BP2_2009101-Anti Teaching and Art Classrooms

Each year it becomes increasingly more clear that there are students who are not finding significance in their work in the art room. After studying the Multiple Intelligences and Brain-based Learning, this author recognizes the need for revisions in her teaching style. Moving from whole group to small group and individualized instruction can meet the needs of many students, and a few achieve at consistently high levels, both is written and in original creative work. Most attain passing grades and are satisfied, and a few are significantly bored and acting out as a result. This writer does not meet enough of the needs of some learners and strives to change methods. However until now, the author was lost for a way to change and become more effective.

Personal learning environments might be the answer. But a radical change would be necessary to make such a paradigm shift in instructional methods. To allow and facilitate learners discovery of their own path to significance in the art room seems like a prescription for chaos and waste, based upon the results in established routines and structured lessons where a significant number (from 1 to 5 students) repeatedly start over, waste materials and throw away perfectly good products that others would happily use.

Could Web 2.0 tools be the answer for engaging learners in the art classroom? With the tools we are discovering online, and for free, even with their annoying glitches, these computer and web-based tools draw students in to learning in ways this writer has not seen before. With Smart Board tools and video cameras for classroom use, the student are engaged in learning to use the new tools along with this author. They feel more important than ever, as they assist one another toward proficiency and become teachers themselves, even to the teacher. Michael Wesch's concept of the students global interconnectedness and future focus for the grand narrative are both significance builders for this generation of learners.