This is Bloom's Digital Taxonomy, notice the highest order thinking skill is creating. How much time do students spend creating while in school? Or are we still teaching them rote skills to remember things? Remembering is not going to get our digital learners very far in the world of change. I try to give my students a fair amount of time to create every day. Here is one way they created yesterday.
This may look like ordinary paint on white paper, and yes that is one way to create. However, my students are digital learners and they are painting on the SMARTboard using a program called ArtRage. No paint shirt required here and no messy paint brushes to clean up! This program allows students to use paint, crayon, or pencil to create. You can choose your medium and color; the rest is up to the imagination. When you choose paint, it looks like paint brush strokes, crayon is textured just as a crayon on paper would appear and so forth. The greatest part about this program is that it allows for color mixing. When the child paints blue and the yellow to paint over the top, it turns green!
We like to give children a real paint brush when they use this program to enhance the experience and increase fine motor skills. However, you can use your hand too, as one student found out yesterday!
After choosing a paint color, the student began painting with the paint brush and then quite by accident he rested his left hand onto the board. (Too bad the smart board only senses one touch at a time.) He then saw a paint mark on the SMARTboard where he rested his left hand. His eyes got huge as he looked down at his hand as if he had paint on his hand! Too cute!
