So I’m here at the College Art Association annual meeting, and the session developed by Janice Robertson, Gale Levin, and Janhavi Pakrashi (all of Pratt Institute, NYC).  This is an alternative-format session:  open for tweeting, there is also an open mic going around the room as a “talking stick.”  Interesting to see, read, and hear what others are doing to “rock the boat” in their art history classrooms. Crowdsourcing the strategies…. A few points that strike me:

-If digital becomes the norm, then tweeting will no longer be rocking the boat, reading a book will be rocking the boat.

-Do students “shut down” when technology (power point) comes on?

-Redesigning the traditional observation paper — have the student take on a persona from the period.

-What to do with technology in a large class (50 students)?

– Create debate teams in class.

-Getting students to talk to each other instead of listening to lecture.

-Have students collaborate on powerpoint in class by throwing in images student pick to illustrate a point.

-Flipping the classroom.

-Team teaching with a colleague from a different discipline art history and folklore!)

-No long art history surveys!

-Using twitter to write a short description of a work.

-Incorporate your tech-savvy librarians into your teaching, your blog, your students’ work.

-Open-ended questions

-Some may prefer to tweet than speak

-Better to be involved than back away

-Many faculty are still unwilling to be involved with technology

-Technology takes a lot of time in class

-Drafting a syllabus/format for flipping the classroom

-How might online tools allow us to alter or flip the classroom

-Get the images to the students before they come to class

-Twitter isn’t the only tool, but can be a beginning of the discussion.

more to come….