I am just finishing up my third week of ARE615OL Integrating Technology into Art Education Settings at the Academy of Art University this spring.

The first week was a nice overview of learning about Web 2.0 tools.  This was the first time I had ever heard of this technology.  Web 2.0 is focused on the ability that people can collaborate and share information online.   Some of these collaborative platforms are like Google docs.  Our first assignment was to create a Google docs, which was another first for me. It was a very comfortable platform and I hope to explore and learn more about Google docs.

The second week I worked on a course assignment collaborating with Jennifer Chipman.  We focused on a Painting Assignment: Capturing Turbulence in Desert Skies and referenced Van Gogh's paintings that depicted turbulent skies. It was a fun learning experience to exchange ideas with Jennifer, as she is an art teacher at an elementary school. Since I have not taught before it was great to get realistic feedback from an educator on this art assignment -- it was hard for me to judge expectations and formulate a realistic timeline.

I invite you to take a look at our Painting Assignment: Capturing Turbulence in Desert Skies

Our assignment was inspired by Math and Van Gogh's The Starry Night as seen on Ed Ted.  

The third week introduced us to Blogging.  Though I did explore blogging in 2008 when I was taking a photography class at AAU, I dropped exploring this platform once the class ended.  I am excited to learn about the new tools offered and incorporating more multimedia elements into my posts.  This week was interesting to learn about Educator blogs vs. Learner blogs... I suppose I have always seen myself as a Learner blogger... and for now I'm quite happy in this arena. I find Learner Blogs more interesting - perhaps it is the author's voice and their interests and curiosity that lure me in.