2020 Vision: Art, Life and Teaching Philosophy

What are five things that are really important that you hope your students learn from you as a teacher in 2020?


As I contemplate this question and my teaching philosophy in general I can't imagine not teaching life lessons as well as art lessons and the connection between life and art.

Five Things, The Basis of My Philosophy:
1. Life is what you make it, if you want to be happy then do what makes you happy.
2. Everything is beautiful, you may have to look closer at some things, beauty can scream and beauty can whisper and you should pay attention to both.
3. Think creatively about functionality and art and how they can be interchanged and how they can inspire each other.
4. Art is always changing and one single idea is not a bad idea it may just need to be expanded. Do not doubt yourself but do not settle either, think of ways that idea can make a bigger impact.
5. Art can give you a stronger voice. Art can help you find your voice if you have lost it.

Art Education + Technology = A Creative Future

 
      A Pedagogy for Original Synners is an article written about the future of teaching and the role technology will have on teaching. The authors, Anderson and Balsamo, believe that the classroom will take on a virtual reality, science fiction setting. Students will have technology strapped to their bodies and communicate through brain waves so instead of saying what they think, they just think it and it is sent to the teacher. The article is written creatively but also helps the reader to start thinking critically about the future of education. The article makes valid points about how learning may soon be based entirely on how you retrieve information and think critically about that information. The article also argues that students will become more socially aware because of the nature of technology and its ability to help people communicate from around the globe.

      This talk about future students and teaching had me wondering about the future of art education. I still hold that reality based art has more of an impact and is more visceral then that of art created virtually but with the growing reliance on technology and the fascination with technology based creation has led me to think about different ways art students can create. Different interfaces such as iBrush and Easel help to make traditional art by mimicking the tools and motions of traditional drawing and painting but also add in a element of digital photography. Other interfaces such as Frig Magnets and Voice Thread are interfaces that would allow communication and artful collaboration between people all across the planet. In Voice Thread specifically you can communicate through doodling and talking. iSTOPmotion and other animation programs would be able to communicate a students ideas through moving images instead of one solitary image. All of these interfaces are great tools for students to visually communicate what they want. As a teacher it is important to utilize these as tools and design lessons that combine these tools, ideas of aesthetics and critical thinking about a subject. The iSTOPmotion program would be a good tool to use in connection with identity, have students animate what they like, what they feel and what is their identity.

Sources: Anderson, S., & Balsamo, A. (2008). A pedagogy for original synners. In T. McPherson (Ed.), Digital youth, innovation, and the unexpected (pp. 241-259). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.