Integrating New Literacies in the Digital Art Classroom

Complicated Interworkings 

    As a digital art teacher, new literacies is a concept that I have to navigate daily, with technology being both an art-making tool and an assessment tool for students' understanding of functional digital skills. For the majority of students in my district, their lives revolve around devices: phones for games and social media, Chromebooks for classwork (when it charged), and, if you're a student of mine, a Mac desktop for art making. Considering what I teach, half of my students may have experience creating digital art before on either Procreate, IBIS paint, Scratch, or other animation apps, and cartooning apps, but many do not actually understand the interworking of those apps or the artistic processes behind their creations. They understand what's on the screen, but not what's behind the screen or beyond (Aguilera, 2017). They stop at the short, immediate success instead of digging deeper into the how or even further into the why. Additionally, many students have a learning curve with using a Mac computer as the shortcuts are different; they are learning a new interface, there is now a necessity to save files and they need to bridge their abilities to create in an app where the back-work is done for you to creating from nothing in professional Adobe programs. Many students struggle at first to make the leap, until it is broken down into bite-sized steps with relatable and relevant to their experiences. Thomas Phillip and Antero Garcia (2013) discuss how, despite claims, not all students are tech savvy or interested in new technologies, and that it can disadvantage learners if we focus on only "cutting edge technologies" as it forces all students to keep up.

Broadening the Scope of Digital Art

    In my classes, I look for a balance of digital "new literacies" and connection to traditional learning. I find that learning through this multimodal lens has two main purposes: expanded opportunities for student success and relatability to prior experiences. As Phillip and Garcia (2013) state, "Effective teachers are essential in differentiating, orchestrating, and negotiating students' individual and collective interests and capacities, whether technological or not, to support their academic and holistic growth over time" (p. 308). Students have so much access to the online world that they often think they can jump ahead with confidence before realizing that they are not as knowledgeable as they perceived and may struggle with asking for help afterwards. My main goals in my classroom are that students have the most accessible tools for success, and those tools apply to outside the art room experiences and skills. Many of the readings offered unique and creative new takes on what digital literacies can be and look like. I was particularly interested in the International Literacy Association's Literacy Today articles, More Than Bits and Bytes, Nondigital Skills, Plagiarism in the Digital Age, Reframing the Medium, and Rethinking Language Learning (2017; 2017; 2017; 2017; 2017). Though the majority of the articles are based on core subjects, their content can be easily modified for creative application in art. Reframing the Medium (2017) considers how film could be used as a methodology for literacy and an opportunity to expand students' abilities to understand contexts. In my animation class, I will often show films that relate to the type of animation that students are looking to replicate, and also as an expansion exercise for their comprehension of a topic. Students need to understand frame rate to create an animation, and many of my students are interested in the field of animation, but they may struggle to understand the scope of the animation field. To help students understand the behind-the-scenes, after students finished their stop motion project, we watched Chicken Run, as it is the highest-grossing stop motion film of all time and comprises over 110,000 images. Much of the students' feedback at the end of the unit was that their understanding of frame rates and smooth animation processes was stronger, as was their appreciation for the field of animation. Similarly, in Digital Art, a large focus is on creating digital artworks that explore how students can create intriguing digital artworks that engage with both students' interests and interact with others' interpretations and social contexts. Students make digital collages of social messages on magazine covers, icon packs that could be easily adapted to personal emojis, in addition to purely artistic works that utilize new technologies.  In this class, more than others, we consider what original ideas are in a digital world. "The internet is a public common, where other people’s words, thoughts, and ideas are available, often unattributed, and up for grabs" (Moorman, Pennell, 2017, p.14).  Projects and sources especially for photo manipulation need to be licensable and heavily altered so as not to invoke copyright or art appropriation. However, for as much as I love and appreciate the digital field, I also resonated with Garcia's ideas on finding a balance between analog and digital practices. "As educators, we should be more apt to challenge the kinds of digital literacy practices expected in our classrooms and to consider how these practices can better mirror the world around us, engage our senses, and facilitate authentic learning." (Garcia, 2017, p.24) Examining how certain digital processes replicate human processes or considering where and how information was gathered or made can create a deeper understanding for students. As well as allowing students the freedom to explore both analog and digital making spaces, where they can comfortably expand their horizons at their own pace. 

Ideas about Affinity Spaces

    Certain sections of these articles offered new lenses for sharing content and engaging more with a wider array of online spaces. I am intrigued by the concept of using a blog or similar digital sharing space for tracking projects, classwork and reflections of process and connecting with other students, rather than using a worksheet or a Google Doc (Hsu, Wang, 2017). I would still look to keep a creative and tracking sketchbook, as a sketchbook practice is an inherent art skill; however, sharing artwork with a broader audience can help students to build confidence and engage with a wider array of digital literacies. Alecia Magnifico, Jayne Lammers, and Deborah Fields (2018) article on affinity spaces was incredibly enlightening and reinforced observations I have made in my classroom. Students within the Scratch study enjoyed their time creating and learned valuable skills in a social digital setting, while accumulating new digital skills. Students were able to engage in new spaces with an open-source style sharing atmosphere and interact with other makers and maker-spaces. However, one of the key tensions "is that students who do not seek out their own experiences in online spaces do not comprehend the broader patterns or contexts of participation, and as a result, they may not experience UGC affinity spaces in consistent ways." (Magnifico, Lammers, Fields, 2018, p. 148) Despite their readiness to share a meme, post, or funny video on social media, I find that many students are not interested in readily sharing their work, either because they are self-conscious, unhappy with the work, or they do not see a value as they are not a professional. I am extremely intrigued by the possibility of branching out to a more open space to receive external peer feedback and interactions of student work, however, I also know that I would have many students uninterested in participating or participating in a minimal capacity, and so not reaping the benefits of more open source collaboration.

Where to go from here...

    From the many ideas that these articles generated, and that I will be doing curriculum edits over the summer, I am looking to incorporate more opportunities for students to engage with UGC affinity spaces and looking to incorporate more intrinsic opportunities for students to engage with digital media outside of their Chromebook Google Suites and Adobe programs. Even if we do not move directly into a UGC style affinity space in an immediate broad scope, as Magnifico, Lammers, and Fields discuss. I would look to create a smaller affinity space where students can comfortably share with an expanded field of their peers and community to create a more relaxed and approachable space. If that goes well, then I can begin to incorporate more expanded sharing opportunities. I would also like to look into creating a blog or similar style writing and sharing space for students to engage in. Even creating a Pinterest board with original pins and posts about their work would allow for students to create, post, share, and potentially receive comments in a supportive and artist and creativity-based platform. Previously, I utilized Pinterest as a type of Google with the ability to make inspiration boards, but it could be utilized for more. Reflection on these articles makes clear that the goal is to create more unique and engaging user experiences with expanding literacy and continuing the teaching of content.

References:

Aguilera, E. (2017). More than Bits and Bytes: Digital Literacies on, behind and beyond the screen. Literacy Today, 12–13. 

Garcia, A. (2017). Nondigital Skills: Losing sight (and sound) of our analog world. Literacy Today, 24–25. 

Hernandez, M. (2017). Reframing the Medium: Embracing film theory in the ELA curriculum. Literacy Today, 16–17.

Hsu, H., Wang, S. (2017). Rethinking Language Learning: Using audioblogs with English Learners. Literacy Today, 28–29.  

Moorman, G., Pennell, A.(2017). Plagiarism in the Digital Age: Using a process writing model to enhance integrity in the classroom. Literacy Today, 14–15. 

Magnifico, A. M., Lammers, J. C., & Fields, D. A. (2018a). Affinity spaces, literacies and classrooms: tensions and opportunities. Literacy UKLA, 52(3), 145–152. 

Phillip, T. M., & Garcia, A. D. (2013). The Importance of Still Teaching the iGeneration: New Technologies and the Centrality of Pedagogy. Harvard Educational Review, 83(2), 300-319.