Engage, Enhance, and Extend Student Learning using Technology

Technology is a source today that people in the education field did not have the luxury of just a few years ago. As technology continues to grow, so do the opportunities and resources available to educators. Technology, and other resources, can be used to engage students, along with enhancing and extending the learning process. In art education, technology is a fantastic resource for students to be able to gain even more knowledge about particular artists, time periods, or styles of art.

Engaging students is one of the most important parts of the learning process. If students are uninterested in the subject being taught then they more than likely will cause problems for themselves, other students and you as the teacher. Creating motivation and interest can be difficult. Brad Kuntz has a great article on how to engage students through the use of technology, instead of shying away from it like some teachers with older methods do. Technology is only getting stronger, so allowing students to do things like use the Internet to look up answers to questions in class, or doing more electronic assignments instead of using paper, can help them be more interested during class.

Enhancing the learning experience involves using technology to develop an understanding of learning goals that could not have been accomplished without those tools (Keren-Kolb). Therefore, the use of technology helps develop a more sophisticated and deeper understanding of presented information, and could potentially make information easier to understand. Technology can also make information more relatable. In the classroom, regular or art, technology can also allow students to present learned information in a newer fashion or provide a variety of options for information presentation.

Extension of learning in the classroom takes information and processes learned inside the walls of a class and connects them with every day events in students' lives (Keren-Kolb). This part of the learning process helps students continue to be learners on their own, without teachers and even after they are done with school.  The correct use of technological tools helps students learn outside a typical school day so that they can bridge what they learned in class to new experiences in the outside world.

Art is a great way to keep students engaged in any activity. Rena Upitis of Queen's University makes a valid point in her article that art not only engages students in different ways, but also helps improve basic skills such as critical thinking and problem solving. Art education is a field that has not always been known for its use of technology. However, new standards now require art teachers to incorporate technology in to lesson plans. Through both basic skill improvement and the increased use of technology, art has become a popular way for teachers in the core classrooms to engage and enhance the learning experience for their students.



This fun video sums up what the rest of this blog has to say. Students of the next generation are being born with more and more access to technology. Old methods of using simply a whiteboard is no longer an option to be able to keep students involved in learning. Technology is the newest, and often the best, option to engage, enhance, and extend information that is passed from teachers to their students.





Citation

EDTP504 (March 27, 2011). Digital Literacy- Using Technology in the Classroom. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5ySocUyI7I 

Image: http://www.stream.ie/news-education/back-to-school-ipad-deployment-training/

Keren-Kolb, L. (2013). Engage, enhance and extend learning!. In Learning & Leading with TechnologyInternational Society for Technology In Education.

Upitis, R. (2011). Engaging students through art. The Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat, Retrieved from http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/inspire/research/WW_Engaging_Arts.pdf