Creativity in Digital Art Education.

Bi-Weekly LIbrary resource

For my Bi-Weekly report this week I looked at the databases on the school's library website and found a great article called, Creativity in Digital Art Education Teaching Practices.
I chose to write about this article because it has a lot to do with some things we've talked about in class regarding the importance of technology in the art classroom. The article talked about how it is important for teachers to adapt their lesson plans so they include digital methods even if it poses problems for the teacher. This might be hard for the teacher because students might need more help because they don't understand how the soft wares work or the teacher might need to learn how to use certain soft wares themselves before teaching with them. The article explains that the extra work will pay off for the students. If teachers ignore the changes that come with the digital age, it is to the detriment of the students. Students and artists in today's world are expected to know how to use these technologies. If they are not taught how to use them, there will be a rift between the young artists and the art world. It is important for teachers to use current digital methods because will help the students prepare for the art methods they will be using in the real world. According to the article, it also helps develop their problem solving skills, visual reasoning skills, and creative thought expression.
I personally agreed with a lot of what this article was saying. I think it is important for students to know how to use certain soft wares and equipment because they are probably going to have to use it in their future careers. Even though the soft wares will change, at least they will have some confidence using it since they have used it before.
It is easy to introduce digital methods in art because there are so many ways you could do it. Digital photography, film classes, typography,.. the list goes on and on. However, there are also ways to include soft wares in classes that are not normally very artistic like English classes for example. I know that writing is an art on it's own but there are ways to push the creativity in assignments. For example, the teacher could create an assignment where the students write their own poem and then make an illustration for the poem out of the words in Photoshop. They could just rearrange the words they used in their poem to create a landscape or the characters from the poem. I know this could be challenging or frustrating for some of the students, but it is a great way to incorporate a technique that would otherwise probably never be used in an English classroom.
This article taught me a lot about the importance of incorporating digital methods or soft wares in every child's education. Even if it isn't their normal cup of tea, they will benefit from the experience in the long run.

Here's a link to the Article

http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com/hww/results/results_single_fulltext.jhtml;hwwilsonid=IPLGWD0UGIQ2LQA3DKDSFF4ADUNGIIV0

Bibliography

Black, Joanna, and Kathy Brownint. "Creativity in Digital Art Education Teaching Practices." Art Education 64.5 (2011): 19-34. Art Full Text. Web. 7 Dec. 2011. .