Holistic Technology and Assessment
This digital artwork is inspired by Carol S. Jeffer's article, "Engaging Mind, Body, and Soul: Essential Connections for Art Education." The article talks about what it means to take into account a students entirety, their whole being when we are teaching them. Her insights on empathy really struck me, and one paragraph in particular was written very poetically and image rich.
“To understand the nature of this energy-harmony, we need only to examine our capacity for empathy, and to locate it not in the stardust of the cosmos or in a Jungian concept of the collective unconscious, but in the cells of the human body and the synapses of it’s brain.”
Images that I included in the background layers include: a page from the 16th century book, De Dissectione Partium Corporis Humani, by Charles Esteine that depicts the human nervous system, a photograph of a far off galaxy, a photograph of some neurons and finally an image of my 16 year old step son Ian who graciously posed for this photo. Using images that are both perosnal and intimate to my life, as well as the most intimate images of the human brain, what I may consider the physical incarnation of the soul, and speckled in the background is the negative spattering of stars and the cosmos. We are all connected, body, mind, energy, soul.
Insights (I).
“Holistic Teaching of Art with Technology: Practical Models and Enlarged Theory”
by Chiung-Chiu Lin and Bertram C. Bruce
Holistic engagement in action
Holistic art education with technology can integrate work across art forms- both digital and material, whereas some approaches to ICT (information and communication technologies) can ignore social and cultural learning experiences.
To address 2 major barriers (lack of evidence to show teachers what is possible and how to link everyday details to pedagogical ideals, and to show how technology, art and holistic learning intersect) the authors conducted a study including 3 secondary art teacher’s holistic engagement of digital media in their classrooms.
Creative and critical inquiries-
Understanding how digital images are made helps students question the authenticity of things.
The immediacy of digital photography helps students work through learning problems more quickly, while there are constraints to not using real film as well.
Inquiry into Life-
Learning should focus on imagery and those image connect with their lives- meaning making through; exploring strengths and identity, exploring socio-cultural connections in images and in their daily lives, using digital medial as an artistic tool to make social statements and to voice opinions.
Art can help foster the skills to manage and face life’s problems
Realms of Learning for Holistic Engagement in Art and Technology
Learning as lived experience
Artistic practice is a form of life practice- “the process and creation of artistic experiences as “carriers of meaning”
To live in a contemporary world students need technology experience.
Holistic ICT art ed. embeds learning around the impulses or instincts of the learner and makes connections to social, cultural and moral lives.
Technology as Means for inquiry
“lines between learning about technology and learning through technology are starting to merge.
Inquiry-driven curriculum, driven by the individual needs and interests of the learner-technology becomes a vehicle that facilitates exploration.
The Learning Relationship as Groundwork for Cultivating a Unified Whole
Teacher/Student relationships are important-encourages students to bring in prior and current knowledge into the classroom.
“profile of a holistic educator, is someone who possesses, ‘a receptive, compassionate awareness, an attitude of wonder, awe and reverence for life’”
where “individual differences were respected and where collaboration, rather than competition, was highlighted.”
“Assessing and Teaching for Creativity” by Lars Lindström
Study of the progression of creativity based on product and process criteria and assessed with portfolios, log books, sources of inspiration and videotaped interviews with students.
Arts Propel: Reflection for Creative Development
Encouraged students to reflect and make their own observations about their own work.
Discussions, self-assessments, observations and reflections illustrate learning and helps students to make connections and create meaning in their work.
An example would be Ella’s drawing of her father- the arm whose imperfection turns meaningful through discussion.
Working in holistic terms, physically, emotionally and cognitively.
What Criteria are Valid?
Product Criteria
Intention and success of communication of visual work
Use of elements and principles
Craftsmanship
Process Criteria
Investigative work/experimentation
Inventiveness/risk taking
Using models, searching out other people’s solutions
Capacity for self-assessment
Overall judgment of the teacher
Use of Rubrics
General enough to encompass the larger learning goals
Levels of performance should be described in equivalent terms
3 or 4 levels are plenty.
Can Creativity be reliably assessed
I don’t think the author sufficiently answered this question.
In the end, to a point, and better with a video (even more so with a conversation I’d imagine.)
Good example interview questions
How do Aspects of Creativity Develop? (can teachers make a difference?)
Yes, though specific training is needed, assessment must be used as an important part of student learning and development of classroom practices.
Students most often have trouble thinking on their own, coming up with their own problems or independently seeking out information without being told to, or to apply what they’ve learned to new situations
Proposal of how to help create creative ability.
Investigate work- Less is more- in depth research over time
Inventiveness- students must be encouraged to make mistakes and even fail.
Ability to use models- important to look at other people’s work and to engage students in dialogue about it.
Capacity for self- assessment- students respect in depth analysis of their work- teachers’ must take the time and take it seriously.
Invisibilia Podcasts
I wrote like 4 pages of notes on these podcasts…but basically,
Technology like Google glass both intrigue people and freak people out.
Those that experiment with augmented intelligence like this have possible side effects that have yet to be thoroughly studied.
Maggie Orth- art tech designer who worked with Thad and crew.
Eyeglass analogy- modified human, Shoes could be seen as technology that modifies humans. Writing was once a new technology
Science fiction- creative people influencing scientists and creators of the future
How to grow a bully
Emotional mechanics- computers mess with the normal flow of emotions.
Social media- can be so negative- more re-tweets of negative stuff than positive.
Dr. Ryan Martin sais that venting doesn’t help, it actually amplifies the feeling.
What you pretend to be….-Vonnegut
Resource (R).
Sir Ken Robinson’s “Do Schools Kill Creativity?” TED Feb 2006
https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity?language=en
Along with Sir Ken Robinson’s book, “Out of Our Minds; Learning to be Creative,” I thought I’d share this TED talk in response to the question “can you teach creativity?” possed in the article “Assessing and Teaching Creativity.” I bought the book last year and haven’t read it yet, but I’ve watched all of Robinson’s TED talks and know that he is a respected and vocal advocate for education reform and for focusing on how to teach creativity.
Some of the points from the TED talk include
Encouraging students passions- there are many different types of intelligences, and instead of trying to conform all students to the same model- we should foster the intelligences and interests of students starting at a very young age.
The education model still resembles the model from industrialism, 19th century, and most education models are preparing students to go to 4 year universities to be university professors. Not a good model.
Intelligence is diverse, interactive and distinct.
Time to rethink the foundations of education.
To see our children for the richness they are, and the wholeness they are.
Educate children’s whole being.
Application (A). Provide an example from current teaching or past experience. Think about how the reading is related to something that is currently happening or something from your educational past. Does the reading validate your insights about a particular event or situation or help to clarify what a different approach may have looked like?
Honestly, these two subjects, technology and assessment are two things that I struggle with most in my teaching practice. Though I’m constantly throwing myself into study and theory, volunteering for standard based assessment conferences for instance. In the past, I’ve taught a digital industrial arts class with the industrial tech teacher, merging the advanced manufacturing tools and the design. At Metro, we have a very transient population, new students are starting all of the time, so I have been used to teaching a lot of mini lessons, all of which don’t require much prior knowledge. With the STEAM academy I’m finding the quote from the Lin and Bruce article “lines between learning about technology and learning through technology are starting to merge,” quite applicable to my teaching practice right now. I’m finding that students need to be invested in their projects to learn the technology and have the technical knowledge stick. The way I’ve taught digital art in the past, at another school, was very sequential, with boring tutorials teaching one or two skills at a time, and rarely incorporating personal meaning or allowing for very much creativity. While the technical skills were rather consistent, I felt that I was teaching how to follow tutorials, rather than how to solve problems. The way I am teaching now is problematic in a different way. Through the STEAM academy I thought it would be best to choose the projects first, then teach the skills according to what will be needed, and the problem is that students don’t know what is possible, so their projects are not very ambitious. So- I like the idea of merging learning about technology through technology, and I’m confident that I can come up with a good balance of tutorials and meaning making.
