"Infusing" technology: new methods, but still steeped in culture and traition

Whenever I hear "infusing" technology I can't help but think of infusing tea or those cooking contest shows where they're having an hour to come up with a dish using some crazy ingredient and they go before the judges and say, "Well we've made a rosemary infused custard topped with smoked salmon creme fraiche and a citrus demi-glace." Maybe when we make lesson plans, it even feels a little like that when we have to include the "mystery ingredient" of technology.
Our campus got a class set of iPads this past school year that we could check out, so I was eager, but a little intimidated to include these in one of my lessons. I have small children of my own, so I know the draw of those little screens and how engaged they are with them, so I knew that part wouldn't be a problem, but wasn't sure how getting them started would be or exactly what I was going to have them produce with them.
At the TAEA conference, I attended a session where they used an app to create a group kaleidescope and when I was looking into that app found another similar one that allows you to draw while adjusting the lines of symmetry. Lines of symmetry are used in math TEKS, but are also used to create symmetrical balance, which is part of the principle of balance in the art TEKS. I typically use a project where students use symmetry to create a mask with symmetrical designs. My favorite example to use for this project are Mexican masks created for the celebration of Dia de los Muertos.
We talk about what Dia de los Muertos means, how it is celebrated, it's history and how it differs from Halloween. We use a variety of photographs, books and some videos to learn about the holiday and see lots of examples of the masks, which can be elaborately decorated with many colors, lines and shapes, typically in a symmetrical design.
Next came the "infusion." I have used different projects to demonstrate symmetrical balance from drawings or collages to 3d sculptures that we paint with a symmetrical design, but this time we were going to use the Symmetry Lab app I found for the ipads. What is neat about the app is that you can set the lines of symmetry beforehand, so i taught the students how to select 1 line of symmetry to create a left and right symmetrical design. This allowed them to draw on one side and whatever they drew would be reflected on the opposite side. When you first try this, everyone's tendency is just to play with the feature, so I was sure to allow some time for this. I set a timer and gave them a few minutes to just play and draw what they wanted with the app so that they could get over the excitement and desire to just scribble all over it, then had them focus on the actual project. The students were to create a symmetrical Dia de los Muertos skeleton design using symmetrical balance.
There were a few students who needed some guidance or troubleshooting to get going, but it was not all that different from helping students get started with a pencil and paper project.
We had some really neat symmetrical skeleton designs come from the project like the one here:
(not pictured yet, as I don't have access to my school photos from this computer as far as I can tell)
Saving these drawings was the only troublesome hurdle to the project. I did just an informal assessment walking around the room to be sure students were demonstrating understanding of the concept and principles. We chose a few to save for examples and one for the art show and we had to take screenshots and then have someone from technology figure out how to save those images and email them to me.

Coming up with a more seamless way of saving or sending finished files or screenshots to the teacher would be necessary to make this a practical way of creating more comprehensive or frequent projects. Ideally, students would need to be able to work on something and be able to save it and work on it again the next class, and the teacher would need access to be able to formally assess, but I am sure that will come in time.
Overall, the experience of "infusing" the lesson with some tech may not have been a chef-show worthy masterpiece of a meal, but it was fun for both myself and the students and was a successful step towards using the iPad technology some more this upcoming year!