Why I use Technology to Teach Art
- jessross2222
- Nov 6, 2025
- 9 min read
Updated: Dec 9, 2025
If you are reading this from an external link to my page. My name is Jessica Ross and I am an Art teacher and freelance artist. This blog post is part of an assignment for my technology in education course. In this article I will discuss some strategies to incorporating technology into your art class and share some lessons that I have developed for my students. It is important to remember that we are always trying to maximize creativity and make sure that technology is enhancing learning experiences. A good resource to analyze this is the PICRAT model in the link below (Kimmons et al.)
Using technology to teach can either be a catalyst for learning or it can inhibit creative thought processes. It is an educator's responsibility to know what technology to use for which students and how to use it in a way that will benefit students in the best way possible. Knowing how to teach art with technology and how the world is using art to create technology is an important part of understanding how technological pedagogical content knowledge enhances teaching practices (Mishra and Koehler). Teaching students how to use technology to benefit themselves is something that schools are becoming increasingly aware of. It is an educators responsibility to know how to navigate this technology in order to show students what is and is not useful for them to interact with in this ever expanding technological world (Puckett).
Technology is used in so many aspects of our daily life. We use it to communicate, teach, and run our businesses. There is great technology out there that can save time, boost creativity, and bridge learning barriers. It is important to remember that students learn differently. Some students may find that a certain type of technology works great for them and others might not have the same experience with it. I have done some of my own research on a few different types of technology used in classrooms today including:
Micro:bit
Make AI Robots
Clipchamp
Ed Puzzle
Youtube
Capcut
Canva
Technology in Lesson plans
Micro: Bit and Make Ai Robots : STUDY BUDDY
Objective 1, 5, 7
Grade level
• 8th -12th grade Art
Assignment
• Make your own study buddy to help you stay on task!
Steps
Make the code (buddy’s brains)
1. Use https://makeairobots.com/ to create recognition of attention vs. distracted or absent person.
This is my example https://teachablemachine.withgoogle.com/models/JP2BZZAXH/
2. Connect micro:bit to computer via USB.
3. Connect AI robot to micro:bit code through the makeairobots website by pasting the example link into the drop box in step 3 labled “connect your micro:bit to your AI!
4. I added a smiley face for when AI recognizes “attention” and I added a different face and a sound that plays when AI recognizes “distraction”. The sound is meant to be a reminder to get you to refocus on your assignment or lesson. You can choose your own sound.
5. My example code link. https://makecode.microbit.org/S12568-40346-57700-38753
6. For a challenge data collection could be added to this code to count number of distractions within a time frame. An additional challenge would be to add moving parts to your study buddy like functioning arms or legs.
This project is fun for students to create a functional tool using coding and sculptural methods. It brings together technology and art in a way that also allows flexibility for students to personalize their buddy. Students can choose how to decorate their study buddies and what materials to use. They can choose what sound their buddy makes and could even decide how they want it to keep track of their study habits.
Keeping track of how many distractions they have may be useful for them to consciously think about how they are becoming distracted and what they can do to train themselves to focus. When they make a conscious decision to eliminate a distraction or practice ignoring distractions they are creating mental fitness. This type of exercise can be used to build attention span. Technology and social media is constantly distracting us and so it is important to be able to train our minds to combat this and form it into a useful tool. Building a study buddy is a great way to combat technology with technology. It is a personal visual and auditory reminder tool. This can be a great tool for students that need verbal and visual reminders.
Another exercise to include with this project would be to add a written reflection for students to write about how they feel about using their study buddy. It allows them to think about if this is a useful piece of technology for them or not. All students study and learn differently. This may be a useful tool for some students while it may not be useful for others. Allowing them to choose if this is something that they would use while studying allows them to understand more about themselves and the ways that they learn. Making their own choices about their learning environment allows them to become more autonomous. They can learn to make decisions that are best for them and become successful in doing so. A written reflection gives them the space to think about what they need to succeed.
This activity uses technology as an element in a creative design so it is maximizing the creative process while keeping students thinking about the why behind the project. It utilizes differentiated outcomes and adjusted levels of difficulty to meet students where they are at which reflects the universal design for learning action and expression strategies (CAST) .
Ed Puzzle and Youtube : Drawing a Still Life Cube
Objective 3, 7
Grade level
6-12th grade Art
Assignment
Draw a 3D cube
Steps
Students are to draw along with the you tube video.
Students answer the ed puzzle questions as they watch the video.
Have a cube or another still life form for students to apply the information from the video to carry out the exercise in an in person format.
This can be modified for the skill level of each student and age group. This allows for a more universal based learning activity. More advanced forms can be used for upper level classes.
The Ed Puzzle program requires you to have an account to access the lessons but it is free. It also allows teachers to assign lessons on google classroom. This is a great resource for classes that use google classroom for their students. I really liked how easy it was to add questions and notes to my video. Ed Puzzle allows you to directly search for You tube videos. You tube is a blessing and a curse for teachers. Many videos have great information with some caveats. It can be hard to find just the right video to supplement your lesson. I liked making my own video so that I can put all of the information I want into the video and nothing that I don't want.
I used Capcut to edit this video. I am not a professional videographer so my editing skills do need some work. I did like that Capcut has a tracking feature so that I could overlay my outline shapes for students to see how I break down the form into simple shapes. However, Capcut is an expensive video editing tool. I used Clipchamp to edit other video projects. It has less tools but it is a free program. All of these programs take time to create your personalized video lesson.
I think that this resource is great for students to follow along with drawing tutorials. It allows them to do the lesson at their own pace and also allows absent students access to all of the information that they need to catch up to the class. This is a great tool to bridge geographical gaps when in person learning is not available. This project taught me that there are some circumstances where technology is absolutely necessary in order to be able to expand on real world experiences.
Canva AI game maker : Famous Artists Quiz
Objective 2, 7
Grade level
8-12th Grade Art
Assignment
Identify famous historical artists and their artwork
Steps
Show students historical artists and their artworks on the power point lesson
Allow students to play the matching game to create a visual memory of famous artwork and artists.
Discuss famous artists and their painting styles.
Assess information retention by assigning a graded matching game.
For non English speaking students Canva has a translation tool that can translate this lesson into most other languages.
This could also be played as a class and used as a group activity. If there is a student who is visually impaired in the class, ask students to describe the painting verbally and read the title and choices out loud to the class.
Canva's AI tool works really well as long as you know exactly what you are looking for. I used it to create a quiz, a memory game and a matching game. I found that the quiz or the matching game worked best for what I wanted. Canva quizzes are easy to make and give instant feedback for grading but do not allow you to collect grades.
I originally had done a Canva matching quiz for citation formats but I wanted to see how I could tailor the quizzes to reflect a lesson I might teach my students. So I decided to try it out with famous abstract artworks. This was the first time I had ever worked with an AI tool that could just make what I wanted from typing up a few commands. It was really shocking to me at first and it got me thinking about how this was being abused in certain educational situations. In the next section I also have added a policy for AI in my art classroom.
Classroom Technology policies
Objective 1, 6, 4
These are policies that I have developed for my classroom. School technology policies vary from school to school so it is important to make sure that you follow the school policies as well. There are also state policies regarding phones in the schools that vary from state to state so make sure you know those as well. Some states including North Dakota no longer allow students to have their phones during the school day. The way that they schools choose to enforce that may look different depending on the school. Federal policies like FERPA and PII also exist to keep students safe while using technology and my policies also aim to follow those as well. It is important to think about the student information that programs my be gaining access to before deciding to use it in class.
Over the course of my class I did modify my policy slightly to reflect more of the why behind the policies which aim to keep students safe on and offline.
The AI policy that I have focuses on letting students explore components of AI while carefully regulating the information that is used to complete assignments. I believe that AI can help some creative endeavors but I want my students to be able to explain why they are choosing to create certain images. The idea is just as much as important as the work itself and that is something that AI cannot replace. I was very skeptical of allowing any type of AI into my classroom at all but like I said in the introduction to this post, students are going to have access to these things and it is an educators responsibility to teach them how to navigate these tools carefully. The driving factor behind this is that these students will need to understand that they have a choice to gain or lose their own education by utilizing or mishandling AI. The ethical conduct also needs to be firmly outlined because this is really new and unprecedented territory that we are entering into as educators and as a society. I believe that this policy works to keep students safe while teaching them legal boundaries as well as ethical best practices.
I think that this policy gives a clear outline of how AI influenced work will also be analyzed and graded in the class. Grading artwork and tracking skills in an art class is tricky because art can be very subjective. What I aim to do is grade my students based on their classroom performance and ability to communicate their ideas, which I touch on in this policy also.
The last thing I want to touch on is some of the current pieces of technology that are being used to create digital artwork. I use procreate to illustrate kids books and I have taught lessons for that which I talk about in two of my other blog posts. I do think that this is a very useful tool for students to be introduced to in an art class. The obsticle with this is that not all classes have access to tablets and this program. I am hoping that one day it will be something that is more readily available for a highschool level class so I did include some ways to implement it in my technology policy. Technology is advancing so fast and the better we know how and what to teach students about it the better off they will be.
Sources
CAST. “The UDL Guidelines.” CAST, 2024, udlguidelines.cast.org/.
Kimmons, Royce, et al. “The PICRAT Model for Technology Integration in Teacher Preparation – CITE Journal.” Cite Journal, 2020, citejournal.org/volume-20/issue-1-20/general/the-picrat-model-for-technology-integration-in-teacher-preparation/.
Mishra, Punya, and Matthew J. Koehler. “Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge: A Framework for Teacher Knowledge.” Teachers College Record, vol. 108, no. 6, 2006, pp. 1017–1054, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9620.2006.00684.x.
Puckett, Cassidy. “Digital Adaptability: A New Measure for Digital Inequality Research.” Social Science Computer Review, vol. 40, no. 3, 16 July 2020, p. 089443932092608, https://doi.org/10.1177/0894439320926087.
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