newer media and the teaching of art

National Art Education Association

Newer Media and the Teaching of ArtAuthor(s): Vincent LanierSource: Art Education, Vol. 19, No. 4 (Apr., 1966), pp. 4-8Published by: National Art Education AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3190788 .

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TIME: The very near future. CLASS: "The Visual Arts in World Cultures."

PLACE: Any American high school.

At 10:23, Mr. Dobbs, the art teacher, begins his second lecture to the visual arts lecture group of 30 pupils. (Although the Federal Education Act of 1972

restricted class size to a maximum of 18 pupils, lecture groups of up to 40 students are permissible under the law.) Having dealt with primitive

habitations and post and lintel construction in architectural design during the first lecture, he is ready to describe the discovery and uses of the arch as a

building principle. As he presents his ideas, he presses the button marked "visual" on his wrist-band instrument panel. The room lights dim and

the classroom screen glows with 3-D color images of the Coliseum, the Arch of Titus, the aqueduct at Segovia, etc. The silken tones and fine diction of

Richard Burton take over the lecture from Mr. Dobbs with a synopsis of factual data about the structures. At the appropriate moment diagram

overlays analyzing the directions of stress appear on the screen. At this point several students tap the photo duplication button on their desk instrument

panels: the diagrammatic analysis on the screen in color photocopy form will be a useful illustration in their note book projects. By the end of the

lecture session each of the students has selected an individual or small group project for the following study period. Several have chosen programmed-

sequences presenting architectural history in greater detail, to be viewed on their individual desk units; some will work together on a series of models of

arch-structured buildings, others on group murals; two younger students have elected to prepare a sound 8mm film on the "Uses of the Arch as a

Decorative Motif in our Community." Meanwhile, Mr. Dobbs jots down a reminder to request that film clips from the movie set restoration of the

Hadrianic Baths at Lepcis Magna (from the Hollywood epic "Goddesses of the Western World") be stored in the school district computer memory

banks. Next school quarter, this lecture will be improved by the extra visuals-though without the goddesses, of course, he tells himself.

VINCENT LANIER

an& antasy? Science Fiction? Not at all. Simply one imaginative description, among the many possible, of the consistent application of new media technology to the teaching of art. If we can develop a photosensitive crystal the size of a lump of sugar containing the images of a hundred thousand pages (Newsweek, January 24, 1966) there is no reason to regard this projection as far fetched.

Whether or not this is a desirable direction for art education to follow is another question and one which can best be answered by the collective judg- ment of the profession rather than by an individual. There is no doubt in this writer's mind that the direction noted is not only wholesome, but, indeed, essential to the progress of art education. This opinion, however, may not be universal among us, nor even widespread. For it is not unfair to say that of all the curriculum areas, art education has been one of the least successful in exploiting the newer instructional media appearing on the educational scene. The term "media" alone acts as a block to the art educator's understanding of these new techniques of instruction, since media in our field has traditionally meant the techniques or materials of

studio production in art. Thus, water colors, mosaics, charcoal, are media in art, and the use of the word in another context has not only been unfamiliar to the art person, but may have proved to be irritating initially.

Not that art education has not made and is not making use of some instructional media in the classroom. For many years art history and art appreci- ation teachers have used slides to supplement lec- tures. More recently, as materials were developed, films and some filmstrips, closed circuit and broad- cast TV have been used as well. It is, after all, difficult for an essentially visual area to totally avoid the audio-visual field. The newest and perhaps most exciting developments in media, however, do not seem to have made the impression on art education which they have already made on many other curriculum areas. Specifically, programmed instruction, television and computer-assisted learning are rarely, if at all, considered in our literature or adapted to our classrooms.

There are a variety of reasons for this condition. One difficulty the art educator has in confronting the functions of media is his present preoccupation

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with studio production. At least since the 1920's, art education has concerned itself to a major extent with the so-called "creative" aspects of art, subordi- nating and often virtually eliminating the historical and critical modes of study. This has been in part a result of our applying priority to the psychological or human development values of art activity in education. We have for example, been deeply bitten by the bug of creativity which has infected so many areas in and out of art education. So great has been the spread of this infection in our body of theory and practice that untill very recently no other justi- fication was deemed necessary for the existence of art in the school program-at least in many of our publications.

A second, and in one sense corollary, reason for our lack of concern with the newer media is the frequently held view that mechanization, quantifica- tion or measurement are in some undefinable but terrifying way destructive to the arts. The clearest illustration of this position, which is essentially anti- rational, can be found in many of the writings of Joseph Wood Krutch.

A third barrier is our self-admitted lack of a coherent body of subject matter which we are committed to teach or consider of value for our pupils to learn. The instrumentation and the programmati- zation of media seem of little relevance as means when the ends of instruction are ill-defined and problematical. This problem assumes major pro- portions when we attempt, speculatively, to introduce the logic of programmed learning into art education. Except for factual material in the history of art and skills in the studio areas, the identification of clearly defined behavioral objectives necessary to the task of developing program sequences seems virtually impossible. No doubt we share this difficulty to some extent with other areas in which affective or attitudi- nal or qualitative ends as well as cognitive or theoretical ends are at issue.

Despite these serious if somewhat fragile barriers, there have been signs that art education is becoming responsive to developments in the technology of instruction. The very existence of the "Uses of New- er Media" project sponsored by the NAEA is, of course, one sign. Another is the new ferment of ideas in the field, particularly the development of ideas generated by inter-disciplinary relationships. Awareness of and use of learning theories, game theories, communication theories, sociology and anthropology and other disciplines signifies an alert- ness to the impact of heretofore alien thoughts. Some among us are even willing to concede that the individual who is not in his own right a producing or "creative" artist may have much to say about art which merits our attention or may even be able to teach art effectively on one or several levels.

An interesting illustration of our present and recent readiness to accept new ideas, even in the area of technology, occurred during the September,

1965 seminar at the Pennsylvania State University. When Manuel Barkan read his paper, part of which described a programmed art lesson for use in a teaching machine, he anticipated some if only mini- mal protest at his "mechanization" of the curriculum. There was no protest at all. The seminar participants seemed merely to nod and press on to other issues.

Nevertheless, though this readiness appears to exist, actual steps towards the exploitation of the possibilities of newer media for the teaching of art are limited both in scope and number. There are, of course, several new single and multi-purpose projection devices used in art classes. Both single, and series paperback books on art are more frequently published now. Slides and slide series often with voice on tape or disc or a printed text are appearing in some profusion. The number and quality of filmstrips on art subjects is increasing rapidly. 8 mm loop films and transparency sets, while very limited in number, do exist. Many new and fine films on art are now available. Reproductions are more nu- merous and museum and school district kits with models or copied objects of art have begun to appear in some areas of the nation.

On the other hand, television, which can hardly be classified as a "new" media device any longer, has not yet been examined with any substantial degree of imagination and care. Art teachers have, in some number, made videotapes of and with children in art situations, and the broadcasting industry has prepared and presented programs on art ranging in quality from the superb "The Louvre" to others less fortunate. However, some of the unique virtues of television, namely immediacy (seeing events as they happen) and universality (being able to record less than important as well as significant events at low cost) have not yet been explored properly. For example, it might prove of some value to students to televise the in-process act of an artist's creation, rather than an edited and "canned" version on film. Or, the simultaneous visual and verbal exchange of two art classes working in different parts of the nation, or even in different countries might supply the kind of contemporary excitement and insight so many art classes lack today, despite the best efforts of dedicated teachers.

Another use of this medium might contribute to the training of art teachers and all other teachers, for that matter. Some in teacher training have made voice tape recordings of the student teacher at work with children. Might there not be even greater bene- fits derived from having the trainee see himself as he teaches his class? With videotapes' capability for erasure and re-recording, the cost for this type of technique is now not prohibitive.

Also, the area of programmed instruction is only beginning to be examined for its contribution to art education. Essentially a program sequence is a method whereby 1) the content to be learned is broken down into the smallest possible self-sufficient

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bits, 2) these bits are ordered in a developmental sequence, 3) some type of active student response is required upon assimilation of each or a number of these bits, 4) some type of feedback to pupil response, such as confirmation of response, is built into the program, and 5) the program is carefully tested with an appropriate pupil population.

It requires little imagination to envision the application of these principles to art history content and, perhaps, to art criticism as well. It may stretch our innovative abilities to apply them to studio activities, or they may, in fact, not be appropriate to the production of art. But the first exploratory steps must be taken and, undoubtedly, will be taken soon.

Computer-assisted learning, both on a group as well as individual basis, is another media area deserving of some attention. This, of course, is the media frame of reference of the fanciful paragraphs with which this article started. Oddly, or in truth reasonably enough, the technological gadgetry proposed in those paragraphs is the simplest part of the problem. The difficulties lie in making the collective decision to move in this direction, obtaining the money for experimentation and selecting the art data, both in word and picture, worthy of being stored in one or several computers. Today these are hardly insurmountable obstacles.

A less extravagant but thoroughly wholesome con- cept in the use of media suggests that media themselves are studio devices with an expressive potential in the visual arts for pupils in our classrooms to use. With movie and still cameras and films as inex- pensive and easy to use as they are now, the art teacher has still another art medium with which the child, even at a very early age, can create visual statements. There are, of course, those among us whose attitude towards the products of the camera as a visual art form might be called parochial. Their main argument appears to be that the camera, and by inference, other mechanical means of organizing visual elements, merely record what they see and, therefore, are not truly creative implements.

This position has at least two obvious disad- vantages, one being that the camera is by no means simply a passive device, but must be or, at least, can be directed by human purpose. The degree of control may well be far less than that of the easel painter or the ceramic sculptor, but it is still an operative factor. The second problem with this attitude is that it presupposes certain definitive conditions for the term art which would be at the very least difficult to defend.

In any case, if we support the point of view that the photographic arts are acceptable partners in the family of visual arts we provide not only an addi- tional expressive, exciting and thoroughly contemporary art production medium for school art, but also a vast source of visual material which is capable of provoking aesthetic response. For there is no doubt that the products of some newer media can be

looked upon as ends in themselves, as visual arts experiences of a higher order.

In addition to the many curricular uses of the newer media in art education, these essentially technological materials offer a qualitative contribution of considerable significance. Still and motion picture photography, television, auto-instructional devices and computers are of our time". The boys and girls now in our classes have grown up with technology since infancy. They live in a world of speed and change and mechanization. What is quite often incredible to their teachers they can accept as a matter of course! The contemporary quality of the newer media can, in one sense, bring Altamira and Lascaux up to date and confer upon them the hon- orific aura of technology. Some of us may regret that this is so, that our young people cannot appre- ciate the work of Massaccio or Motherwell for its own sake. But it would seem that response to art is a complicated process and that there is more to it than simply the recognition and enjoyment of qualitative or formal relationships. We can therefore console ourselves that a positive response to Massac- cio for less than the most desirable reasons is better than a negative response or no response at all and that eventually an understanding of what we deem to be the most significant aesthetic elements in that painter's work may be developed out of an unsophis- ticated beginning reaction.

No review of the impact of newer media upon the teaching of art would be complete without some confrontation of the problem of the interference by technology in teacher purpose and teacher control of educational activity. During the early days of the growth of educational technology popular as well as professional journals contained cartoons and anecdotes whose humor dealt with the replacement of the teacher by the machine, or at least the encroachment on teacher prerogatives by the machine. More recently this issue appears to have all but disappeared from the arenas of public discussion, so pervasive is the advance of technology. However, this is not to say that there no longer remain ques- tions of substance in the matter. In fact, it may be possible that now that we see the directions in which educational media are developing these earlier ques- tions have become even more real and more pertinent.

The fundamental question, of course, is the degree to which the development of media devices and the media materials which they project or present, curtail the freedom of the teacher to determine the what and the how and the ends of art education in the schools. It would be unrealistic or ill-advised or even dishonest to claim that such curtailment does not and will not exist in any appreciable amount. Not only does a media unit (a slide, a filmstrip, a television program or a programmed machine sequence) present one subject (and in doing so, exclude others), but it characteristically contains one

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or a limited number of attitudes towards the subject being presented. For example, the use of a filmstrip on the terminology of design using advertising design as illustrative material, forces the art teacher towards one particular set of definitions and one exemplary context. If the number of available choices of such filmstrips are quite limited, as they are now and may be for some time, the strip as a media unit actually structures both curriculum and teaching method by its use.

It is also rather fruitless to suggest that just because a media item exists one does not have to use it. In any individual case, as in the instance of the "Louvre" program, this may well be true. But the collective weight of educational technology exerts tremendous pressure upon the school system and the teacher for its use. There seems little doubt that what and how we teach will be changed by the advent of this technology. Whether or not our purposes will change has a less obvious answer.

If it is true that the newer media will influence art education, what can be done to channel that influence in what the profession views as a proper direction? Fortunately, there are a number of safety measures which can be and are being employed. In the first place, although media devices and materials are primarily created by commercial organizations which are not necessarily committed to consider the best interests of young people, many of these com- panies now appear to be aware that responsibility in this area will help with sales. Perhaps never before have manufacturers turned so consistently to the educator for assistance in the design of what is to be used in the schools.

Secondly, the large amounts of governmental and foundation monies now available for the arts ensure that eventually some media will be developed by art educators in a supervisory capacity, as were some of the science film series. Thirdly, the rather sur- prising and welcome growth in prestige and power of our professional association indicates that developments in art education can at least be monitored and, if necessary, influenced by the profession acting as a whole. Thus, while technology will curtail the art teacher's present curricular and methodological choices in the classroom, art teachers can have a part in shaping the form and content of that technology to their own wishes.

Ultimately, of course, when media like today's magazines, reproductions and textbooks are pro- duced in vast and comprehensive quantities, the numbers of alternatives of subject and attitude will be so great as to provide, in effect, the latitude in choice most of us prefer. Until that time a recognition of the elements involved in what occurs is at least a safeguard.

Finally, the imposing question of when and how to use the newer instructional media remains to be answered. It is not enough to assert that there is

insufficient research evidence to support any one or another strategy of media usage, though this is, unfortunately, quite true. Media are being used in art classrooms now and will be used in increasing quantities. Some guidelines to assist the teacher in selecting types of media, such as slide or filmstrip or television, and units of media materials, such as one filmstrip rather than another, should be developed.

In our present situation, it is almost pointless to construct august criteria for this selection process. At the moment, we are reduced to accepting what is available since there is no great reservoir of prepared media from which to make choices. The one area of exception is slides. Here, where the average art teacher does have adequate experience, the standards found in any audio-visual textbook would certainly be relevant: 1) authenticity or visual likeness to the original image, 2) accuracy or informational authenticity, 3) cost and/or accessibility and 4) appropri- ateness or relationship to the art activity in which they are used.

A summary evaluation of the impact of the newer media on art education, at least from this writer's position, indicates the following general conclusions.

1. The technology of education is recognized by art educators as a group and is being explored in its less revolutionary aspects.

2. Art educators do not seem to be aware of the newest and most innovative technological devices available in the media field, nor is the production of materials for these devices in adequate quantity to suggest that awareness, interest and experimentation will soon be forthcoming.

3. A theoretical survey of newer media indicates that their exploitation for the teaching of art might provide valuable educational dividends.

4. While the development of newer media will in an obvious sense influence how we teach art and in a more subtle sense the content we teach, its impact on the purposes of art education does not, at the moment appear to be an important concern. The changes in our conception of purpose, such as the increased emphasis on historical and critical modes of art study, seem to have been proposed in our literature well before educational technology became a professional issue.

5. In the light of this brief review, there is every reason to believe that the newer media can be of substantial value in the improvement of the quality and quantity of art education in our schools. What is needed is information and imagination. This journal issue attempts to provide the former. It is up to each reader to supply the latter.

Vincent Lanier is serving as Director of the NAEA Uses of Newer Media Project while on leave from the University of Southern California, where he is Head of the Department of Art Education.

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newer media and the teaching of art

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