. Knowing that they will be implemented in the future, it makes sense to learn them now. I have seen faculty members organize mini workshops, for example, Rockaway elementary teachers held a workshop on Pinterest recently. I would look for a colleague to conduct a NETS workshop with me, so we could all look for ways to begin incorporating NETS sooner, using the link below as an example.

Click here to see my Interactivity #4 Spreadsheet with NETS-S included

Making Activities Meaningful

In my TFL1 course this week we had the rare opportunity to talk with, among other people, the Principal of the middle school where our class meets. He told us that the greatest challenge teachers face is constantly adjusting to meet the needs of all of the different students in their classes. The ability to do this does not come naturally - it requires major preparation, and even seasoned master teachers who have more experience and isight will continue to try to accommodate all of their students throughout their careers. He was kind enough to share many of the things he looks for when interviewing candidates for teaching positions within the school. A huge deciding factor for him was what he called the "big three" factors in lesson planning and alignment: 1) Goal; 2) Activity; 3) Closure. I'll summarize his description for those of you who are in different TFL sections.

1) GOAL - Lesson plans must have a specific, measurable learning objective, articulated clearly to students.
2) ACTIVITY - Engaging learning activities that keep students focused, make sure students know why you are having them do the particular activity. If you don't know why you included an activity, it is meaningless (and should be omitted from lesson!)
3) CLOSURE - Always, always, always effectively close the lesson and align it to the goal.

Now that we are approaching the end of this semester, lesson planning and assessment are definitely starting to come together for me. Alignment is a huge percentage of a unit's success. But what actually caught my attention was the principal's discussion about activities. Art lessons can have any number of engaging activities, and through CURR-316 we are asked to find meaningful ways to incorporate technology to support learning objectives. Believe me, I have found some really incredible technologies that will have applications in the art classroom. However, the selection of any learning activity must make sense to the students - they must be able to understand why that activity or technology is helping them reach their learning goal. In short, listening to this principal speak gave me the motivation to make sure the activities I build into my lesson plans are always meaningful, whether or not they happen to incorporate technology. It was a welcome and relevant reminder that in the end, we must both set and plan how to achieve the goal!

Technology Bringing Kids Closer to Classic Art

My six-year-old got off the school bus Friday afternoon holding a library book wide open in front of him. It was about electricity, and he spent the weekend asking friends, neighbors and grandparents if they had any of the components to contribute to his "project." Wouldn't you know it, by Sunday afternoon the little guy had built his first working circuit in the garage, and he can tell you clearly why it all works (and figure out what's wrong if it's not working) - keep in mind that this is a kindergarten student with limited reading skills! It was a reminder that self-led learning is often the most meaningful, but usually missing from public schools.

I found the following article while just browsing through some readings this morning. The author shares how his daughter, then his entire family, embarked upon a self-led exploration of art making, art history and critique quite by accident! Using nothing but the internet, the entire family is now researching and selecting their favorite artists to study through reading and making art in a similar technique. This family is learning about different time periods, countries and cultures, and even diseases while pushing their own abilities to experiment with art. The best part its that they are using a FREE technological resource that is literally at the fingertips of most Americans. Will all teens or tweens be on fire about art? Probably not, but they can find something that they share an interest in.Can all young people explore what excites them, such as music, literature, science, math or electricity via the internet? Absolutely, and as the author of this article wrote, "the internet is filled with distractions, but if used wisely and focused, the world is truly at our fingertips." My next step will be to help my six-year-old look up more simple electrical experiments on the internet, and to make sure I can design a chunk of time in my future classroom to let my art students explore on their own and share what they learn.

TECHNOLOGY BRINGING KIDS CLOSER TO CLASSIC ART

5 Ways to Integrate Technology Into Your Child's Education

This article is written with parents in mind, but it is also quite useful for K-12 educators. Author Jeff Galinovsky looks at how integrating technology for educational purposes is more than just choosing a device and software. When used properly, technology can enhance multiple ways of learning and the experience of many types of learners. Some of the opportunities he covers we have already looked at in our Interactivities while others offer a new way of thinking about technology integration.

mashable.com/2011/03/09/technology-kids-learning/

Interactivity #4: The Pedagogical Uses of Technology

Over the past few years I have observed in eight different public schools and noticed that technology is very seldom used as a tool for teaching art. Because of this deficiency, it is important to me to find ways that technology can enhance learning, especially when teaching traditional, manual art techniques. The lesson plan I chose for this assignment studies a portrait by Vincent VanGogh to inspire 6-8 grade students to draw portraits of their friends using similar techniques. This plan allowed several opportunities to use the advantages of technology for teaching and learning.

A digital whiteboard can be used to study the VanGogh drawing, then to demonstrate hatching and cross-hatching drawing techniques required in the lesson. Students can use digital cameras to take photos of the friend they are drawing to use as a reference and save precious class time. Upon completion, they can take pictures of their final drawings and post them to a class blog or website, which will serve as a 24-hour public gallery of their work. Students can post constructive comments to each other's drawings. The blog can be reviewed together in class on the digital whiteboard for a group critique, using the posted responses and questions to begin discussions. Lastly, the original lesson plan contains an extension in which students study a painted portrait by VanGogh, comparing and contrasting his drawing with his painting, but few students can visit one of the institutions listed for research. Art Project by Google fills this gap nicely since it has one of these painted portraits from the MOMA's collection. Students can use Art Project to perform this research task in detail via the internet.

The technologies I incorporated into this lesson directly support each of the learning objectives in the original lesson plan. They also facilitate demonstration, research and critique methodologies for both the students and the teacher.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtEJ9FDuxTFTdEh1d0pLTzIzS3Y2aGdHX25EUDczcXc#gid=0

A Must See Music Video!

In Your Arms (jellybean art music video)

Ok, some of you may have seen this already but I couldn't resist including it on here! All of the background scenes for this video were made over a period of 22 months with 288,000 jelly beans. My fieldwork teacher and I actually shared this video with her fourth graders and they were amazed by the entire process - it's set to catchy, child-appropriate song and includes a trailer which describes in detail the making of the video. Art, unconventional materials, music, computers, video production and creativity all together! I love it... students love it.... hope you all enjoy it too!

PS - in reference to my last post, yes, this is an example of an educational video from YouTube!

YouTube in Schools?

YouTube Subtracts Racy and Raucous to Add a Teaching Tool

If you read the last article I posted about students using laptops in school to do everything other than school work, you may be interested in this article as well. Schools are looking to YouTube as a means of incorporating FREE technology into lessons which grab students' attention, and the popular video site is cooperating with a portal which limits student access to less desirable content. Like the teachers in the article, I have also found video clips on YouTube which are great tools for learning, but would hesitate to give my students the opportunity to access them on their own, knowing what other content lurks in the land of YouTube. I am pleased to read about the steps this new endeavor is taking!

Follow the title link above to read the full article, which was published Friday in the Education section of the New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/10/education/youtube-finds-a-way-off-schools-banned-list.html?pagewanted=1&ref=education

Try, Try Again

In brief, the attached article introduces the reader to a high school in Maine which issued laptops to all of its students, and accounts of how they were misused during school hours. Those of you reading this can probably guess what the laptops were being used for - Facebook, making videos, viewing porn... you get the idea. Kids will be kids, and of course they will find ways around internet filters and password-protected sites. This article forces educators to think about how they are approaching their lessons and whether or not technology in the form of personal devices is the best approach for every class.

A few possible solutions that came to my mind as I read this:

1) Issue iPads instead of laptops to students, and maintain that they are used flat on classroom desks. A laptop's flip-up screen acts as a privacy wall, where an iPad's screen is more visible.

2) Model correct usage of school property and educational technology from a young age. As I have noted previously on my blog, this is a brand new generation of students using personal technology in the classroom. It will take time to work through the difficulties that arise.

3) Make your curriculum more engaging! If students are given the opportunity to listen to their teacher talk for 45 minutes straight, they WILL lose interest and begin looking for ways to entertain themselves. Alter teaching strategies often, and don't always use the computers.

4) Explore multiple systems of safeguarding the information students can access from school-issued devices. The school in this article states that they cannot control the content students access with the laptops when they leave school, but they did not seem concerned about looking for better ways to protect them while using the school network.

http://bangordailynews.com/2012/03/03/news/state/mother-daughter-claim-noble-high-school-students-using-school-laptops-to-go-on-facebook-make-videos-and-watch-porn/

Interactivity #3: An Inventory of Technologies for ART

What I found most exciting about the inventory we collected is how well some of my favorite technologies can be used in conjunction with each other. For example, all students in my "dream classroom" will have iPads. They can use them for research on Art Project by Google (the zoom feature ), choose a favorite artist, then use Paint Like a Famous Artist to interactively explore what design properties distinguished that artist's work.  Then they can present their interactive research to the class by connecting to our Smartboard (I think teachers need to be more creative in how we use them for learning.) I do think it is imperative that 21st century students learn traditional methods of art-making (using manual technology when appropriate) in order to understand art history, but now they can upload their own work, by themselves, to our class website and/or blog. This will enable family, friends, community members and artists to view, discuss and question the students' art. An interdisciplinary unit could require students to design their own cultural transformation project such as Make Art For Change, then share it worldwide using VoiceThread. Voice-Activated Apps and Assistive Technology are really cool ways to make the action of art-making accessible to students with physical disabilities. Volunteers can be challenged to Bend a Building with Voices as a year-long collaborative undertaking.

Researching for this interactivity was engaging and self-perpetuating. Many times when I discovered an amazing technology it led to others. I do not think the group process for this interactivity was truly collaborative for our group. It has been difficult to communicate effectively with people we have never met. (Are people more accountable when they have to meet in person?) I have other course-related obligations all day tomorrow and need to make my post this evening even if the group is not finished, so I cannot wait for last-minute additions. It was a fun surprise each day to see what new technologies had been added to the spreadsheet, and I'm looking forward to using what will be accessible in my future classroom. My CURR 314 course just began last week, but I feel confident that some of the technologies we found could serve as cool tools for student assessment as well.

Are you wondering how to begin incorporating all of those cool technologies you found for Interactivity #3 into your real classroom?

Now that I've discovered all of these really cool technologies that I think will enhance student learning, I'm watching the schools I visit more closely to see how they are working new technology into the curricula. The following article looks at how one school district is doing just that! It also discusses some of the difficulties they are facing, such how gaps in funding play a role in bringing in new technology or struggling to maintain antiquated machines. Based on what we've already covered in this course and the school district in the attached article, I am anticipating that our generation of teachers will see a day when each of our students are supplied with a iPad or iPod instead of textbooks. Read this article and start thinking about how you'll put what you've found to good use! (And remember to think outside the box... many technologies can be used in other ways than just how they presented to us.)

School District on the Cutting Edge of Technology 

The Pajaro Valley Unified School District is using technology to provide teachers with resources that increase student engagement in a technology-driven world.

• By Corinne Speckert
• August 22, 2011

ART EDUCATION 2.0

http://arted20.ning.com/


For all of you Art Ed majors.... I recently joined this group, which turned up in my search for Interactivity #3. Art Education 2.0 is an online professional learning community of art educators from around the globe. It is allowing art teachers to participate in forums, groups, blogging, photo and video sharing, and RSS. It's kind of a cool world-wide collaboration to incorporate technology into the art classroom!

This article works back to my post for Interactivity #2, and how the relationship between major tech corporations, advertising and education is an ongoing business of balancing pros and cons.

http://www.abc.net.au/technology/articles/2011/06/06/3236522.htm

Does technology affect social behaviors?

My six year old son attended a video game themed birthday party yesterday for his eight year old friend. Most of the guests were neighbors and school friends of the birthday boy; my son was the only child from out of town. A giant arcade on wheels arrived in front of the house, where the invitees played Wii, PS2 and Xbox360 for two hours. When the children filed back into the house I noticed that many of them, whose ages ranged from four to eight, were toting iPod Touches and iPads, FaceTime-ing each other, playing music and more video games, as if two hours in the traveling arcade weren't enough. They stopped using their devices only to eat pizza and cake. The children who had devices had no desire to share them with children who didn't have their own. I also noticed that children had a general attitude of "I don't care" and disrespect for each other, the party hosts, and the other parents present. Most of these children are with each other in school every day, so I found myself wondering if that contributed to their behavior, or if it was in some way tied to their obvious obsession with social technology. I plan to research this on my own, but first I would like to know if any of you have had experiences with very young children, their behaviors, their technology or any combination thereof? Students in high school right now did not grow up with iPads and iPodTouch devices, so how might this upcoming generation differ from current teenagers? How might our combined experiences and observations transfer to the classroom?

Interactivity #2

 

Alluring, well-designed advertisements and the messages they conveyed to children were a debated issue as television and video usage increased in schools during the 20th Century.

Dr. Seuss for Holly Sugar, 1940

The Advertising Artwork of Dr. Seuss

www.libraries.ucsd.edu/speccoll/dsads/#intro

Interactivity #1: Technology as Autobiography

The three communications technologies which have had the most impact on my life have been the internet, the cell phone, and email. After viewing "Olivia's Story" and "Learning to Change, Changing to Learn" I am more aware than ever of how young people use technology much differently than I do. I will elaborate on this later, after I have shared what impacted me in the video clips.

Olivia is an impressive young lady. She favors technology like most young people do, but she is extremely resourceful and creative in both finding access to devices and making them work for her. If I was her teacher and found that only one-third of my students had regular computer access, I would not have been prepared to discover just how technically savvy the students were despite their lack of regular access. Olivia is one of the students without a home computer, but her computer knowledge is superior to mine. She has found that she can use computers at school, in her apartment building, at friends' homes, and even at (my favorite of her resources) the Apple Store! She has developed sophisticated skills on her own, including uploading photos and videos and the ability to design some impressive web pages. While it is important that her teachers realize Olivia's technological abilities, it is equally important that they acknowledge her innate abilities. Olivia is willing to share her skills and knowledge with others, such as her "Big Sister" mentor and her younger siblings. She is a natural innovator, problem-solver and teacher herself, which are qualities that should be recognized and nurtured by her school teachers.

In the second video clip, students describe a wide variety of ways and reasons for using technology. They begin with somewhat obvious reasons, such as convenience, reading and writing for school, gaming, music, and smartphone usage. But then, the students become more thoughtful about how they actually benefit from from having various technologies at their fingertips most hours of the day, even when they are just playing for their own enjoyment. Students are using technology to manipulate photographs, customize social networking pages, and to research and prepare school projects. They are using computers to learn new languages, compose music and create web pages from scratch at very, very young ages. But there were four responses that really impressed me. One student spoke about how using technology helps him edit and self-correct his own work. Another discussed the need to communicate and coordinate with others for success in cyber games, much as he would do in the real world. One young man related technological experimentation as key to the future, just as scientific experiments have shaped the world in which we currently live. A young lady spoke about learning more about one's self through the process of filtering the overload of information available in order to find what holds meaning for you. These four students thought about technology beyond the obvious uses such as texting and listening to mp3's, and uncovered some thought-provoking theories of how technology can be of real use in life and education.

Now, back to the three technologies that have impacted me: internet, cell phones and email. It may surprise some of you that when I graduated high school and began college, the world wide web was in its infancy. I never used Google to research topics for papers or search for pictures to accompany a report, because Google did not yet exist. I actually did my research in the brick-and-mortar library, using encyclopedias, books, magazines, and journals.  You can imagine how convenient it is to have most of this information and more available in seconds, in the comfort of my own home and pajamas. Email is of course linked to the internet, but it is my primary method of communication with people outside of my immediate family and friend network. Email saves me a great deal of time, so that I am able to divide that time among other necessities. If I had to make a phone call to deliver each piece information I sent by email every week, I probably wouldn't be able to keep up with my courses this semester. However, the speed and convenience of email means I do not speak to as many people as I probably should. Speaking of phones, before cell phones were widespread, a group project at school entailed arranging a time and place for meeting and research, and relying on everyone actually showing up or choosing to work without them. I couldn't call or text my friends from the gas station to find out how difficult their Praxis exam had been or to tell my mom that I got a 4.0 in a course, or find out the latest news or traffic on the fly. Now we can conduct internet research, email our professors, text our peers and call our loved ones from one device. The downfall of cell phones and their numerous features is that most of us are seldom unreachable. I do make an effort to leave the phone behind sometimes and just exist the vintage way.

The students in the videos use technology in much more creative and sophisticated ways than I do. I admit that I use it primarily for necessity, for example, for school, work, and keeping in touch with people who are important to me. In my free time I use digital cameras, Adobe Creative Suite, and the internet for artwork and researching my hobbies and interests. But I have never used technology to learn a new language, compose a song, or design an interactive web page. In fact, this is the first time I have ever blogged. Olivia and the other students even think about technology more critically than I do. I never gave much thought to how I was using various technologies or why, or about new ways to incorporate them meaningfully into my life and the lives of my children and future students. Their insights have prompted me to begin doing just that.