BP14_2009103_ArtisanCam

ArtisanCam

http://www.artisancam.org

I must have looked at and explored 20 or 30 new Web 2.0 tools today alone. I was not going to just select something at randome. I wanted something that really got me and I found it. It’s not a wiki or a blogger or a personal learning environment, but it is something that I would find quite useful as an art teacher.

Artisancam is a website that allows students to explore art “hands-on.” It is actually a collections of little software programs, videos and images that students can use to learn about all sorts of art forms, art careers, art techniques and art media from  jewelry making to pottery to painting. It was quite obviously developed in Britain as the artists and narrators in the interviews and videos have British accents.

I find this a very useful site, as students can do the activities as precursors to the actual art activity, then the demonstration that I do as the teacher or the instructions that I give make more sense as students have a context for them. Also, students could visit this site when completing early from a project and get exposed to many different art forms. In my district, I only have my elementary school students for 40 minutes a week. In this amount of time, it is difficult to expose students to all of the skills, activities, media and art adventures that I would like. Sometimes, really skilled students complete work early, or students who are not skilled complete early. This site could enrich that time during class when they are finished and others are not.

One of the activities was a weaving activity, demonstrated by an artist. I had been looking for a weaving activity that could be done by my students and this one was perfect. There are a number of steps to the project. By having those steps in a video format that students can simply scroll through, students who need to see the steps more than once or who need to see them at different times, can do so. The artist had also posted some examples of her work which were so good, that they would inspire students, I am sure.

This site will become a useful and used resource in my toolkit!


Credits:
Video created by the author and posted on YouTube.