The technology that I think influenced education in my content area the most throughout history is the television. In 1966 television was introduced to schools as an educational tool. In the 1970’s and 1980’s educational shows like Sesame Street, and Channel One were brought into the classroom as well. While I do think that some shows on television may help students become more familiar with cultural diversity and thinking outside their own world, I believe that it has hindered the creativity process a student goes through when making art. Television can disrupt concentration, while creativity requires no distractions. This technology has impacted students time outside of school and has taken away from imagination, play, and thinking of creative solutions. If this ability is held back in a students daily life it will also effect the students participation in the classroom.
During the interview Grace talks about how the television shows aesthetically caught students attention but there was no way to incorporate them into her lessons. It seems to me that the only reason the shows were played for the students was so the school could receive the free equipment that apparently no one used. Although I feel that television ultimately has had a bad impact on art classrooms because it can interrupt original ideas, I do see the positive use for them in rare instances. Every student has a specific way they learn new information, and if the television helps just one student find inspiration for an art activity it is worth using in a few lesson plans.
Shannon,
ReplyDeleteI think televisions like anything else are a tool. I agree with you that they might not serve much purpose in an art classroom other than for the purpose of an instructional guide while the teacher walks around giving individual attention. One way you could use television in the classroom is to have students put together a videotaped presentation of their completed projects and its significance something like an art show. Another classmate Natalie posted an article about a school district giving iPad's to kindergarteners. My first question was what happened to good old fashioned art and music classes. This is where students are allowed to express their creativity and their growing brains need that physical hands on interactive touch to function. Many of the shows that were portrayed in our readings and the videos did not seem to have much purpose other than to serve as propaganda.
Last semester I took a course about art education and technology in the p-12 classroom and our professor introduced a bunch of ideas of how to incorporate technology in the art classroom. By using video cameras, imovie, garage band, and headset microphones we were able to create various lesson plans where students could create their own movies using these new technologies. It can be a great hands on, visual, and auditory way for students to learn information.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your statement that the television "hindered the creativity process a student." It's true because part of what catches young kids’ interest, nowadays and in recent years, is the television. Whether it's watching a cartoon or watching a baseball game, kids maybe learning something, but they themselves aren't part of creating something on their own. I used to watch so much television back when I was much younger. As I went into college, I was barely attached to it. I feel now, even though part of it is age, that I am more creative in the things I do compared to when I was in high school or middle school. Reason being is because again, I am not watching television as much as I used to. I felt that the times when I wasn't on the television I was smarter, and the times that I was watching TV, my IQ was decreasing by the minute. Take a look back in the early 1900’s, was Albert Einstein on the TV, when he changed the world of physics. I seriously doubt it because I don’t think that there were many TV’s around, if any at all, back then. I also think that he wouldn’t have been able to create, what he created in physics because that takes a lot of time and effort. Overall, the television can be not a great thing to have around, because it’ll not only, “hinder the creativity process of a student in art,” but also in other subjects as well. Turn the TV off!
ReplyDeleteIs the inspiration and original ideas the most important element of an art class? I might agree, but there are lots of things to be learned- art history, for example.
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