Art in The Digital Era of Teaching
Learning to teach young minds has always had its challenges, but doing so during Covid and the rise of the digital era has presented us Art educators with even more. Throughout my time in ARTT 2372 here at Texas State University, we have analyzed many different digital tools, and their purpose in educating young minds in order to broaden our horizons for future classrooms. With digital tools, it impacts not only our future students, but also us future educators. Personally, using these tools has made me feel more progressive in my own learning for this semester. Instead of spending time dedicated to readings and analyzing what it takes to be a teacher, we experimented with a coding platform called Scratch, as well as my own chosen tool, Turtle Stitch and the embroidery machine. By interacting with these tools on a physical level, I felt as though I was able to understand how young minds would comprehend these platforms. Overall, digital resources have allowed us to grant students new tools to explore problem solving through art in a fun and creative format.
Instagram posts about learning!
During class, we hosted a Scratch coding club that was attended by several different elementary school students. Throughout the club, us university students taught through zoom to fourth and fifth graders how to code stories and games through the Scratch interface. My time with the students using the coding platform allowed me to create a better understanding of how young minds learn from us teachers. By using my own examples from the Scratch inquiries, I had plenty of resources to provide the children, as well as knowledge of how to navigate scratch with the students. During our time together, there were moments when I doubted each students learning progress because of the distance created during Covid and Zoom, but when providing them with time to play with the program, and asking questions, I discovered they learned a lot from our conversations, as well as just playing with Scratch. For example, a student in our group asked us a question about changing the size of a sprite (a scratch unique character), but they immediately interrupted us, explaining how he found it. This students’ lack of fear allowed him to feel comfortable to not only ask questions, but to explore and understand things on his own as well. “When children are taught to do things a certain way, like “color in the lines,” it can make even the most playful activity feel more like a stressful task instead” (Pickerill personal communication). The creator of the coding platform we used wrote a book about these ideas of free play, stating “Instead, to help kids develop as creative thinkers, we need to create environments where kids feel comfortable making mistakes and where they can learn from their mistakes”(Resnick 2018).
Link to my code being used for actual stitching
Besides using Scratch, I also experimented with an embroidery machine, and a program called Turtle Stitch. Learning these tools presented me with many challenges because of the difficult nature of the coding platform. When opening the program, I had no clue where to begin as the difficulty of the code was not as similar or intuitive as Scratch. I looked at other projects as tools to help me create even the most basic shapes, and borrowed code to speed the process along. “Start with something simple, try it out, then keep expanding and improving it”(Resnick 163). I began creating simple code, learning how to create lines and repeating circles to create my first project in the image below. As I experimented with the code to make lines, as well as arcs and angles, I began to identify patterns within the code, analyzing the angles at which I should change the line in order to make shapes connect in the correct area. For example, the code I made to create a circle consisted of changing the angle 45 degrees per every 10 steps, repeated three times. The bigger the angle, the smaller the circle would become.
Using these advantages in the code, I realized that by becoming fluent in these platforms I had gained a greater understanding on how to effectively communicate the use of these tools to others. More practice meant better teaching. Resnick states “We encourage adult mentors to see themselves as lifelong learners- not just for their own sake, but as a model for youth” (114). By learning these new platforms, I myself learned how to guide children into learning and exploring new things. For example, during the process of my first stitch, It took me over an hour just to set the machine up properly, needing help from the shop assistants where the machine was located, but by my second time, I was able to set the machine and stitch in almost no time. I learned through not only my mistakes, but by successfully managing them. Instead of being a teacher that relies on students to explore technology on their own, being hands on allowed me to learn the tips and tricks to being successful with new platforms. If students could see what I was creating, they would feel that I am a reliable source of information, because I’ve done what they may struggle to do, instead of not knowing where to even start. In another sense, by not being afraid to get involved in these platforms, and to learn new things, we show children that learning and growing never ends, no matter how old we might get.
Overall, teaching computationally with art allows students to expand their toolbox. Teachers are there to be the learners and guidance for students to direct them in a path that best uses these tools for the students creative advantage. By learning how to use these tools as a teacher, we then give students the confidence, as well as security to explore other options into creating art outside of a physical media, but instead a digital media that one might never have considered as artistic. Teaching in the digital age isn’t challenging, it’s a challenge that we all should strive to accomplish.
Resources:
G. Pickerill, personal communication, March, 2021.
Resnick, M. (2018). Lifelong kindergarten: cultivating creativity through projects, passion, peers, and play. The MIT Press.
