iPads in the art class

We received our iPads just before christmas break, so to help teachers familiarize themselves with the iPad we sent many of them home with one.

One of the first teachers to get back to me after the break was our Art teacher (hi Rosie).  I had gotten her the Artstudio app.  Here is what she was able to do with it:

Quite simply, this is fantastic work.  She is not a technogeek, but she found the app easy to use and intuitive.  She especially liked the ability to zoom in quite closely to work on some fine details.

She was able to modify the brush style and pixel sizes.  She could easily modify colours.

But more than anything it wasn't what she could do with it that made her so excited.  It was what she could see her students doing with this.

With the magic of the Undo button, she strongly believes that students will be more confident to try out new techniques and ideas.  On paper if a student makes a mistake it could potentially ruin hours of work.  This tends to make students hesitant to try new things.  However, with this app, all a mistake  costs you is the effort of pressing the undo button.  If anything this might be the biggest benefit from using the iPad in the art room.

She also sees a major saving in materials.  As with any skill, different art techniques require practice.  This app presents them with an excellent means of practicing without using up reams and reams of paper

One more benefit is the ease with which this app allows students to share their work.  As with many apps, students can email their work to themselves, their teachers, family and friends.  It is also very easy to post student work to the school website.  This is a great opportunity for students to showcase their work.

Thanks for reading,

and don't forget to talk nerdy to me:)


Artwork created by Rosemary Gough