Well, in a small way!  Last year I wrote a grant to the Minneapolis Federation of Retired Teachers and was funded to purchase 2 iPads for the art room.  Mrs. Johnson also loaned me 1 more iPad from one of the media carts.  Thanks to the Hale PTA (and all of you who generously donate) we also received 3 Osmo Game systems for the art room.  So, I’ve been gradually introducing these to different classes this past week.
If you haven’t heard of Osmo- it’s a great game system for the iPad. The thing I love about it is that it doesn’t tie kids to a screen. It has them manipulate real objects and draw on real paper.  Check it out at:  www.playosmo.com  Right now they’re running a special where if you purchase a system you can get one free for a school of your choice.  I am hoping to get some more iPads for the art room and would love more Osmo systems.  Mrs. Johnson is also using them in the media center.
So far we’ve used “tangrams” and “newton”.  I’m building a picture gallery about our art units as we go and will add the game “words” in as I get the galleries built.  I’m hoping that as more classrooms transition over to using the small laptops, iPads will become available for the art room. I’d love to do stop motion animation with the kids and have them take photos of their work in progress to email home at a faster rate than I update blog posts!
Let me know if you have any questions, or know of any grants! I’m really interested in building up our technology use in the art room- especially in ways that incorporate real art materials.  I would never replace the “real” mess- but there are so many exciting possibilities with more access to iPads on a regular basis!