My students and I participate in an online community called Artsonia. Artsonia is the largest online kids’ art museum. It displays student artwork and student artist statements, ranks schools in the state and nation, and provides a fundraising opportunity to all schools.  Currently, and for the last two years, we have been ranked 1st among all middle schools in the state of Pennsylvania. Ranking, which changes daily, is based on total number of artwork uploaded, fan club members, comments, and artist statements.  Currently, my digital art students use our learning management system, Schoology, in combination with the Artsonia classroom web application, to upload their own artwork and add mini artist statements about each piece of art created in class and outside of class. Artsonia has become an amazing resource for my classroom.

     This year I have added an exciting new element to our artwork display for all students and created QR code T-shirts for 60 students.  Using the URL for his or her own unique page on Artsonia, each student has created a QR code to direct people to his or her site to view artwork, artist statements and comments people have made about submitted work.  We then took their QR codes and made labels for display on all of the artwork in the building. Taking this one exciting step forward, we created T-shirt transfers for each student in digital art. Students are able to walk around school wearing their QR code T-shirts that direct people to their personal Artsonia sites.  My goal is to increase the content, connection, and use of my school’s online art museum.  As the project is ongoing and the students continue to wear their shirts and interact by scanning each other, viewing, engaging, and contributing to each other’s galleries, I see the excitement of our online art museum growing exponentially. Perhaps the next step would be creating a t-shirt to connect every student in my school!