January 10, 2005
Delicious Links
Daily links to art, education, media and interdiciplinary connections from my
Del.icio.us shared links page.
Posted by Eleanor Ramsay at 03:56 PM | Comments (0)
September 25, 2003
Tools for Collaboration
Online collaboration tools offer art educators new opportunities to expand their classroom experience and communicate with peers. Currently the Massart ́Art Education and New Mediaî research group maintains a bulletin board and wiki for idea exchange, course development and communication.
MassArtEd Discussion Forum
BB-format discussion open to artists, educators and students. Just waiting the community to awake it from it's slumber! [ed note: This board was shut down on March 1st. Instead, use the BB forums at AEContent.net]
Art and Technology Wiki Pages
Wiki-format discussion open to artists, educators and students. You can use this wiki for collaboration and in your coursework at Massart.
Art Matters@MassArt
Part of the AE-Content Network, Art Matters will feature thought pieces and listings for art educators and art technologists. [ed note: now located at AEContent.Net]
Art, Education and New Media
This weblog. Contact me about becoming an author.
Posted by Eleanor Ramsay at 09:43 AM | Comments (1)
August 05, 2003
Mystic: an online learning interface for the Looking to Learn program
Students in the Virtual Classroom course created an original website to accompany Mystic, an exhibition showcasing the multimedia work of contemporary international artists at the Bakalar Gallery from January 22, 2003 through March 29, 2003. Created as an accompaniment to the Looking to Learn program, the site is designed to supplement the experience of visiting the gallery.
The website, a prototype, featured discussion boards for each work along with resources, artist's bios, and background information.
Visit "Mystic." Use the user name:lookingtolearn and the password:mystic to view the contents.
Posted by art matters at 06:04 PM | Comments (0)
April 23, 2003
AE-Content Survey Results
Massachusetts College of Art, in partnership with Boston Public Schools, is preparing an exciting summer program for BPS art teachers: Beyond Making and Taking: Placing Content at the Center of Teaching and Learning in the Visual Arts. This free program will consist of two week-long summer institutes held at MassArt, for which PDPs and graduate credit will be available, followed by a one-day professional development conference and the launch of Art Matters, the AE-Content network.
To better find out teachers needs and interests, Massart recently sent every BPS art teacher a survey. The results are in.
The Survey and results are posted at the wiki.
Posted by Eleanor Ramsay at 08:59 PM | Comments (0)
April 15, 2003
Art Matters
We've been tossing around alternative names for AE-Content because the group agreed that it did not really speak to any of us and would not necessarily be understood even by the core audience. After putting it to the Virtual Classroom class (and receiving a lot of goofy options there onthe wiki pages) we decided on Art Matters. Why? Because it does.
Content =
--> substance
------> matter
Matter is a good word because it describes both physical substance and the concept of meaning, having significance.
So, why not "Art Matters"
Art _does_ matter: it is an essential part of our being and communication systems, we can not exist as humans without it.
Art matters in education: is integral to the "No Child Left Behind' legislation which the MassArt conference references and supports
Colloquially matters can mean "things" or "concerns" or "stuff"
So that describes what you'll find there, art matters, stuff about art, content concerned with art
Prototypes at
Design A
and
Design B
Posted by Eleanor Ramsay at 01:19 PM | Comments (1)
March 16, 2003
Autonomy and Mass Media
How does an artist maintain creative autonomy while navigating the mass of mass media?
Media literacy involves technical, cultural and creative intervention. Navigating pop culture and understanding what globalization means to individual voice is part of the territory of working creatively in new media. Sustaining an artistic voice demands deep attention to the shifts in society and what technological realms they bring about. Teachers must be prepared to deal with the media-related work that students bring to them. This goes beyond the technical and into meaning, intention and the humanness of making. Teachers should learn how to use this medium as a fluid -- to embrace methods that continue to emerge and reshape the discipline. A new media teacher should also be a practitioner of new art forms such as multimedia for non-liner storytelling; robotics for interactive installations; and the Internet for virtual art. Making their own art will not only provide ideas for their classrooms but also sustain their own creativity.
I am currently revisiting the writing of Guy Debord and the Situationists movement of the early 1950s. I also perceive our media society as a complex network of control mechanisms, which can lead to the distribution of cultural misinformation. The concepts of others such as Marshall McLuhan and Dominic Strinati can translate "mass" to "new" media with remarkable ease. In the last 5 years, discourse on new media literacy has become more available and the work of people such as Kathleen Tyner and Sandy Stone inspire me for their feminist perspective on creative literacy in a digital world. All of these theorists discuss how access to knowledge is becoming more difficult to find due to the ways that new media is accessed and content is distributed. This irony merits attention from anyone using the technological infrastructure we live within, but in particular, visual artists. Information is pushed more in visual form than ever before yet the general population is woefully unprepared to decipher that they are looking at. Formalizing this dialogue through teaching art has rendered a new, rich and creative domain for educators and one that offers an innovative alternative to the current media literacy dialogue.
Is there a visual way in which we can invite art educators to use this on-line discussion? Can our threads be visual rather than text based?
Art educators evaluate curriculum though the rubric of goals, methods, and assessment. How can a website assist with these processes? Is there a rubric for new media educators?
Would it be helpful to focus on the discussion of creating creative autonomy with mass media?
Posted by jen hall at 02:44 PM | Comments (7)
March 10, 2003
technology and the art teacher
As an Art teacher, how can a virtual community such as AE-Content supplement your work? How does technology currently fit in to your art or teaching?
Posted by Eleanor Ramsay at 04:30 PM | Comments (2)
March 09, 2003
getting it right
What are some successful collaborative sites?
I think the main reason The Knowledge Loom has stagnated is because it is not being supported. There does not seem to be anyone adding new content, or following up on any of the early topic discussions. But also, as I mentioned in the "ae-content" posting commentary, it suffers from technical limitations that make it frustratingly slow to access. I believe the awkwardness of the interface prevented a viable community from forming in the first place.
So, who's getting it right and why? Add your finds and lets discuss how successful communities can scale to meet the demands of their members.
Posted by Eleanor Ramsay at 10:52 PM | Comments (2)
March 07, 2003
wiki, wiki, wow, wow
In a recent session of the Virtual Classroom, Ross demonstrated the "wiki" system of web authoring and content creation. Wiki is perhaps the purest form of hypermedia to be implemented on the WWW thus far. It is closer in spirit to Vannevar Bush's MEMEX (see As We May Think) than other forms of web content because it allows readers and authors equal control over the content of web-based pages.
What Wiki lacks in graphical sophistication (and this can be modified of course) is more than made up by the efficiency of the system. Wiki is fast, thus the name. Wiki is free. Wiki is dynamic and fluid. Wiki fosters ideas. Wiki is about trust, because anyone can modify anyone else's text. This is perfect for online communities when there is mutual respect.
Here are a few Wiki sites where you can see the technology in action:
Wikipedia
"The free encyclopedia"
And Stuff Wiki
"A discussion community centered on world views."
SeedWiki
A Wiki host site
And, of course, wiki creator Ward Cunningham's original Wiki Wiki Web
I've put up a wiki called
Art and Technology. We can use this to experiment with open-web editing. Use it for discussions, personal projects, schedules, anything... Try it out, create your own page and get a feel for the wiki way!
Posted by Eleanor Ramsay at 10:46 AM | Comments (0)
March 03, 2003
ae-content - initial discussion
AE-Content is designed to be a "virtual drop-in center" for Boston Public School Art teachers. The site is a supplemental to the summer conference "Beyond Making and Taking: Placing Content at the Center of Learning in the Visual Arts" that is to be held at the Massachusetts College of Art in June 2003.
As we develop the content and resources for this site we should consider the needs of our intended audience and also, how this medium can support dialog and a sense of community. Art teachers tend to be isolated from each other on a daily basis, can a "virtual staff room" bridge this communication gap? How will we convince teachers to get involved?
For Consideration
In the proposal for the conference and AE-Content the site is described as "designed to enhance content development in the visual arts through sharing, e-mentoring, and collaboration"
Questions to consider:
Who is currently using this medium for collboration?
What are some successful collaborative sites?
What is your opinion of The Knowledge Loom?
How will we structure the e-montoring? Determine who monitors and directs the flow of information?
What features would you like to be involved with developing?
Posted by Eleanor Ramsay at 11:22 AM | Comments (5)
