An [un]Easy Partnership: Digital Technology in the Visual Arts Classroom

WILKS, J., CUTCHER, A., & WILKS, S. (2012). Digital Technology in the Visual Arts Classroom: An [un]Easy Partnership. Studies In Art Education, 54(1), 54-65.

An [un]Easy Partnership: Digital Technology in the Visual Arts Classroom

This article describes the relationship between technology and the visual arts classroom. It is generally understood that there are pros and cons to everything and technology in the classroom is no exception to that idea. Especially in the art classroom. The article breaks down the parts of technology integration that are easy in the art room and the parts that are not so easy. It starts out discussing the current state of digital art making. Some of the digital art out there is pretty neat, some is kind of weird...but it is a new-ish medium so there is a lot of experimentation happening, which the article describes with links to some interesting "Net-Art" out there right now. The argument the writers are making is that because the job of art making requires that we use any and everything available to us to get our point across, utilizing new Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to make art is crucial and because it is crucial in art-making, it is crucial in art education. It is difficult though because it is such a different kind of art medium that it can be difficult to integrate it into a curriculum that has been relatively stable for a good long while. 

The article describes several ways that engaging in ICT in art education is an easy partnership. Specifically, it gives students a new way to explore different concepts, forms, and conceptual frameworks. It can also integrate strategies and applications in hot visual arts professions such as 3D modeling, graphic design, and desktop publishing. It opens up opportunities to create movies as an art form, take virtual field trips to art museums, and sharing student work digitally. Art making on digital devices, such as iPads, can also help break down barriers for some students who struggle to succeed with traditional art media. The fact that the technology can do so much of the work frees students up to experiment freely, correct mistakes easily, and create deeper meaning within the work rather than just focusing on perfecting the performance of the medium being used. 

As far as challenges in integrating digital technology, the article describes four. The first one is the challenge of relevance and benefits. There are many art teachers who struggle to see the benefit of integrating new technology. They might not see the purpose of it or feel that drawing and painting on an electronic device would not be as authentic of an experience as drawing or painting in reality. There seems to be some dissonance between technology and the tactility of the creative process. The next challenges they discuss is that of time, an already crowded curriculum, and inadequate resources and support. Without the right kind of professional development, all the ICT in the world could do no good in any classroom. Sadly, specific professional development for art education is very rarely provided within a local school system simply because there is such a small population of teachers who it would actually effect. Educators also claim, "there is insufficient time to critically explore the medium and critically analyze artists who use this medium because of the myriad demands in their subject area." (Wilks 61) Lastly, they discuss the challenge of access and restrictions. If there is only one or two computers available to students in the art room, there is precious little students can do to create art in a meaningful way. 

I can relate to this challenge. Seeing students just once a week for a 45 minute block does not feel like nearly enough time to cover everything sufficiently. There are tons of media to explore, art history to cover, famous artists and art styles to discuss, elements, principles, drawing practice, the list goes on and on. It is scary to even think of all that but considering adding even more with few resources seems more like torture for the teacher than benefit for students. 

There are some neat resources offered in the article to help ease art teachers into technology and with the potential for an art and tech partnership being nearly limitless, there are tons more. So despite the challenges, it is important to embrace what technology that is available to us as art teachers and work to integrate it in art study as well as art creation. It is a gradual work but it is a necessary move for art education. In my classroom, I am slowly working toward integrating the iPad carts we have available at my school. It is certainly a challenge to say the least but I am very excited about the possibilities. There are lots of times when things don't work out and nothing seems to have gotten done but I think students are still benefiting from the exposure whether it works out completely or not.