Reflecting on the Journey: Artists Who Tweet

Diatom Art

The goal I wish I could have developed further was my third goal, “To explore the relationship between art and technology.” Art and technology have a long standing relationship. For example, in a lesson I teach on the design strategy of magnification, I introduce my students to diatom art. Created during Victorian times, diatom art was made by arranging diatoms, single celled organisms not visible to the naked eye, into interesting patterns using the technology of a microscope. Lately I have been intrigued by the beauty of Raster Fractal Graphics created using raster animation. I plan to continue using this blog to explore more ways artists today are using current technology to produce art. 

Raster Fractal Graphic

During this course, I did have a chance to be inspired by some artists who reference technology in their art and use social media to promote their work.  At the BC Art Teacher's Conference, I was introduced to Sonni Assu and Evan Lee.  In my research for this term, I came across Canadian artist Mandy Stobo. “A Twitter newbie, she began pulling photos of celebrities she admired off the Internet and then painting them as unsolicited Bad Portraits. She then emailed the digital version to their Twitter accounts” (Davis, 2011). Through her Bad Portrait Project, Stobo encourages people to send her photo portraits that she then paints using water color, and posts on her site, Facebook, and Twitter for the world to see. I also recently discovered artist Chase Jarvis. He is practicing photographer who actively explores the use of social media and the world of Web 2.0 in his work. He believes “...deeply in teamwork, community, and collaboration” (Jarvis, 2012). He does things like organize Photo Walks using Twitter and encourages people to share their work online.  I hope to find more artists who combine art and technology.

In my own practice as an art educator, I will definitely want to use two Web 2.0 tools further. I really enjoyed exploring online comic creators and their use in education. Art education is a natural place for the study of cartoon and comics with their rich visual content. I am considering ways I can incorporate the study of comics more into my art curriculum for next year and hoping to design a unit on cartooning. I also love the idea of bringing an expert into the classroom using Web 2.0 technology. When I worked full-time, before having my own children, I would frequently bring in guest artists- as I felt it truly enriched my students’ classroom experience. A friend of mine recently asked me for my husband’s E-portflio link, as she has friend that teaches in Australia who was looking for photographers to profile. Skype makes having my husband be a guest speaker at a school in Australia a very viable option! As a teacher, I desire begin developing these types of connections with artists around the globe myself. I currently use Skype to communicate with family, but hope to one day use it to have an expert visit my students. Web 2.0 tools certainly open up a new world of opportunities.

Works Cited:

Davis, A. (2011, November 23). Bad portraits gone good. Macleans. Retrieved from http://www2.macleans.ca/2011/11/23/bad-portraits-done-good/

Raster Graphic Copyright (c) <a href='http://www.123rf.com'>123RF Stock Photos</a>

Reflecting on the Journey: Getting Connected

My first specific goal for this inquiry project was, “To begin developing an online Personal Learning Network that will support my learning and teaching beyond LIBE 477.” The best action step I took in this direction was setting up a feed reader. I was surprised to discover that I already had a Google Reader account prior to this course, but I had no idea what RSS feed was, why I should use it, or how to use it! Learning this has literally been transformational. Will Richardson was right when he wrote, “RSS is a technology that will change your life, if you let it” (Richardson, 2010, p.72). During LIBE 461, I would literally spend hours searching for course related content. Setting up an RSS feed has dramatically reduced the time I spend finding quality resources for professional development. Course readings, class mates, the TLs I follow on Twitter, and following links all led me to discover some great blogs and resources to follow; I have created “The Daily Me” (Richardson, 2010, p.72) personalized to my information needs and interests. This term, I have been particularly inspired by two educational blogs, Will Richardson’s Webblogg’d and Judy O’Connell’s Hey Jude. Checking my Google reader has become part of my daily routine. I am still working on developing strategies for organizing this information such as creating folders and adding personal tags, but this network of resources that I built for myself will endure beyond this course and continue to be a source of professional development for me. I also look forward to finding a way to stay in touch with fellow classmates, as no one understands better than those in the trenches with you.

Will Richardson describes Twitter as “…a network at my fingertips phenomena where people ask questions and get answers, link to great blog posts or resources or share ideas…” (Richardson, 2010, p. 86). I was reluctant to believe Twitter could be a resource for professional development, but being diligent about checking the tweets of the various teacher librarians I follow during this course certainly resulted in my being exposed to great professional resources. One step I did not take was to actually tweet myself. As a classmate and I reflected on why we were having trouble taking the plunge, we determined that we didn’t know what to share. As a newbie to the TL world, I definitely suffered from stage fright and now realize I could have posted some of the links I was posting on my blog, as Tweeting is essentially “micro-blogging”. But I realize two other factors hindered me. The first being that I do not have a mobile device that I can tweet on. Having to wait to tweet until I can access a computer definitely hurts the “…running river of conversation” and “sixth sense” element of tweeting that Richardson describes (Richardson, 2010, p.86). Secondly, as you can tell by this reflection and my posts in general, I am a wordy person by nature. Being limited to 140 characters seems almost like torture to me. I am learning to be more concise, while trying to remain engaging and informative in my blog posts, but need to lose some of my word weight before moving on to mastering the compact language of hash tags. However, I did find other ways to be more than a consumer of information this term. I actively participated in TeacherLibrarianNing and made a concerted effort to post on the blogs of fellow classmates; both things I had never done before. These types of cyber conversations just seem to fit my personality better.

Speaking of conversations, a major area of growth for me during this course came in the practice of blogging. The only blog I read regularly before this class was my best friend’s mommy blog and even that was sporadic. Blogs as a tool of professional development, at their best, are meant to be conversations. “We write not just to communicate but to connect with others who can potentially teach us more” (Richardson, 2010, p. 28). “Writing stops; blogging continues...Writing is monologue: blogging is conversation.” (Richardson, 2010, p.30). Blogging was definitely a new form of writing for me and I tried to take Angela Maier's suggestion of blogging not just to pontificate; "Maier advocates that 70% of what one posts be sharing resources or providing links..." (Kist, 2010, p. 62). I attempted to find and share good resources on the tools I was exploring. I also attempted to engage my readers in conversation by posing a question at the end of each post. I certainly do wish the questions had led to more conversations, but realize I only really had a handful of people reading my blog. Maybe one day there will be more!

For more clever comics visit Savage Chickens by Doug Savage. He is very gracious about licensing his work to bloggers and teachers!

Works Cited:

Image Copyright (c) <a href='http://www.123rf.com'>123RF Stock Photos</a>

Kist, W. (2010). The Socially Networked Classroom: Teaching in the New Media Age. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts. and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Walking Down the Twitter Path

As a result of this course, I have been exploring Twitter as a tool for professional development. I am not tweeting myself just yet (I think I have a bit of stage fright). But, I have been diligent about reading what the TL's I follow have been saying. I have already found some great resources- including my last current event article Finite Pie and today, a great new blog about learning in an online world called Hey Jude. Check out Judy O'Connel's post on building a PLN. She also linked to a great slide share by Ned Potter on the importance of the role librarians in our technology driven world.

The time for Libraries is NOW

View more PowerPoint from Ned Potter

To Tweet or not to Tweet???

Signing up for Twitter was one of my first assignments for LIBE 461, intended to encourage us to begin developing our Personal Learning Networks. The problem? The only things I knew about Twitter were that a cute little blue bird is its icon and that celebrities tweet as a form of self-promotion. I could not comprehend how Twitter could be used as a form of professional development. So I turned to what I have come to view as a new technology "For Dummies" guide- videos by Common Craft. Here is their "Twitter in Plain English" .

Despite watching this and signing up for Twitter, I felt lost when it came to figuring out who to follow and how to best follow them. I began by following TL's I knew and then, after a key word search, chose other TL's who's tweets appealed to me. However, I must confess, this is where my Twitter journey ended; as I could not wrap my head around how to keep up with the tweets, and what to- or how to- actually tweet myself. This has been a loose end that has followed me ever since, so I decided to come back to the "art of tweeting" for LIBE 477. I was actually recently inspired by a mom friend of mine, a total "hockey" mom, who tweets all the time (particularly at hockey games, of course). She felt so excited when her favorite sport blogger that she follows gave her a shout out! Listening to her talk made me realize, if this mommy friend can do it, so can I! 

Will Richardson in Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tool for Classrooms claims that Twitter, or "micro-blogging" done in 140 characters or less, is a powerful professional development tool. "Following other educators on Twitter creates a "network at my fingertips" phenomenon where people ask questions and get answers, link to great blog posts or resources or share ideas for projects as they go through the day" (Richardson, 2010, p.86). Richardson also describes Twitter as a "running river of conversation" and a type of "sixth sense" (Richardson, 2010, p.86). For these reasons, I am determined to give Twitter another chance.

I still have apprehensions about the use of Twitter or perhaps the misuse of Twitter. See my Current Event #2  "Who Gives a Tweet?" for more thoughts on this. However, I plan to revisit my Twitter subscription and review the list of teachers I am currently following, thoughtfully add to it, and actually begin tweeting myself, in hopes people will begin following me. As far as I know, I currently have one follower; I have to give her something to read! I will reflect more on the use of Twitter as a professional development tool at the end of term. For now, here is a great resource from TeachHUB.com on 50 Ways to use Twitter in the Classroom.

Question: How do you use Twitter in your educational practice?

Works Cited:

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts. and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.