Using SAMR and iPads in Art

Including technology in my teaching and in my personal life, has always been an area of interest for me. The one example from my life that stands out in my mind is in my education classes in university. I was the first one to create an online student portfolio of work, and going up against the system to question...why in this era are you asking us to create a paper hard copy of our portfolio? It started from wanting to include videos in my portfolio and not being able to do this in the paper copy. I got a rally of other education students behind me, and created ONLY a portfolio online instead of a hardcopy/scrapbook of my teaching rounds. We got together testing different blogging sites, and sharing ideas. I also got my technology professor, as well as my arts professor on board and change was created. I was so nervous presenting what I created for my final mark because my portfolio was first was threatened with a failing grade,simply because at the time the teachers there did not understand how I had taken the task they had given me, but changed and expanded it to suit my needs. Later though (I did pass in the end..as a spoiler alert) my portfolio was used as an example of what was required for teachers in the years after me. 

This was many years ago now, and after having a PL on 21st century learning I finally had a name for what I had done. 

 I had not only used a blogging website as a substitution  for the task, but used as a significant modification. 

After learning this I wanted to design a unit of art that allowed the students the same modification I once did. The perfect group of students for this was the 1/2 cohort, with them having access to the iPads one to one.

As the first lesson, I split the class into tasks. Allowing the students to choose whether they wanted partners, groups or to try it on their own. The main task was to explore their IPad with the art cap on, and with the goal of creating an art task for the 1/2s. The students took an hour to explore all the apps on their iPads, trying different programs to create works of art.

After 40 mins, the students came back together and shared with the class the apps they used and what they created. During this time amazing things happened...they were flipping between screens to get inspiration, and like wildfire ...the idea of using iPads to create dot paintings took off, completely student driven. Real discussion and feedback from the students as they explored the pros and cons of each app, and what they were trying to achieve. When I set this learning task up, I did it with the thought that I might have to guide them to finding a task. It just blew me away what this jigsaw method of sharing induced. The more incredible thing that happened, was not only were they sharing in class, but outside of class as well....as the other 1/2s grades afterwards came in excited to try apps, and create some aboriginal artwork. 

As a magical teaching moment I watched students sharing iPads when they saw that other students iPads were low on battery and not working...and created artworks together!

This has been one of my favourite units yet, as it went in a direction that I couldn't have imagined! 

I can't wait to continue this unit of exploration and creativity with the 1/2s! Stay tuned, as I explore Cathy Hunts IPad Art classroom and get some more apps for students to create on!