How Technology Can Enhance Art Education

Technological advances have influenced almost every aspect of life, including education. Even the art classroom stands to benefit from the introduction and inclusion of technology. This includes both student-facing technology as well as technology specifically for teachers to help with administrative and clerical tasks. Technology has not replaced traditional art forms, nor should it. However, there are many ways that it can enhance the education that your students receive.

Assessing Student Work

As an art teacher, you have content standards that you use to structure and assess student learning just as teachers in every subject do. However, art classroom assessment are not always as straightforward as data standardization. For example, it can be difficult to perform formative assessments of every student, especially if you have a large class. Technology has advanced several methods of making formative assessments in an effective and organized way that is fun for the students to participate in.

Encouraging Collaboration

Students often learn more when they are able to collaborate with one another. This can be more difficult in a distance learning or hybrid model. Fortunately, there are ways to allow students to collaborate with one another even if they are not in the same room. Distance learning resources for art instruction include programs such as Google Drive, which allow students to share their work and make revisions to it.

Providing New Artistic Techniques

Technology allows students to experiment with all new artistic techniques that weren't available in previous decades. Students who struggle with traditional art forms may find a way to express themselves through digital media. Technology also allows students to reimagine traditional art in new and more creative ways. Sometimes two or more apps can be used at the same time to create something really original.

Creating Digital Portfolios

The portfolio is not only another assessment tool for you. Presenting their work in a portfolio is also a vital skill that your students will have to learn if they intend to pursue a career in the visual arts. Most professional portfolios today are digital rather than hard copies. Therefore, using technology to help your students create digital portfolios benefits both you and them at the same time.

Transforming Teaching Strategies

Students have a lot of different learning styles, each of which teachers should try to accommodate in their instruction. Some subjects lend themselves to this more easily than others, and art is one of them. Creating art offers students multiple opportunities to learn by doing, but sometimes it is value to give an oral presentation. Technology can make this more engaging by conveying information in multiple forms at the same time. For example, you can show visual examples of different works of art to enhance a lecture that you are giving.

Technology can also allow you to provide firsthand experiences to your students that wouldn't be possible otherwise. For example, unless you are teaching in a Paris school, you probably aren't able to take your students on a field trip to the Louvre Museum. However, you can take them on a virtual tour from your own classroom.

Incorporating Flipped Learning

Students must sometimes be absent or arrive late to class. This can be very frustrating even when it happens for a good reason because you have to spend time re-teaching the concepts you have already covered. Flipped learning allows you to support your late or absent students without slowing down instruction or getting frustrated. Technology such as iPads or Chromebooks can be used to create video demonstrations that students can then watch to catch up. The flipped learning concept has also been applied to student-directed learning.

The primary objective of most of these technologies is to engage students in instruction. Depending on the age of your students, technology is not a novelty for them but just a fact of life. Nevertheless, it still has significant power to engage students who might struggle otherwise by virtue of being interactive by design.