Some feedback from the first workshop session

Clyst Vale have been using the ideas from the first workshop back at the start of January with GCSE students to develop final pieces for their Natural Form module. There was lots of exciting and interesting images in students sketchbooks where they had used digital photos. There was some comment about how students sketchbook and development work was free and exciting, but tightened up when developing into a final painting – this is an interesting area for discussion. How do we teach students to loosen up when working on ‘final pieces’? How do we teach the concept of ‘final pieces’? How does the demand for a ‘realisation’ in GCSE terms dovetail with the way in which artists develop their work?

Teign school have been using Flickr with their Photography students. They have been posting their images to their Flickr account, and had come across issues inherent in the free account regarding monthly upload limits and limits to numbers of albums that can be created. There are issues about who pays for the upgrade to Pro accounts within schools, and there will also eventually be issues about Flickr being blocked by individual schools and Grid ISPs. There are bigger issues at stake here as well with regards the way social software and Web 2.0 sites are being viewed by the educational establishment. Very real issues of control and education need to be addressed on a wider scale.

Other schools talked about the logistics of using whole classes to develop their ICT in art work. Using multi-map and powerpoint to support drama work sounded really exciting. What about Google Earth and Google Maps? There must be interesting ways to integrate those technologies into Art dept work. Any ideas anyone?

There was a lot of discussion about how Art workers need the technology as and when needed, not necessarily in timetabled blocks. This is one of the real issues around the core one of accessibility for staff and students.

What I found particularly interesting and important was that everyone felt that students’ levels of engagement with new technologies within the art context is high across the board. Students really want to engage with and to use new technologies in their everyday creative lives. They are doing so in their home lives, and need to be able to do so in their school lives too.