Thank you, Etienne, I think I deleted your post, so I’ve pasted from my email…. Hmmmm, Friends I am not on drugs!

SketchBook Pro and ArtStudio on the iPad will allow you to hook up a projector or another monitor to your device. I’ve not tried the latter app but SB works fine, the menus and pallets don’t show on screen, only your painting. And keynote presentations are a dream.

I believe we’re in the early stages of a new way to teach. Think about it. In the US an iPad is $500, I believe in a few years students will get them from school. Preloaded with all the books they need and better informed teachers will know how to incorporate these little machines into all classes. I do not think they will take the place of art supplies or even pencil and paper, but in the long run beaming tests and grading on the spot would save time, and money all the way around. Again, I’m not a real teacher but I certainly see advantages to teachers learning as much as they can about the new technology. And this is what we are doing now, investigating, seeing what works and trying new things with those around us. It certainly is an interesting an fun time.

And thanks for the clue to better posts, next time I will just start in WP and paste in when it’s correct! LOL.

Etienne Nguyen Tan Hon replied to one of your comments:

”Susan’s teaching experience really brings us a lot of practical information for the future. I just want to point out a problem that Susan has surely met during these classes: the hardware.

In fact this problem can be splitted into several topics:

1/ The price of mobile devices is still too high, it could be hard for a student (or his parents) to buy a device just to study mobile digital painting, except maybe for the Ipod which price is more ”reasonable”. Hopefully the tendency is on the decrease.

2/ iOS is the main operating system, but other OS also exist on the market. How to teach if there are several different OS in a same classroom ?

3/ A screen size of 8.9’ can be directly showed to a group of 10 or 15 students, but a smaller screen like a phone screen can cause some problem of visibility. One day I’ve tried to organize a ”demo” fingerpainting on my phone screen, but at the last moment I have to cancel it because it’s impossible to paint ”in live” and at the same time show the phone screen to the spectators. Obviously, I needed a connection to a wider screen for the demo. Until now I didn’t find any kind of cable or wire which allows the connection of a mobile device to a screen or monitor. Manufacturers can help us to solve this problem.

@Susan: just a small trick to edit your post. 1) Make a copy/paste of it into a wordprocessor. 2) Edit it in the WP. 3) Delete the old post. 4) Copy and paste to publish your new (edited) post. ”

Craig, these were mostly regular art classes, geared to all students. I was aked to do it because they have had very little exposure to computer art at all. It was designed as an attempt to broaden their scope, the district does not have money for art computers at this point, and as 6th grades I think they were pretty astute art wise. They’ve painted done sculpture, collage and knew all the histy and genera quite well. Out of 20 classes I’d say 2/3 were well aware of the movement. Perhaps 1/4 of the kids had an iPod touch, of those most did not know abbot art apps, they used them for music and games. After the classes I heard back from teachers that those who had them had started using art apps and were showing the teachers, quite proudly, I might add.

About 1/3 of students are on public assistance, that was hard for me, but that’s another long story. They all knew about iPads. When I taught they were only out for a little while, no one had one yet, perhaps some have them now. I was there to show that there are more than games you can play with on these devices, I did also touch on typing, email and presentations. Surprisingly more than half the students were on Facebook, perhaps that’s a bigger concern to me rather than the digital/tube of paint concern…

I believe that what ever experience we can give the kids… And 6th grade seems to be the new 9th grade… Is good. Again, it was a one time shot with each class but based on the thank you cards and posters I got from the classes, I believe it was a success.

Please excuse this post for spelling and typing errors, i’m not used to posting here on an iPad!!!!!!

Oh, the schools furnished basic art supplies, paper markers, etc. I brought 2 iPads and 2 Touches for use. AND I have never had an experience where kids caught on to concepts and instructions so fast in my life. Computers were invented when I was in my late 30s… They can’t imagine not having them. They also still LOVE markers.

I am not an official educator in the traditional sense but I just did a stint in our counties 6th grade classes (20 total) plus 2 advanced high school classes. Each 6th grade class was allotted 2½ hours (double the normal art class) so we could get into groups and actually do some work on planning and actually working on an iPad. We started with a keynote presentation (created on iPad of course.)

For credibility and to get students attention I showed the Columbo interview on ABC. That set the stage, and kids loved it. I then broke down and showed Jim Lee’s tutorial on developing his wonder woman on the iPad in SketchBook Pro, being a good looking super hero we got the kids even more excited. And discussed the process of making her portrait. Then I showed maybe 50 pieces of current digital mobil work being done by our Flickr community, We discussed each piece, some quickly some at great length, as to what they best represented, abstract, landscape, impressionistic, pop, fauve…. And if there were questions, I kept up, and steered them to keep on track. Last part of presentation was a demo of SketchBook Pro and one of Brushes., with gloss over on other art apps. I explained we’d be using Brushes, and I also made a letter size poster handout showing the short cuts on how to use the app. (Steve and developers could really help us here!)

Classes here are largish, average 33 in a class. So we divided into three groups. 15 minutes per station. First worked on still life drawing, (made before class started) the second group drew or developed their own super hero, and the third worked with me, we picked a subject and did a pass the iPad around to make a complete work, all hands involved. The highlight of course was Brushes play back. 5 minuted before end of class we had a ”what did they think” critique and believe me no one had a bad word to say even those who admitted they were not fond of art in the beginning (Yes, that was the first question I asked when we started, ”Do you like art?”

The program went over so well, I have been asked to do it again next May, which I guess I will, as it was great fun. And I got the worst cold I ever had from the kids. They shared too! LOL.

How about keynote? It has variable slide transitions and type.

I use pogo sketch and have started making my own which I love better. I get a charcoal holder from Jerry’s art o rama for 4 bucks and stuff it with scotch bright sponge. Learning to stuff properly took about 5 minutes. People who try my ”stick” which looks like a brush Love them. 1 sponge can make about 8 so you can share.