We’re big fans of STEAM education. Like, really big fans. If you’re not familiar with what the A in STEAM stands for, or even the other four letters for that matter, STEM represents science, technology, engineering, and math with the A added in to represent art and create a more well-rounded 21st century education with plenty of opportunities for student expression. It’s when they’re able to do both—combine technology and artistic endeavors—that kids are able to partake in learning that’s exceptionally effective. Plus, the creativity they’re able to develop helps prepare them for life in the 21st century.
What Modernization of Arts Education
Art classrooms have always been places where students use what are, in terms of today’s tools, pretty basic instruments to express their ideas in the form of art. Like it or not, however, technology is bulldozing its way into the arts as well and creating new ways for art to be made and viewed. Even in K-12 classrooms, where art students once displayed their talents using nothing but a paintbrush and a canvas, technology is changing the game. Some art teachers are fighting this takeover, but others are embracing it. While digitizing art may transform what we know it as into something totally different, there’s no reason to believe it will be worse. In fact, digital art has the potential to be even more amazing than traditional art and help students express themselves in an infinite number of ways.
Art teachers can either fight this shift or embrace it by encouraging students to use all available resources to create the most compelling art. Technology, however, is not the creator. Giving life to true art still requires that students dig deep into their passions and find inspiration for artistic ideas. Then, they can use technology tools to help make their ideas come to life or help make them more vivid and precise. In today’s world, art has an additional role of helping to spread positive messages. Many artists are using street corners and the sides of buildings as canvasses to get their messages into public view. And, others have found that technology is a valuable tool for mass sharing, using computer programs to get their projects in front of the eyes of millions in just seconds. In this sense, combining art and technology can be extremely powerful.
In contemporary art, there is also a lot of sharing. Technology, as we just discussed, makes it possible to share artistic feats with the world in a way that’s all too easy. Especially for K-12 students, the opportunity to share their artwork with the community is valuable. Receiving positive feedback from people who attend school art showcases really does a lot to help bolster their appreciation for art and the work they put into creating it. School leaders are taking notice of the potential that technology has for making the arts more enticing to students who otherwise might not be interested. While it certainly is a different landscape, technology, at the very least, offers educators the chance to try their hand at reinventing arts education using some of the newest resources available.
Introducing STEM Early on through Art and Creativity
While many of the most appealing jobs of today require those who hold them to possess various tech skills, pretty much all of them require that workers possess a bunch of different STEM skills. Some of these STEM skills they can get from working with technology and using tech tools to help solve problems, but others are gained from a more artistic approach. Whether they’re using technology or not, art classes continue to provide students with valuable insights into the creative side of the skills they need to succeed. It’s the skills this approach helps foster—the soft skills—that are equally important for student development. Combining artistic learning experiences with technology gives teachers the opportunity to introduce STEM learning to students earlier rather than waiting until they enter the later grades.
It’s true that introducing STEM ideas to students in first grade takes a bit of creativity and a lot of commitment, but it’s worth it due to the potential for greatness hidden inside. To do this, it’s important for educators to remember that any subject can become a STEM subject if they have the right approach for incorporating forward-facing material. Students in early elementary school take art and music classes and finding ways to combine these periods with STEM activities is crucial to student achievement. It’s okay to place an emphasis on technology, but not as a replacement to artistic experiences. When used as a side-by-side tool, EdTech can do a great deal to enhance art classes. The way kids learn today is different than they learned even a few years ago. They’re technology natives and need to be using tools they’re familiar with in order to express themselves as well as possible and, these days, that means incorporating technology whenever possible.
Thanks to technology advances, the average school is now able to digitize art classes without taking too much away from the traditional nature of art class. Instead of expressing their creativity by painting pictures or creating paper mâché structures, kids are now commonly found using computer programs to design three-dimensional structures and learn about the design process at the same time. STEM objectives, like creativity and design, can even be incorporated into language arts classes/ Mobile computers enable students to write stories and essays on the go and design illustrations while the images are still fresh in their minds. Eliminating the time lag between inspiration and execution, technology is a valuable tool for helping students bring life to their ideas in a timely way while also developing some of the key skills that will help them succeed in the real world—and there’s no need to wait until they’re older!
Combining Drones and Art Class
It used to be (and when we say ‘used to be,’ we mean just a few years ago) the case that only high-tech companies and military personnel could get their hands on a drone. Now, their availability is widespread and their ease of use is skyrocketing. Drones are a useful tool in modern education for a number of reasons not the least of which is their effectiveness in introducing students to a relevant technology in a hands-on way. Many companies are beginning to use drones to maximize efficiency, so it’s very possible today’s kids will need to know how to use them sometime in the near future. Lucky for them, there are plenty of models that are extremely simple and offer first-time users a smooth flying experience without compromising safety or leading to frustration.
But, ‘what does this have to do with an art class?’ you might be wondering. Well, drones are becoming an increasingly common component of STEM education due, in large part, to some of the reasons we just discussed. Believe it or not, one of the classes drones are commonly used in among K-12 students is art class. Flying drones as a part of art class allows students to combine artistic creativity with technical knowhow and the new points of view they provide are astounding. Drones also empower students to see the world in brand new ways and draw inspiration from the aerial adventures they author.
The main purpose of integrating drones in an art class is their viability in enhancing photography. Teachers can center their art classes on encouraging students to capture artistic aerials or take it a step further by having them create landscapes or piecing multiple photos together to create a puzzle from their shots. As we discussed earlier, students can then take these images and transfer them into computer programs to create new, digitized forms of artistic expression. Drones are an inexpensive, portable, and safe way for students to combine adventurous art with tech-based expression and deserve a consideration from teachers who are looking for a new and exciting way to revamp art class and help kids build valuable skills at the same time.
What Happens When Art and Science Collide
We have talked about some of the ways in which artistic learning and scientific learning can be combined to create exemplary educational experiences for students. For much of recent years, however, these two disciplines have been kept separate from each other while the old-school crowd fought to keep the arts alive and the new schoolers continue to push for more hands-on training for students. We may have found a common ground by utilizing the versatility of makerspaces, however. Many K-12 schools now feature makerspaces within their walls and they are the perfect places to throw a modern twist on art and get kids inventing and innovating with technology that brings their artwork alive.
One of the reasons makerspaces are so valuable is because they provide hands-on opportunities for cross-curricular combinations. For example, students can learn the physics and engineering behind building a bridge out of cardboard while also making it look aesthetic. They also tend to enjoy taking the art part a bit further and decorating their projects with discarded objects and doodads they find along the way, bringing out their creative sides with an informal kind of artistic expression. Plus, most of the time when students are combining art and science (and most of the time they are in makerspaces in general), they’re able to work together and start shoring up their collaboration skills without the fear of failure.
Opportunities to connect technology and art classes are everywhere. As long as teachers are willing to look for them and embrace their potential, they can be found and integrated effectively into the classroom. Not too many people are saying that art classes should be disbanded outright just because the statistics show that there is so much of a focus on developing tech skills in children. Especially when there are so many ways to accomplish both, we see no reason to make this change either. By challenging students to be creative in makerspaces or wherever their art classes are held, teachers can encourage them to learn and apply important engineering concepts while gaining an in-depth understanding of the principles of design at the same time—bringing modern art classes full circle.
Using Technology to Help Bring Art Class Back
There are a number of reasons art classes are getting the shaft in schools across the country, including budget cuts and a commitment to focusing on STEM. Educators should be focusing on promoting the need for creativity among students, but instead are forced to comply with testing requirements that consist of either a right or wrong answer. Art class had always been the one place where students could never be wrong. As long as they tapped their imagination, they would be golden. Maybe traditional art classes are not completely relevant in this day and age, but combining meaningful technology with ingenious creation can certainly help revamp art class and make it something kids will again look forward to pursuing!
Instead of shying away from trying to have art keep up with technology, many teachers have embraced this revolution and used technology to craft new, inexpensive teaching methods. The truth is there are still lots of ways for students to get good at and build a genuine interest in art. It’s just that technology has dramatically changed the ways in which it’s done. Take drawing, for example. We think of it as a pencil-and-paper activity. Now, however, it’s evolved into something more precise made possible by kid-friendly apps that provide vivid details and the perfect outcome every time. Is this making kids less creative or diminishing their finished artwork? Not really, but it sure has put a new spin on how we think of art classes in schools.
Adding art to the STEM education equation is a great way to balance modern schooling as it benefits every single student. It’s been proven that a strong arts education is linked to greater educational and professional success later on in life. Simply by getting the chance to attend an art class throughout elementary school, students will possess a better cultural understanding, grasp other academic subjects more easily, uncover new forms of expression, and illuminate new passions. On top of that, art classes help students develop fine motor skills and a greater interest in learning, which, of course, applies to all future endeavors whether technology is involved or not. It may be true that art classes will only survive as far as technology takes them and we say that’s not a bad thing since each will help kids grow into well-rounded adults.
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