Integrating Learning Technologies into The Arts Learning Area
Setting the Scene
In Year 4, Hannah works with PowerPoint to present her report on the Tribes of the Kalihari. She incorporates information she has down loaded, her descriptions of daily life researched from print sources and the maps and images she has drawn.
In year 11, Rebecca presents her portfolio of designs for a fabric and costume project on disk. She has used a digital tablet for drawing as well as PhotoShop and Painter programs. She has also used research from the Internet.
In Year 1, Sam and Heath present on an audiocassette the jingle they have made up in response to a discussion about advertising toys on television. They use simple percussion instruments they made as well as their understanding of how the media uses music to sell.
In Year 9, Tom presents his Drama Folio on a disk. It includes his reflective writing during the process of developing a group devised improvisation, digital images of the performance, a sound clip showing how the pivotal scene changed over the three week development period. There are sketches of the ways the space was used - developed in a drawing program - as well as the final scenario and an evaluative comment as a word processing document.
In Year 7, Kelly and Toni show a short video of their dance based on their observations of Balinese dance. They have also researched a range of Asian dance forms using video and the Internet as the basis for their own creative explorations.
Adam, in a Vocational Education & Training course, uses the video-editing program Premiere to complete an entry for the Quest for Excellence. Heather down loads sound FX from the web to use in her solo original self-devised performance in Drama. Melanie edits three songs as the basis for her Rock Eisteddfod piece.
In Year 12, Andi presents her composition project on a CD-ROM. She has used digital sounds and a synthesiser as well as a sophisticated music sequence and notation program to present the recording of her composition as well as the attached manuscript.
Many students recognise and use a range of technologies in their learning. Many teachers recognise the importance of providing students with opportunities to use and learn through the use of a range of emerging technologies.
- In Dance, students use software to notate movement as well as respond to their own dance and that of others.
- In Drama, students use the StageStruck CD [Australia on CD] to explore the roles of different people in the production team as well as how different lighting changes design.
- In Media students use electronic and digital forms of communication.
- In Music students use synthesisers, sequencers and notation software.
- In Visual Arts students use the Moorditj CD [Australia on CD] to explore different approaches to decoration and the use of symbgol
- Across all The Arts, students use word processing programs to enhance their capacity to express their responses. They use email to communicate with other students and research information from the Internet.
The Arts Change in Response to Technological Innovation
As with many fields of contemporary life, the Arts are changing in the face of technological innovation. Just as the development of photography in the 19th Century had an impact on developments in realism and impressionism in the visual arts and drama, so too has contemporary arts been re-invented under the influence of new technologies.
Technology is Changing Mediums of Expression and Communication
Technology has increased the ways of communicating in the arts. Animation films simulating three-dimensionality premiere. Most newspapers and advertisements are written and designed at computer screens. Synthesised sounds are blended with naturally occurring sounds to make new music. Lighting equipment extends the possibilities of realising the dramatic moment. What is possible in the arts is being pushed and extended.
Technology is Changing Ways of Telling Stories
Forms of expression and communication are changing. There is evidence of multi-linear story telling where many layers of story are played out simultaneously and where time is manipulated and chronological time challenged. It is not just the content of contemporary stories that is different, it is the ways of telling that are changing in response to changing technological imperatives.
Technology is Changing Arts Practice
One of the results of increasing availability of technology is a breaking down the barriers between artists and challenging rigid classifications of arts forms. For example, contemporary visual artists often work in a range of mediums, incorporating elements of performance and non-traditional media such as photography. Contemporary dance includes elements of vocal work and multi-media images.
Technology is Increasing Accessibility to Means of Artistic Expression
As technology becomes more accessible, the capacity for students to use these forms easily increases. For example, film is a technologically complex and expensive art form, yet it is now possible for students to access video equipment and editing software that enables them to inexpensively explore the language of film.
The Reciprocal Impact of The Arts on Technology
In return, technology is changing in response to the arts. There is increasing attention in technology to the aesthetic, to the use of elements of colour, design, typography in the ways that information is presented. While there is still evidence of mechanistic and utilitarian design in current technology-based communications, there is also a greater sense of aesthetically satisfying communication.
Technology Draws on Visual Language
There is a recognition of how much many current uses of technology draw on elements of the arts. For example, the computer I work on for this paper is icon-based; to use it, I call on my visual literacy skills. Design elements are a major consideration in the look of information on the screen. And, the information relationships don't just rely on the simple linearity of print materials but exploit opportunities for different kinds of relationships and links.
Technology Concurrently Draws Together a Range of Arts Forms
Similarly, there is much more use of concurrent arts forms: computer games and multi-media presentations rely on the simultaneous use of sounds and visuals.
Technology Uses the Metaphors of the Arts
Also, this technological world relies on the use of the metaphors of the arts. In computer games, for example, the unifying principles of players and actors working in scenes and using sets are a dominant way of organising experiences.
The Arts in Schools : Change in Response to Technology
As The Arts in society have changed, so too have the arts in schools. The Arts in schools - dance, drama, media, music, visual arts and combinations of these arts forms - have long traditions of adopting and adapting emerging technologies. Although there is a perception that schools are sometimes slow to change, there is increasing recognition of the potential of learning technologies in enhancing learning outcomes for students. The Curriculum Framework identifies the importance of this. The rationale for the Arts as a learning area states:
The Arts and Life Skills
Working in the Arts Learning Area involves the development of students' skills across a wide range of human activities. Learning in The Arts promotes the integration of skills from different areas of human potential, promoting 'multi-sensory' learning and the development of 'multiple intelligences'. … Through The Arts, students learn to use and experiment with a range of traditional and emerging technologies. (Curriculum Framework, 1998, p. 51)
Later in the outcomes section, there is specific mention:
The Arts and Life Skills
Students use and adapt traditional and emerging technologies to create, interpret, explore, develop and communicate ideas. (Curriculum Framework, 1998, p. 55)
While it is important that programs in the arts stay true to the fundamental principles of The Arts forms, there is also value in recognising innovation and extending opportunities and effectiveness of learning technologies in the arts.
Using the Curriculum Framework to Consider Learning Technologies in The Arts
The Curriculum Framework provides a useful scaffold for considering the impact of learning technologies on learning in the Arts. There are opportunities in each of the four outcomes to use learning technologies, outlined below.
In broad brush outline, there are opportunities for students to
- Express and communicate arts ideas and use arts skills and processes.
- Make effective arts responses.
- Research and use information.
Issues for Learning Technologies and The Arts
With the other Learning Areas, teachers are presented with a range of issues:
- Making connections between learning outcomes and technologies.
- Choosing appropriate points in planning to use technologies.
- Identifying appropriate technology hardware.
- Identifying appropriate software.
- Attending to inclusivity issues.
- Students at Educational Risk
- Students with Disabilities
- Gender
- Checklist for Good Practice
- For Students
- Do students use technologies for a range of purposes in the arts?
- Do students how a disposition to use technologies in the arts?
- Do they show knowledge and skills in using technologies in the arts?
- Do they show an understanding of the role of technologies in the arts?
- Do students manage, critically interpret and evaluate information about the arts from technology sources?
- For Teachers
- Do teachers regularly include learning technologies in their arts programs?
- Do teachers themselves show knowledge and skills in using technologies in the arts?
- Do they undertake ongoing professional development in learning technologies in the arts?
- Do they attend to inclusivity issues in the use of learning technologies?
- For Schools
- Does the school provide for the ongoing learning and teaching needs of students and teachers in learning technologies in the arts? Is there up-to-date information? Are there up-to-date resources, hardware and software?
- Managing Learning Technologies and The Arts
- Attitudes to learning technologies play a significant part in the ways students approach their use in the arts.
- Recognising prior student learning in the use of technologies.
- Individual learning needs.
- Group learning needs.
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