Theoretical and Practical Approaches to Electronic Arts Education

Symposium:

• ISEA97: Eighth International Symposium on Electronic Art

• Theoretical and Practical Approaches to Electronics Arts Education

• Theoretical and Practical Approaches to Electronic Arts Education

• Rachel Schreiber
• Joseph DeLappe
• Kristine Diekman
• Cinthea Fiss
• Fred Endsley

• As the market for teaching jobs in the fine arts becomes increasingly tight, colleges and universities are able to seek out candidates who can cover a variety of media. Many of the teaching jobs advertised today require the ability to teach electronic media, be they jobs in photography, video, painting, sculpture,  printmaking, or ceramics. Professors teaching most traditional media rely on the approaches to teaching that medium that they encountered in the course of their own studies. Those of us who are currently teaching electronic media are faced with novel challenges, for most of us are teaching material that we never studied formally, but rather learned on our own. Each of us develop assignments, course readers, and theoretical frameworks without much knowledge of what is being taught by our peers. The purpose of this discussion will be to share resources and ideas, both theoretical and practical, among educators, as well as to inform other artists about some of the current approaches to teaching electronic media. Issues to be covered include:

  1. What are the conceptual implications of the ubiquity of the computer in out society?
  2. How do we address generational differences in thought processes — how does this newest generation see and use the technology they have grown up and feel comfortable with? How can their needs be addressed while not excluding students from other generations?
  3. How do we as educators keep current with technologies that change so rapidly?
  4. Do models of education from other media apply to teaching new technologies, or are entirely new models called for?

Category:

• Panel