AT: Week 6 - Read & React

Reading assignments this week:
Digital Diet
   Chapter 2 - Searching
   Chapter 3 - Social Bookmarking
Art Education, Paul Duncum Article "Seven Principles for Visual Culture Education"

I want to reiterate how hard the Digital Diet chapters are to respond to for me. So many of them illicit a response of just, "Yup. That's about right." But, I'll give it a try.

Ch. 2 - Of course having gone through college during the digital age, I had to take a class in doing searches. But, its funny, because I teach a subject where research is not a focus (or at least traditional research methods aren't), I had forgotten about searching this way. Forgotten isn't the correct term...let's see... I had overlooked having to emphasize searching this way. Typically the research we would do would be such a minor part of the overall unit / project /event that it doesn't take an in depth search. But that might all change if my district starts to implement a big research project for every subject once a year.

Ch. 3 - Social Bookmarking. Well, I have to say that I have always been hesitant to "open up" on the internet. I am by habit, a very private and even shy person until I know someone. So tagging and making things public on the internet has not been my personality.  I don't know you, so you can't  know me. However, the social bookmarking site that I have really embraced has been pinterest. The difference being that you can't necessarily link it to anything deeper about me and yet one can't help but have it be public. It seems less invasive and had connected me to so many professional collaborations. I love it! One would think that it would make me more comfortable with other tools, but no. It doesn't. Weird.

Paul Duncum - Ok, Here's the meat of my reading this time.
WHOA. So the context of my life around the time I was trying to read this was really holding me back. I had to attempt to read it 3 times before I could sink down into what it was really saying without my thoughts detouring into my own life and questions I was pondering. I've been researching, and thinking and immersing myself into how Common Core could really propel our district into evolving our secondary art curriculum. I was thinking, even before this article. that now is the time to find a more relevant way of teaching art than through units on the elements and principles. But I feel like that is hard for me. I need an environment where I am led into the word of higher order thinking about visual culture and how art is integrated into our world today, beyond just that which creates artists. How does the typical citizen interact and react to art around them? And then, Bam! Here is one possible avenue.  These 7 principles were interesting to investigate. I found myself wondering about the examples the author gives his students. It made me question, "Are these assignments for college students? or were they given when he taught high school courses? Was it a mixture of classes or one in particular?" Although it doesn't give any credentials other than his current position as a Professor, I came to the conclusion that there was no way that this could be taught with full understanding to high school students using these examples. They would not a) have time, b) fully grasp the entirety of the concept, c) explore it to its end. At least, not in one year. This would be a major undertaking. BUT. but, saying this, I don't think it shouldn't be attempted. I think that it would be a major shift in thinking for students. I mean, it would be exhaustive in terms of how much thinking students would have to do in exploring these principles. But, I think these are important topics for students to begin thinking about. Analyzing the world around them and thinking deeply about their choices and what people put in front of them. I believe our society would be much better off with a little more of this. Or at least, I would feel better about my community and its choice come election time if I knew we all thought a little bit more than we do. ;)
I'd like to investigate the Gude article referenced by Duncum here. Especially with the symposium this spring coming up wth Gude. I would love to invite her to my high school and see how she would modify her post-modern principles to meet the challenges of a M-F, 50 minute class period, and all-the-other-nonsense secondary teachers deal with in order to teach. Not saying it can't be done, just genuinely curious how she would handle the variations from her intensive summer program because things are so different in theory vs in practice.
In closing, this article had given me a lot to think about as I review our curriculum and materials in conjunction with common core. I found the 7 Principles to coincide with many of the anchor standards I had modified to fit Visual Arts. I see many things coming together in the near future.