Digital Art and Connection
Deirdre Headley
February 28, 2013
ARE 6641 Independent Research Project
From Start to Finish, in a Nutshell
Beginning as a large-scale vision of starting a Bachelor of Fine Arts program at our county-wide community college in support of artists, art students and art educators, my plan became a baby steps initiative within the local homeschool community and associations. As I continued to gain more knowledge through the course for which this project was created, the project actually morphed into a three-fold journey: (a) exploration of art technology use by the homeschooling population; (b) community connection through the use of that technology; and (c) the support of our art educators through that community connection.
Targeting My Fellow Art Educators
I initially had in mind rallying the college, the school board, the art association and the community to make big decisions for in-class support to art educators in the public schools by submitting a proposal to our college to offer a Bachelor of Fine Arts program. This would provide badly needed volunteers and interns to the art classes in public schools, as well as bringing in more revenue to the college and giving art students the opportunity to get a good degree without paying the higher university tuition and fees. After speaking to the appropriate people at the college, I learned that new programs will be determined solely by the highest paying local job opportunities in the high need fields. Employment of artists is not even in the top 75%. The initial plan to get support to our art educators needed to be drastically revised but in no way abandoned.
Grass Roots and Bottom-up
Through continued research, I soon ascertained that my plan had been largely a top-down strategy, a strategy that has not proven successful for our art educators and students in the public school system (Collegeboard Advocacy, 2012; Efland, 1976; Eisner, 2001; Freedman, 2007; Getzler, 2012; Giroux, 2010; May, 1994; Stuhr, 2003; Ted Talk, 2006). From “teaching to the test” policies ensuring “that short-term learning is the major goal rather than the long-term growth that a good art education can support” (Freedman, 2007, p. 209), to censorship (Stuhr, 2003; Efland, 1976) to overstuffed classrooms and lack of in-class support (Collegeboard Advocacy, 2012; Getzler, 2012), the message is that mistakes cost time and money, so they must be feared and avoided (Ted Talk, 2006). Exit critical thinking and creativity; enter fear of even suggesting the exploration of other possibilities (Eisner, 2001). Psychological safety (Gude, 2010) has been ripped from our students in the wake of standardized, corporate-style public school education. Even the upper management gurus agree that any top-down change initiative “would succeed only if it is communicated appropriately and to all levels. Honest, transparency and feedback loops must be the elements of the change initiative. Next, the [stakeholders] ought to have a voice in the way the change initiative is managed. For a [top-down] change initiative to be successful the top management has to communicate and the [stakeholders] have to respond.” (Top-down, para. 2, 2012). Therefore, in light of my initial plan, working to get “top management” on board to assist in initiating changes in how art education and art educators are handled by top management, we are not likely to be dealing with informed, appropriate, honest, transparent communication.
Bottom-up strategies, however, have proven to be successful for lasting change. I like how John Miller (2013) of New Millennium Management Resources describes this strategy:
[Bottom up strategy] is perhaps the most radical departure
from the traditional model. It takes upper management
out of its ivory tower and places it at the foundation of the
organization. Bottom up management calls for leadership by
empowerment by “supporting” team members “up” the line,
instead of dictating results by coercion and manipulation.
Bottom up management provides a supportive environment
where individual innovation and cross-functional teamwork
can flourish while at the same time provide the leadership
that a team based environment sometimes lacks. Fundamentally
it is about support as opposed to power and coercion.
Practically it is about a perspective transformation- individually
and organizationally (Miller, para. 2).
Community and the Ripple Effect
In an article highlighting a collaborative community art class project, Theresa Marché (1998) shared the final epiphany of that class project art teacher that "if I want to make any changes around here, I can't do it alone." She added that innovative education depends on a team approach, making new programs less vulnerable to the suppositions of the educator who goes solo. She concluded that “experience also highlights the impact of seemingly small decisions… like a pebble thrown into a pond, effects of this decision rippled outward to the community and then reflected back again inward to the school community, creating an ever-changing pattern of connections and personal relationships.” (Marché, 1998, p. 12). That is what I want to happen in our community, one baby step at a time. Wanda May (1994) is in agreement with this when she concludes that “reforming art education is impossible without creating and participating in professional communities where we work.” (p. 136). The community where I work is the homeschool community. So, I have decided that the best place to initiate change for the public school sector is right where I am in the homeschool community. So, I have decided that the best place to initiate change for the public school sector is right where I am in the homeschool community. I am convinced that the bottom-up initiative is the most promising venue. I have a potential wealth of support right in the homeschool communities, and I believe that connections need to begin. Those connections might as well begin with me. Most of those who homeschool are passionate advocates for the higher level of learning that art education intrinsically offers. I want to assess where we stand and how we can build a cohesive community of change agents, because if we can build a strong sense of community amongst ourselves, our students, and their parents, how much better we can move toward the support of our public school colleagues!
Connection and Collaboration with Technology
So now there is the problem of how to connect our homeschool communities. Where does one start? The three home school associations that span our 72-mile long county target North Brevard, Central Brevard, and South Brevard. The main reasons that parents choose homeschooling have remained consistent over the years. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reports the following as the top three reasons: “the desire to provide moral education, concerns about the [public] school environment and dissatisfaction with the academic instruction at local schools” (Jacobson, 2011, para. 9). Most of the parents who choose to homeschool believe they can provide a better education at home, and they embrace their right to do so. Their goal is for their children to become independent, critical thinkers who are given the opportunity to learn at their own pace, pursue their own interests, and develop confidence and self-discipline in the comfort and security of their own homes and in like-minded groups. The Homeschool Associations work to provide opportunities for the children and families to connect at least once a week to learn and play together, something crucial to socialization. Through community homeschooling programs offering courses in all subjects and sports, children interact with kids of all ages, and with adults, too.
I have recently discovered, by interviewing the parents and students, that the parents do make use of technology to get connected and create a sense of community and support. This is backed up by research (Andrade, 2008). As kids get older and the regular interaction of play dates with other homeschoolers taper off, finding support is especially important, (Jacobson, 2011). For most homeschooling families, that connection is just a couple of clicks away. The point is that there is a great deal of community building and connection already going on in our stakeholders’ lives that I have been unaware of, using the technology that this art educator has historically avoided.
Asking the Questions
Although studies do suggest that homeschoolers may be ahead on the technological curve, this is based on the fact that the family that homeschools must tap in to a myriad of online programs and communities to support and enhance their learning. However, when it comes to teaching art, many parents are at a loss as to how to tackle that kind of learning. This is one of the reasons people like me are sought out to educate their eager learners. This is where things could begin to erode in the technological arena. Since my homeschooling parents have had to become tech-savvy to serve best the educational needs of their children, am I to assume that it is naturally carrying over into their art making and thinking? Do homeschooled students take part in digital art communities or forums? Or is art a discipline that is being neglected in the technical arena because the parents are not involved in the teaching of art?
Having not known the importance of technology inclusion in the art curriculum, I had never paid much attention to the fact that our home school facilities have not provided technology in the art classrooms (at one point there was one art room containing an old television with a built-in VCR). The Homeschool Associations have communicated no expectations about art and technology integration. Technology has been brought up from time to time in class but except for the occasional requirement of Googling information and images at home, never as a part of a lesson.
Curiously, I have not seen or heard of any technological or face-to face contact, much less collaboration, between our county-wide homeschool art educators. Although homeschooling necessitates the use of a wide array of technologies in the homes for everything from interactive learning to online support groups, I am concerned that the home-school art educators and students, at least concerning the discipline of visual arts, might be lagging behind in art community connection and collaboration as well as digital art making. Has the force of community involvement been tapped into by the art educators at all? Can we not begin to connect using the technology that allows us, even in our harried lives, to do so? Are the home school art teachers practicing as lone wolves (May, 1994) just like many of the public school art teachers are? Is art something that those who homeschool view as fun and therapeutic but not as integral to all learning?
The Journey
There are a few of the questions I am looking into. To address some, I will be investigating the specific homeschool uses of technology, and how these uses affect or tie into (if at all) art-making, art education, and a sense of artistic community. My art class and I will begin by building our own homeschool art website- blog and all! The students have already named it Minivans (minivans.weebly.com).We will then start inviting students and art teachers from other parts of the homeschool sector to partake in our journey. The art website will offer a link to a blog on my own website to get input from students, parents and faculty. To tackle some of the remaining questions, I hope that the results will lead to the appropriate integration of technology into my art curriculum , while simultaneously building a sense of community between students, art educators, parents… all stakeholders in the education of our youth… through online (and ultimately face-to-face) connection and collaboration. The goal is to continue connecting and collaborating as we move toward not only deepening support of one another, but collectively lending the needed support to our public school art education colleagues. It starts with a baby step. It begins with a ripple.
I was genuinely surprised to learn that “although public schools are certainly advancing in their use of technological advances such as classroom whiteboards, increased access to computer labs, and even school subscriptions to electronic resources and databases, the national average for daily access to a computer is still only around four students per machine. Compare that to the ratio of homeschoolers with all-day one-on-one computer access, and there is still a large technological curve in favor of those being educated at home.” (Jones, 2013, para. 6). I was under the assumption that public schools were the ones ahead of the curve when it comes to technology! The push for implementation has been going on for as long as I can remember. But then again, upgrades are constantly rendering yesterday’s technology obsolete. Who can keep up? Technology perplexes me. There is so much these days about which I know so little. In do believe that during this new journey, I will be learning far more than any of my students, at least when it comes to technology. They are the digital natives (Prensky, 2001, as cited by Delacruz, 2009); I am the digital alien. I come in peace. Let’s collaborate.
References
Andrade, A.G. (2008). An Exploratory Study of the Role of Technology in the Rise of Homeschooling (Doctoral
Dissertation), Retrieved February 10, 2013 from http://etd.ohiolink.edu/view.cgi?accnumohiou1204138318
Collegeboard Advocacy. (2012). Teacher voices: Teachers talk about some of the big problems they face in the classroom and how these impede student learning. [Collaborative project from CollegeBoard website]. Retrieved February 2, 2002, from http://advocacy.collegeboard.org/sites/default/files/12b_5503_TeachVoices_WEB_120716.pdf
Delacruz, E. M. (2009). From bricks to mortar to the public sphere in cyberspace: Creating a
culture of caring on the digital global commons. International Journal of Education & the Arts, 10(5).
Delacruz, E. M. (2009). From bricks to mortar to the public sphere in cyberspace: Creating a culture of caring on the digital
global commons. International Journal of Education & the Arts, 10(5).
Eisner, E. K. (2001). Should we create new aims for art education? Art Education, Vol. 54(5), 6-10. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3193929
Efland, A. (1976). The school art style: A functional analysis. Studies in Art Education, 17(2),37- 44.
Getzler, A. (2012). Larger Classes— Less Education. Diane Ravitch’s Blog. [a blog post by Anita Getzler] Retrieved January 31, 2012 from http://dianeravitch.net/2012/08/26/an-art-teacher-explains-why-class-size-matters/
Giroux, H. (2010, June 25). Chartering disaster: Why Duncan's corporate-based schools can't deliver an education that matters. The Freire Project [Web site]. Retrieved from http://freireproject.org/blogs/chartering-disaster%3A- why-duncans-corporate-based-schools-cant-deliver-education-matters-henry-
Jacobson, M. (September 27, 2011). Homeschooling and Technology: The Allure for Modern
Families. In Parent Map. Retrieved February 10, 2013 from http://www.parentmap.com/article/homeschooling- and-technology
Jones, K. (2013). Homeschoolers May Be Ahead of the Technological Curve. In About.com. Retrieved February 10, 2013
from http://homeschooling.about.com/od/computersinternet/a/technology.htm
Stuhr, P. L. (2003). A tale of why social and cultural content is often excluded from art education
and why it should not be. Studies in Art Education, 44(4), 301-314.
TED Talk. (2006). Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity. [Video from a speech given by Ken Robinson]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
Deirdre Headley
February 28, 2013
ARE 6641 Independent Research Project
From Start to Finish, in a Nutshell
Beginning as a large-scale vision of starting a Bachelor of Fine Arts program at our county-wide community college in support of artists, art students and art educators, my plan became a baby steps initiative within the local homeschool community and associations. As I continued to gain more knowledge through the course for which this project was created, the project actually morphed into a three-fold journey: (a) exploration of art technology use by the homeschooling population; (b) community connection through the use of that technology; and (c) the support of our art educators through that community connection.
Targeting My Fellow Art Educators
I initially had in mind rallying the college, the school board, the art association and the community to make big decisions for in-class support to art educators in the public schools by submitting a proposal to our college to offer a Bachelor of Fine Arts program. This would provide badly needed volunteers and interns to the art classes in public schools, as well as bringing in more revenue to the college and giving art students the opportunity to get a good degree without paying the higher university tuition and fees. After speaking to the appropriate people at the college, I learned that new programs will be determined solely by the highest paying local job opportunities in the high need fields. Employment of artists is not even in the top 75%. The initial plan to get support to our art educators needed to be drastically revised but in no way abandoned.
Grass Roots and Bottom-up
Through continued research, I soon ascertained that my plan had been largely a top-down strategy, a strategy that has not proven successful for our art educators and students in the public school system (Collegeboard Advocacy, 2012; Efland, 1976; Eisner, 2001; Freedman, 2007; Getzler, 2012; Giroux, 2010; May, 1994; Stuhr, 2003; Ted Talk, 2006). From “teaching to the test” policies ensuring “that short-term learning is the major goal rather than the long-term growth that a good art education can support” (Freedman, 2007, p. 209), to censorship (Stuhr, 2003; Efland, 1976) to overstuffed classrooms and lack of in-class support (Collegeboard Advocacy, 2012; Getzler, 2012), the message is that mistakes cost time and money, so they must be feared and avoided (Ted Talk, 2006). Exit critical thinking and creativity; enter fear of even suggesting the exploration of other possibilities (Eisner, 2001). Psychological safety (Gude, 2010) has been ripped from our students in the wake of standardized, corporate-style public school education. Even the upper management gurus agree that any top-down change initiative “would succeed only if it is communicated appropriately and to all levels. Honest, transparency and feedback loops must be the elements of the change initiative. Next, the [stakeholders] ought to have a voice in the way the change initiative is managed. For a [top-down] change initiative to be successful the top management has to communicate and the [stakeholders] have to respond.” (Top-down, para. 2, 2012). Therefore, in light of my initial plan, working to get “top management” on board to assist in initiating changes in how art education and art educators are handled by top management, we are not likely to be dealing with informed, appropriate, honest, transparent communication.
Bottom-up strategies, however, have proven to be successful for lasting change. I like how John Miller (2013) of New Millennium Management Resources describes this strategy:
[Bottom up strategy] is perhaps the most radical departure
from the traditional model. It takes upper management
out of its ivory tower and places it at the foundation of the
organization. Bottom up management calls for leadership by
empowerment by “supporting” team members “up” the line,
instead of dictating results by coercion and manipulation.
Bottom up management provides a supportive environment
where individual innovation and cross-functional teamwork
can flourish while at the same time provide the leadership
that a team based environment sometimes lacks. Fundamentally
it is about support as opposed to power and coercion.
Practically it is about a perspective transformation- individually
and organizationally (Miller, para. 2).
Community and the Ripple Effect
In an article highlighting a collaborative community art class project, Theresa Marché (1998) shared the final epiphany of that class project art teacher that "if I want to make any changes around here, I can't do it alone." She added that innovative education depends on a team approach, making new programs less vulnerable to the suppositions of the educator who goes solo. She concluded that “experience also highlights the impact of seemingly small decisions… like a pebble thrown into a pond, effects of this decision rippled outward to the community and then reflected back again inward to the school community, creating an ever-changing pattern of connections and personal relationships.” (Marché, 1998, p. 12). That is what I want to happen in our community, one baby step at a time. Wanda May (1994) is in agreement with this when she concludes that “reforming art education is impossible without creating and participating in professional communities where we work.” (p. 136). The community where I work is the homeschool community. So, I have decided that the best place to initiate change for the public school sector is right where I am in the homeschool community. So, I have decided that the best place to initiate change for the public school sector is right where I am in the homeschool community. I am convinced that the bottom-up initiative is the most promising venue. I have a potential wealth of support right in the homeschool communities, and I believe that connections need to begin. Those connections might as well begin with me. Most of those who homeschool are passionate advocates for the higher level of learning that art education intrinsically offers. I want to assess where we stand and how we can build a cohesive community of change agents, because if we can build a strong sense of community amongst ourselves, our students, and their parents, how much better we can move toward the support of our public school colleagues!
Connection and Collaboration with Technology
So now there is the problem of how to connect our homeschool communities. Where does one start? The three home school associations that span our 72-mile long county target North Brevard, Central Brevard, and South Brevard. The main reasons that parents choose homeschooling have remained consistent over the years. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reports the following as the top three reasons: “the desire to provide moral education, concerns about the [public] school environment and dissatisfaction with the academic instruction at local schools” (Jacobson, 2011, para. 9). Most of the parents who choose to homeschool believe they can provide a better education at home, and they embrace their right to do so. Their goal is for their children to become independent, critical thinkers who are given the opportunity to learn at their own pace, pursue their own interests, and develop confidence and self-discipline in the comfort and security of their own homes and in like-minded groups. The Homeschool Associations work to provide opportunities for the children and families to connect at least once a week to learn and play together, something crucial to socialization. Through community homeschooling programs offering courses in all subjects and sports, children interact with kids of all ages, and with adults, too.
I have recently discovered, by interviewing the parents and students, that the parents do make use of technology to get connected and create a sense of community and support. This is backed up by research (Andrade, 2008). As kids get older and the regular interaction of play dates with other homeschoolers taper off, finding support is especially important, (Jacobson, 2011). For most homeschooling families, that connection is just a couple of clicks away. The point is that there is a great deal of community building and connection already going on in our stakeholders’ lives that I have been unaware of, using the technology that this art educator has historically avoided.
Asking the Questions
Although studies do suggest that homeschoolers may be ahead on the technological curve, this is based on the fact that the family that homeschools must tap in to a myriad of online programs and communities to support and enhance their learning. However, when it comes to teaching art, many parents are at a loss as to how to tackle that kind of learning. This is one of the reasons people like me are sought out to educate their eager learners. This is where things could begin to erode in the technological arena. Since my homeschooling parents have had to become tech-savvy to serve best the educational needs of their children, am I to assume that it is naturally carrying over into their art making and thinking? Do homeschooled students take part in digital art communities or forums? Or is art a discipline that is being neglected in the technical arena because the parents are not involved in the teaching of art?
Having not known the importance of technology inclusion in the art curriculum, I had never paid much attention to the fact that our home school facilities have not provided technology in the art classrooms (at one point there was one art room containing an old television with a built-in VCR). The Homeschool Associations have communicated no expectations about art and technology integration. Technology has been brought up from time to time in class but except for the occasional requirement of Googling information and images at home, never as a part of a lesson.
Curiously, I have not seen or heard of any technological or face-to face contact, much less collaboration, between our county-wide homeschool art educators. Although homeschooling necessitates the use of a wide array of technologies in the homes for everything from interactive learning to online support groups, I am concerned that the home-school art educators and students, at least concerning the discipline of visual arts, might be lagging behind in art community connection and collaboration as well as digital art making. Has the force of community involvement been tapped into by the art educators at all? Can we not begin to connect using the technology that allows us, even in our harried lives, to do so? Are the home school art teachers practicing as lone wolves (May, 1994) just like many of the public school art teachers are? Is art something that those who homeschool view as fun and therapeutic but not as integral to all learning?
The Journey
There are a few of the questions I am looking into. To address some, I will be investigating the specific homeschool uses of technology, and how these uses affect or tie into (if at all) art-making, art education, and a sense of artistic community. My art class and I will begin by building our own homeschool art website- blog and all! The students have already named it Minivans (minivans.weebly.com).We will then start inviting students and art teachers from other parts of the homeschool sector to partake in our journey. The art website will offer a link to a blog on my own website to get input from students, parents and faculty. To tackle some of the remaining questions, I hope that the results will lead to the appropriate integration of technology into my art curriculum , while simultaneously building a sense of community between students, art educators, parents… all stakeholders in the education of our youth… through online (and ultimately face-to-face) connection and collaboration. The goal is to continue connecting and collaborating as we move toward not only deepening support of one another, but collectively lending the needed support to our public school art education colleagues. It starts with a baby step. It begins with a ripple.
I was genuinely surprised to learn that “although public schools are certainly advancing in their use of technological advances such as classroom whiteboards, increased access to computer labs, and even school subscriptions to electronic resources and databases, the national average for daily access to a computer is still only around four students per machine. Compare that to the ratio of homeschoolers with all-day one-on-one computer access, and there is still a large technological curve in favor of those being educated at home.” (Jones, 2013, para. 6). I was under the assumption that public schools were the ones ahead of the curve when it comes to technology! The push for implementation has been going on for as long as I can remember. But then again, upgrades are constantly rendering yesterday’s technology obsolete. Who can keep up? Technology perplexes me. There is so much these days about which I know so little. In do believe that during this new journey, I will be learning far more than any of my students, at least when it comes to technology. They are the digital natives (Prensky, 2001, as cited by Delacruz, 2009); I am the digital alien. I come in peace. Let’s collaborate.
References
Andrade, A.G. (2008). An Exploratory Study of the Role of Technology in the Rise of Homeschooling (Doctoral
Dissertation), Retrieved February 10, 2013 from http://etd.ohiolink.edu/view.cgi?accnumohiou1204138318
Collegeboard Advocacy. (2012). Teacher voices: Teachers talk about some of the big problems they face in the classroom and how these impede student learning. [Collaborative project from CollegeBoard website]. Retrieved February 2, 2002, from http://advocacy.collegeboard.org/sites/default/files/12b_5503_TeachVoices_WEB_120716.pdf
Delacruz, E. M. (2009). From bricks to mortar to the public sphere in cyberspace: Creating a
culture of caring on the digital global commons. International Journal of Education & the Arts, 10(5).
Delacruz, E. M. (2009). From bricks to mortar to the public sphere in cyberspace: Creating a culture of caring on the digital
global commons. International Journal of Education & the Arts, 10(5).
Eisner, E. K. (2001). Should we create new aims for art education? Art Education, Vol. 54(5), 6-10. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3193929
Efland, A. (1976). The school art style: A functional analysis. Studies in Art Education, 17(2),37- 44.
Getzler, A. (2012). Larger Classes— Less Education. Diane Ravitch’s Blog. [a blog post by Anita Getzler] Retrieved January 31, 2012 from http://dianeravitch.net/2012/08/26/an-art-teacher-explains-why-class-size-matters/
Giroux, H. (2010, June 25). Chartering disaster: Why Duncan's corporate-based schools can't deliver an education that matters. The Freire Project [Web site]. Retrieved from http://freireproject.org/blogs/chartering-disaster%3A- why-duncans-corporate-based-schools-cant-deliver-education-matters-henry-
Jacobson, M. (September 27, 2011). Homeschooling and Technology: The Allure for Modern
Families. In Parent Map. Retrieved February 10, 2013 from http://www.parentmap.com/article/homeschooling- and-technology
Jones, K. (2013). Homeschoolers May Be Ahead of the Technological Curve. In About.com. Retrieved February 10, 2013
from http://homeschooling.about.com/od/computersinternet/a/technology.htm
Stuhr, P. L. (2003). A tale of why social and cultural content is often excluded from art education
and why it should not be. Studies in Art Education, 44(4), 301-314.
TED Talk. (2006). Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity. [Video from a speech given by Ken Robinson]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html