1: Socio-Techno Interfaces and 2020 Vision
Technology as toy.
Technology as fun gadget.
Technology to streamline existing processes.
Technology to make learning relevant while still teaching old skills and with old learning methods.
Technology as new skill, new pedagogy, new art.
Anderson and Balsamo envision a new learning environment (in 2020) based on a new student, the Original Synner. Knowledge is not the end all. Synthesis, combining disparate ideas, generating something new through connections, is quality in learning. And thus, simply replacing old teaching methods with their digital counterparts is not effective. Lectures taped onto youtube and streaming around the world. Old style. Collectives pooling resources and remixing. New culture of learning.
As I look at various technology-human interfaces, some seem better suited to classroom use. In my niavite, collaborative tabletops and interactive floors appear to be glorified iPad games. While it would be fun to play Coca-Cola themed games on the floor of a mall, the software demonstrated does not seem well-suited to art education. Using your hand or whole body does not interest me when the activities still resemble Funnels and Buckets, a mathematics game my older brother played in MS-DOS, and manipulating random abstract designs created by the computer.
Other interfaces allow for visual creation governed by user skill. This can be developed through experimentation, rather than a formulaic digital spirograph. When using the I/O brush, the intricacy of artwork is limitless. The brush can be used simply to pick up a color, texture, or pattern. With advanced skill, it can be used to pick up moving image, creating an animation across the canvas. This human-technology interface would be ideal for exploring digital art with elementary students, linking traditional painting with digital painting and animation. As soon as a child can hold a brush to paint, they can hold the I/O brush. No mouse coordination required. I am particularly drawn to the animation possibilities when the digital paint is video, such as the ladybug that crawls across the canvas.
Similarly, Easel is child-friendly in its approach to digital painting. Users literally dip the brush into paint that represents which camera they are using. The complexity of the images and layering lends itself to an upper elementary project. These students have the higher level thinking to combine images, visualizing and planning how the videos will relate. A synthesis of three local views. Though equipment-dependent, both of these set-ups would be great extra-time centers in my classroom or activities for choice-based art education. Currently, they are the stuff of museum exhibits, but mass-marketed I/O brushes would find an easy home in my future classroom. The two interfaces would allow students to explore video and digital art while connecting them to artists of the recent past, such as Paik Nam June.
The explo-grabba webquest, at first glance, is most easily incorporated into my classroom in 2012. While it would require a special visit to a computer lab, the students could follow the step-by-step instructions, exploring net art and creating their own digital work. Navigating the internet, even in specific webquests, is a natural part of their life. Yet modifications would be necessary for the site to be truly be effective. First, the 85% of my students that are ESOL would struggle with words like “perceptions” and “collaboration.” Second, the sites linked in the quest to explain color theory and symbolism are too advanced for my students. Also, the link about the elements and principles is broken. Still, my biggest concern comes from the final project. I debate back and forth in my mind about the use of Photoshop v. free software in the K-12 setting. Though Photoshop is industry-standard, my students will not be able to go home and explore it on their own time. For this reason alone, open-source software like GIMP might be a more attractive solution. (Our school prefers open-source for just this reason. Personally, I find GIMP clunky and very difficult for upper elementary students to navigate, especially on Macs.) 
Anderson and Balsamo also suggest the use of open-source software, arguing that students should be taught to teach themselves software, producing “students who are able to move more fluidly from one platform to another, to adapt to the new applications or revisions of existing programs, and most importantly, to develop their own conceptual literacy about how software functions and the uses to which it may be put.” (256). This change to GIMP, combined with the language limitations and the broken links, would all lead me to attempt the project without using the webquest site. Ideally, the site could be updated and include a kid-friendly exploration of color directly on the site. Also, I would prefer each step to be its own page, not pages labeled intro, task, process, etc. This would make the quest better suited to my situation.
Teaching Philosophy:
2020 Vision
Thinking forward to the year 2020, five important areas to teach elementary expatriate children living in China might be...
Problem Solving
Visual Communication – Creators
Visual Communication – Critical Receivers
Fine Motor Development
Cultural and Historical Studies
Taking another look at the interfaces discussed above, I/O Brush and Easel are both useful in developing motor skills for elementary students while working in a digital format. Using the two interfaces allow the students to be creators of visual communication and problem solve, as the artists creatively explore video as paint and varying levels of control. Studying past examples of video art, such as Paik Nam June, connects students to art history and open the door for east/west discussions of art and culture. The explo-grabba also relates to visual communication, exploring color and symbolism as receivers and then creators. Using a partner's phrase is a problem-solving task that pushes students to stretch their creativity. Navigating GIMP involves trial-and-error problem solving, a normal part of born digital generation's interaction with technology. These and other interfaces could be easily woven into the classroom experience of elementary art in 2020 as students develop in the aforementioned areas.
Assignment: Explore how technology-human interfaces could be used as they are or imagine them differently for purposes as an art educator. Be imaginative and specific about what the interface is and how it could use it in future teaching, integrating ideas from the reading. Then visualize teaching in 2020. List five areas important for students to learn from art education in this specific context as a teacher in 2020. Create an animation that visually and dynamically expresses these futuristic teaching beliefs. Add a rationale for how the previously discussed interfaces fit this philosophy of art education.
References:
Anderson, S. and A. Balsamo. (2008). A Pedagogy for Original Synners. Digital Youth, Innovation, and the Unexpected. 2008. 241-259.
Funnels and Buckets video
I/O Brush image
Explo-Grabba webquest screenshot
Grabba Beast image (original creation)
