By: Tokie Rome
The Role of the Art Teacher
The role of the art teacher is to teach and inspire students in the areas of
aesthetic understanding, art history, art criticism, and art production. As a
part of arts education, students learn to tap into the abstract concept of
creativity, as well as analyze the artwork that they and others produce. They
gather an understanding as to what art means in relation to the world in which
they live. Students learn to think critically about the past and current world
of art and how art works reflect what was and is influencing the world. Students
are also asked to learn and apply a variety of art mediums that they use as
tools to share their thoughts and ideas.
All of these
areas of art education: art history, art criticism, art production, and
aesthetic understanding are usually allocated thirty to forty minutes, once a
week, for instruction. This time constraint forces many art teachers to think
“How can I possibly attempt to integrate one more area, technology, into the art
classroom?” Truthfully technology can be a helpful tool to solve time constraint
issues. However, it can also be a hindrance. For example, through the use of
animation software, students can create a simple animation in a few class
sessions. A similar animation would have taken weeks to draw, film and edit.
Software programs allow students to create faster, allowing teachers to raise
their expectations of quality work. However, software programs have to be taught
to the students and this can take up valuable art production time. Also, if
there are technology problems, the process of creating can be slowed or students
can become frustrated. Nevertheless, teachers will always be faced with the
learning curve of their student. It takes time for students to learn how to
properly use a new medium, before the creative process can continue. Using
technology to create with is no different.
Preparing Our Students For The World
As art
educators, it is imperative that we prepare our students for the world in which
they live. Technology is everywhere, in the form of computers, cameras,
televisions, and the Internet. If we are to properly prepare our students, we
have to teach our students using the tools they will encounter in the real
world. If art students are not exposed to technologies that can be utilized in
the arts, then we as art educators are not truly preparing our students for the
world outside of school. “Technology-based tools will enable teachers and
students to have a greater access to arts-based materials and resources” (Abram
and Stoner 1996). With this clear understanding, that technologies in art are
here and will only advance in the future, the next logical step is to decide
which innovations in technology effect the visual arts? How can these
innovations be used in the art curriculum to prepare students for the technology
driven world in which they live while still honoring traditional art mediums?
Technologies Three Roles in The Art Room
In reflecting
on my own teaching methods and that of others in the art education field, it
becomes apparent that technology in the arts holds three places. First,
technology can be used in researching, such as using the Internet to research an
artist or a creative medium. Second, technology can be used to create, for
example, KidPixes Deluxe allows even the youngest of students to create original
works of art using computer generated art mediums For an art room on a limited
budget, students have the opportunity to use a variety of mediums without
actually purchasing the medium. Photoshop is a
veritable darkroom in a box. It enables users to do all the things to an image
in a computer that photographers have traditionally done while making prints in
their darkrooms (Olejarz 1997). Lastly, technology can also be used as a
storage device in the form of CD-ROMs, DVD’s, and flash drives that can store
artist portfolios, entire images from museums, of information and images about a
specific artist. There are a growing number of
CD-ROMs available that present the riches of the world's art museums on a
computer screen. Ancient Egyptian Art from The Brooklyn Museum, The Frick
Collection, Art Gallery - Art from The National Gallery London, Le Louvre and
With Open Eyes - Art from The Art Institute of Chicago are but a few titles
currently available (Olejarz 1997).
These technologies can work independently of themselves and traditional
art mediums as a means of exploring art. They also can work in tandem with each
other and/or traditional art mediums to facilitate the creative process.
Lets examine how these technologies are being used
in arts education. At South Miami Senior High School’s magnet program in
communications, students use the computer as a virtual sketchbook. Of the 250
students in the program, almost all gravitate toward using the computer (Hill,
1995). In this instance, the computer acts as both a storage device for ideas,
as well as a method of creating. Students can then go on to select their best
ideas and create, using traditional mediums such as paper, paint, and oil
pastel. The computer and the software that the students use, act as another tool
in the creative process, not as a separate add on to the curriculum that hinders
the students and the teacher. Using the computer to practice ideas not only
saves the district money on paper and pencil, but it also allows the students to
be more creative. Students can make changes to a design without the fear.
Changes to any design can be made with a few clicks of their electronic pen or
keyboard.
Students can be taught to use traditional mediums
of art and the new technologies in a seamless manner.
In the
Northport, N.Y school district, students in one sculpture class, do
three-dimensional renderings of a piece on a computer before they being to
sculpt. Other students process and develop art using digital photography. They
make animated art in both the animation laboratory and the traditional art
class. Students submit high-tech art – as well as traditional forms – to Earn
the Regents in Art diploma awarded by the district. (Hill 1995)
These students are learning how to
create using the latest tools and teaching methods. What they are experiencing
is preparing them to use the tools of the art trade, be that paint and clay, or
the computer and digital camera.
The Future of Art
Education
By exposing
students to these technologies, teachers are creating a sense within these
students that this is the way to create and explore. The tools they use cease to
be a fancy tool of technology, and instead become the norm for creating. In the
same manner that tubes of oil paint allowed artists to paint outside and seemed
at the time a revolutionary technology invention, the tools of the computer,
Internet, digital camera, and software, will all become the standard means of
creating. What we consider to be traditional mediums today will simply be
expanded to include these technologies, and as with any art medium, the artist
will be able to select the medium of their choice with which to create. However,
for this to happen, it is incumbent for art educators to expose their students
to these technologies so that the art world and art education can continue to
progress into the twenty first-century and beyond.
References:
Abrahams, J. and Stoner,
S. (1996). Weaving a future for the arts in education through technology.
The Future of Networking Technologies for Learning. Retrieved on May 9,
2006 from
http://www.ed.gov/Technology/Futures/stoner.html.
