Step 1: Read the posted PDF:
Sweeny,Robert. (2004) Lines of Sight in the "Network Society": Simulation, Art Education, and a Digital Visual Culture. Studies in Art Education, 46(1), 74-87.
While reading consider these questions:
How can we use the technologies our students have at hand to create a richer learning environment?
Castells states that the “network society” is a shift in traditional notions in space and time. Is this a positive or negative shift? Does this shift impact a culture of simulation?
Will the creation and expansion of the “cyborg pedagogy” impact students negatively?
Using the internet as the basis for this discussion, Sweeney’s article sites Castell’s “network Society” as the a tool for educators to use in order to dissect and understand the “increasingly complex visual networks. Do you agree?
Step 2: Once you’ve read the article, post your thoughts provoked by the questions, or comments you would like to discuss.
Step 3: Sweeny uses Miroeff’s proposition that “visual culture is based upon the societal impulse to represent information in a visual manner. [The art is] not created from one medium, in one place…” (79). "The argument that visual culture is not based on the image, but on the existence of that image and its creation from multiple sources opens new doors for us (art educators) to use visual culture as a portal to aesthetic theories and practices in our classrooms. Allowing students to draw from their identity or experiences and visually represent themselves through mash-ups, remixes, or multimedia students are challenged to become part of the “network society”. Student’s participation in the internet and with technologies presents them with the opportunity to critically analyze the individual as their notions of identity and visuality have changed. We have the opportunity to critique “the self reflected in the computer and the computer reflected in the self, within the network society” (83).
Once you’ve read the article and posted your comments use Photoshop, or similar software to create an image reflecting yourself and your use of technology. Think about how you use technology or the Internet on a daily basis. I will have one posted for an example. Post the Image to the Web 2.0 Pedagogy blog I’ve created at http://web2pedagogy.blogspot.com/ by the end of the week.
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I am curious about your question: "How can we use the technologies our students have at hand to create a richer learning environment?" I wonder what technologies our students actually do have on hand. The technology I notice most often is a cell phone. The cell phone is often equipped with a camera, video camera, and voice recorder. These pieces may be easily uploaded onto a computer. The article focuses on "interconnections between digital art, art education and digital technologies informed by the concept of a decentralized network" (p. 76). (Decentralization is how Sweeney approaches the idea of simulation.)
ReplyDeleteOne idea suggested in the article is that the real user can critique his/her virtual representation. This semester I am using technology to create pre- and post- tests for students in a similar way. Instead of handing out a paper and pencil test, students are participating in casual, individual interviews that are video recorded. At two other points in the semester the students will be re-interviewed and recorded. These tapes will be put together -- so that for the "post-" test each student will watch his /her individual interviews and then discuss / analyze what they see.