Way Cool Apps for iPads and how we are using them. I think.

I spent a LOT of time last year playing with the iPad and researching Art Apps to prepare for this year. I feel pretty good about where we are heading. 

Here are my driving questions: 

-How can we get our stuff OFF the iPad? This is a HUGE ISSUE for those of you sharing!

-How can we use this tech meaningfully without replacing traditional art materials? There HAS to be balance!

 So with this in mind, I thought I would share a portion of the informational sheet I sent home to our parents (my apologies for any overlap!):

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Me: There is an App for building clay pots*

Your kids: Cool!

Me: Ok, we are going to do a clay project. Everyone take out your iPads.

Your kids: *crickets*

Me: Ok, now what if I said, here is a lump of clay, go make something?

Your kids: *cheers!*

Me: So, how could we use this clay making app to help us?

Your kids: we could use the app to help us with our design before we made it out of clay!

Me: Bingo!

We will use the apps to help us make our art better and stronger. Technology is a tool, not a replacement. We will continue to create with messy hands.

It is the nature of art to be messy, subjective and hard to define. That being said, here are my underlying 3 Questions** for using technology in my room:

Are you being creative?

Are you thinking as an artist?

Is this appropriate?

What is appropriate for one family may not be appropriate for another. Parents, the time for honest conversations is now.

These sticky, fuzzy issues are issues artists and art teachers have been dealing with for centuries. The only thing that has changed is the type of technology.

(Did you know that when Gutenberg invented movable type and the printing press in the 1440’s, it “led many superstitious people of the time to equate printing with Satan because it seemed to be magical.”? The Unsung Heroes, a History of Print, Dr. Jerry Waite, 2001.  And now we can’t imagine a world without printers! Not an Art reference, per se, but pretty interesting! )

I am committed to integrating tech with traditional art making in a meaningful way. I spent last year attending conventions learning how to effectively use iPads in the art rooms, talked to art teachers across the country for their experience, perspective and “must have apps” and did a ton of app research over the summer...

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*(Yep. check out Let's Create Pottery)

** (I made this into a poster for my kids. So I can point at it a hundred times a day)

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Here is my "fluid"  list of apps my kids need to download:

(I have no idea why these images are all over the place!? And I have a migraine so I amnotinthemoodtofixthem. Sorry ^.^)

Google Drive (my district is using Google Apps for Education in an effort to get more efficient and hopefully go paperless)

Snapseed (free): The Bomb Diggity for me. A photo editing app for images, allows saving directly to Goggle Drive. (So you can make a work of art on another app, save it to the Camera Roll, and then save it to Drive using Snapseed.)

Inspire Pro (free or paid): for painting 

Sketchbook Express (free or paid): for drawing

Pic Collage (free): Classroom teachers LOVE this app, it is great for many, many things. Want some faculty-wide Brownie Points? Intro it as a way to make lock/home screen collages.

Doodle Dandy (free) Fun app about radial symmetry.

Drawing Pad (paid): optional paid app, but the best I have found for younger kids. Easy to understand and navigate.

Procreate (paid): optional, and the best on the market right now. I recommend this for my older students who plan to take Art in Middle School and High School.

ArtRage (paid): optional, similar to Procreate