Considering New Literacies

It has been a while since I have had the opportunity to share my thoughts on all of the new information I am learning about integrating technology into the art room. My most recent class has brought to light some very interesting things to consider. The course, titled, Supporting Information Literacies and Online Inquiry, focused upon teaching new literacy skills within an inquiry-based project that teaches content. I had several revelations from the course, but the most striking one was the time it takes to thoroughly and effectively teach the proper application of new literacy skills. As I developed an inquiry-based unit, I often felt that the content got lost within the sea of searching, evaluating, analyzing, synthesizing, and ethical skills. I understand that students must learn these skills to effectively absorb the content but, in my experience they are not willing to use the stairs to reach the end goal, they would rather jump. It is almost a "Catch 22" situation, I know if they take the time to learn these skills, then the process will become easier and the content will become more of the focus but, until they learn the skills I must keep them motivated by dangling the content in front of them and sometimes sacrifice its mastery until they get the skills. I suppose it gets down to the old debate between process or product. Is it more important to focus on how they got there or what "there" ends up looking like? It is a challenge in developing my instruction, but I am always up for a challenge.

The knowledge and experience I have gained through this course has already begun to influence my teaching practices. Some of it has surfaced through teachable moments like,showing a student how to effectively use a search engine, or passing on a tip on evaluating information, but the greatest change has occurred in modeling proper ethical practices. I must confess that I often get caught up in the creative moment and when I need an image I will copy it into a PowerPoint or PhotoStory and not give credit. The Internet is just a playground of images, all just a keystroke away. It can be very tempting to just copy and paste away. I have begun to model proper copyright law practices and providing proper credit in all of my presentations I use in instruction and otherwise. As my students begin to create art using the computer, I have been reinforcing the protection of creative thought and images. We have even had discussions about the classic conflict of copying others' works of art in the studio. From kindergarten through fifth grade, students always have an issue with other students taking an idea they developed and calling it their own. This concept has opened up a dialog about how people who have worked hard to create images and ideas on the Internet would feel if you took their work without asking permission and call it your own. I believe that together, my students and I, can learn how to practice respect for the creative work of other people as we move into more opportunities to utilize modern media.

After taking this course, I have set some personal professional development goals to build upon my own literacy skills. I plan to focus mainly on visual literacy since they are directly related to what I teach in the classroom. Ultimately, I would like to develop my vision of the 21st century elementary art room and curriculum. To get to that point, I must start taking some classes on different multimedia techniques and the technology aspects of modern film making. I am working on some grants that will hopefully yield some funding to acquire some needed equipment for my classroom but in the meantime I need to become familiar and comfortable in its use by making examples of my own. I have located an online mentor at a Ning site that I am a member of Art Education 2.0. Tricia Fuglestad is doing the type of instruction and integration that I would love to be doing in my classroom and I hope that by communicating with her I can gain some insight on further direction I need to take to reach my goals. I also plan to take some more classes on the technical aspects of my classroom management system that my district calls E-Learn. I have a basic E-Learn site that I am using alongside of my instruction but I would like to take it to the next level and learn how to embed code for video players to start sharing the multimedia my students produce. Finally, I have a fifth grade student this year who is very interested in film-making and I am learning many new special effects, editing skills, and software programs because of his drive to get better. It is very motivating for both of us to be learning side-by-side.

Even without all the new "bells and whistles", I plan to examine my curriculum for opportunities to practice visual literacy skills even while using traditional art media. As I pointed out earlier, I have to guide my students up the stairs, not just let them jump into a bunch of new technology not understanding how to use it effectively. Dr. Jason Ohler, professor of Educational Technology at the University of Alaska, has been focusing his research on visual literacy skills and digital storytelling. In an article about the importance of utilizing the art curriculum to support new literacy skills he states the following, "I had an amazing experience a few years ago that helped me fully appreciate art's new importance in education. I was watching a 10th grader struggle at his computer to create a multimedia presentation for his language-arts project. He wasn't struggling with the technology-like any infoage kid, he could click around the screen with considerable ease. It was the aesthetics that seemed insurmountable. As I watched him clumsily cramming together scads of video clips, graphics, sounds, buttons, and a few words, it suddenly hit me like a ton of bits: He was trying to create art, and no one had shown him how. In the process of fumbling with the medium, he was losing his sense of what he wanted to communicate in the first place."(Ohler, 2000). This idea emphasizes the importance of integrating visual literacy skills even at the elementary age level so that students can become more proficient earlier on and be able to effectively communicate the content of their thoughts and ideas. I cannot alter the state curriculum, but I plan to creatively present it so that my students can be prepared for the 21st century.

Ohler, Jason (2000, October). Art becomes the fourth r. Educational Leadership, (58)2, 16-19.