Review of Three Educational Blogs

#1: http://www.dawnsbrain.com/

Dawn is a web and graphic design teacher at a high school in California. Her blogs combines her personal artwork and thoughts, lesson plans for the classroom, and student artwork. I really like that she includes lesson plans, complete with worksheets and references, and student examples. Some of the student work, such as the student created websites, include students' names and links to their websites. The websites are created under the school's address, so this is public information. However, I am more in favor of keeping personal information and student information separate. For my blog, I plan to keep my personal artwork and thoughts separate from student work. If I do include student work as an example for a lesson, I will keep it anonymous. At PHHS, the art department is thinking about creating our own website or blog to open communication between teachers, students, and parents. We could also include student work in a gallery on the site.

#2: http://blogs.everettsd.org/cgaub/

This is a blog titled ArTechTivity (TM): Art and Technology Joined at the Hip. This is a blog for art classes at a middle school. The teacher hosts podcasts with student segments. Segments include: "How to," "Artist Interviews," "In the Studio," "Careers in Art," and "Favorite Project." The teacher also includes class notes and her own videos about artists, art movements, and art techniques. This blog is a great example of how to apply technology in an art class. I think that the podcasts and videos work really well for middle school. I would like to do more research to see if there are any high school teachers who incorporate student podcasts in their classes.

#3 http://carrotrevolution.blogspot.com/

According to About section in the blog, "The Carrot Revolution is an art education weblog and a resource page for art educators, art students, and artists in the digital age. Our goal is to fight the tyranny of the ordinary and to liberate from the status quo." The name is derived from a quote by Paul Cezanne, who says, "The day is coming when a single carrot freshly observed will set off a revolution." This blog has a plethora of information, questions, and ideas. It has tags for Art History, Sculpture, Painting, etc. The Carrot Revolution also has a project called "Rotoball." Schools from across the country and abroad can participate in a collaborative project using Flash. More proof that the world is flat! The video premieres at an Arts Festival and YouTube in the middle of April, so I'll definitely keep watch for that. This blog has posts that open a conversation about art in society, in addition to technology and education. I see myself using my blog in a similar manner.

More Blogs: http://artjunction.org/blog/, http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/links/blogs.html