EDIM 508 - Web 2.0 Platforms that Support the Digital Artist

If you have a student who is a digital artist, Aviary is the site that will give your student an opportunity to create and share and edit the various media types such as: images, audio, or vector graphics. Students can use this tool within or outside of the classroom to create media to enhance their learning across many aspects of the curriculum. (www.aviary.com)

Students can also use Splashup to edit and enhance, re-touch, and edit multiple digital photographs.  This tool has the potential to create really, attractive, professional graphic design. (www.splashup.com)

One cannot forget Google Sketchup.  Students can create three dimensional models with this web 2.0 tool.  I have observed classrooms (Architects in Training)  that have used Sketchup to create 3-D virtual scaled models of their classroom layout. (http://sketchup.google.com)

Here are some curricular examples of how students can use Aviary,  Splashup, or Sketchup:

Language Arts: Students can create a book jackets or magazine covers of a novel or an author they are currently studying.  Google Sketchup can be used to create the set of a scene for a play.

Science: Students can create a graphical representation of a scientific system he/she is currently studying.  These digitally design images can be used as classroom learning posters.(i.e. A student can create a poster demonstrating his/her knowledge of the water cycle or the digestive system).  Sketchup can give future engineers early exposure to CAD-design concepts.

Social Studies/Current Events: Students can use the audio editing component of  Aviary to create a first person podcast account of a prominent person or event in history.  Students can use Aviary create a "radio show" to keep fellow school mates abreast of current issues and trending topics. (i.e. Census 2010: The Importance of Being Counted).  Google Sketch-up will enable students to create virtual diarhamas. 

Math: Students can create classroom posters to visually demonstrate mnemonics, logarithms or math concepts/vocabulary frequently used in his/her classroom using images and graphics (i.e. FOIL- First Outer Inner Last or the Lattice Method of Multiplication).  Students can also create music via Aviary to reinforce a math skill (i.e. multiplication hip-hop), Students can use Sketchup to explore three dimensional shapes and scaling in math.

These tools are free of charge; the only necessary tools are a computer, the internet, and a creative mind.  The three tools mentioned above will provide students and teachers a platform that will allow them to thrive in our current society where "creativity is sought after, cultivated, and praised." (Gardner pg. 77)

Reference

Gardner, H. (2007). Five minds for the future. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.