Teaching Contemporary Art and Media Theory in an Online Environment
laurie halsey brown
Presentation @ Interface: Virtual Environments in Art, Design and Education Conference
Dublin Institute of Technology   September, 2007

Online education has exploded onto the education scene in the last 5 years. There are now a large number of universities and colleges that have e-learning programs, many which include courses in art, architecture and media studies.

I have been teaching contemporary art and media online for 7 years. I have primarily been teaching with the New School University but I am now teaching with several other schools as well.

Through my experience teaching with different institutions, I have been considering the many possibilities of this education platform. This presentation gives me the opportunity to share information on how online education has affected the landscape of teaching contemporary art, and to discuss its future potential.

An initial difference in teaching online is that you don’t see the teacher in person. For this reason, the audience did not see me. A first response may be frustration at having your expectations thwarted. Fair enough, considering that this is a physical presentation. But consider this in relation to online education. Without being focused on the presenter or educator, you must focus on the content. Many educators support the concept of student-led educational practices, and online teaching creates more opportunities to de-emphasize the educator as the ‘authority’, and re-focus it’s emphasis so that teacher knowledge, student interaction and content issues have equal importance in the education process. The teacher becomes a catalyst for education versus the primary source of education.

Instead of a Q&A at the end of the presentation, you should write down your questions as the presentation unfolds, and then you can send your questions and comments to this address, which I will then respond to and will be placed on the DIT web site. As you do this, consider any differences in how you process the information I’m presenting and in how you consider your questions and comments.

brownl@newschool.edu

Online Education as a Reflection of Contemporary Society

Teaching is a social network. And the identity of the educator has relevance in order to establish instructor credibility. But is a physical knowledge of the instructor especially relevant to this? Here are several pictures of educators, and one of them is myself. How important is it for you to know what I look like? How important is it for you to have a physical experience of me? Which of these; visual representation or physical representation is more important to facilitating the education process?

Online teaching has the potential to fundamentally address questions regarding online identity, as well as visual and physical representation.

Myspace, Facebook and Second Life are obvious examples of how students create online identities.

The Internet is a pervasive aspect of our lives. Issues such as identity, physical representation and online ethics impact contemporary society.

Our online identities are now an inherent aspect of our overall identity. Online education can reflect this aspect of contemporary society, by asking questions and creating content specific to how students perceive online identities and how they create their own.

Art students are also well versed in the importance of their own web page representing themselves and their work. This has become an important aspect of being an artist. The art world has also entered this area; Saatchi Gallery has an online gallery that focuses on art representation, online interaction among artists and with those involved in the art world.

Teaching Contemporary Art Online

Art is a visual medium, and the Internet is becoming increasingly visual. Through the use of photographs, video, webcams and online design used predominantly on the Internet, students can learn about the history of art, contemporary art, film, video and digital media as it is integrated with contemporary society. This integration between art and society is extremely valuable in order for students to see the relevance of art to society, art as an inherent aspect of society versus a separate entity outside of society. This is an important concept for every student to process, and for the expansion of art education in general.

Teaching contemporary art today must also include the impact of net.art, which has a history that goes back to the 1980’s. Net.art has roots in activism and experimental art forms such as video. Contemporary video art began from a critique of television, and from a desire to have a mass audience for art. Art using the Internet deals with similar issues of audience, art as commodity, as well as the exploration of the medium artistically. Online education can especially respond to and reflect the medium of net.art.

Audience participation is an inherent aspect of net.art, and online teaching could be considered a form of Participatory Art.

Finding the Face Beyond Interface ~ Online Dialogue Strategies

It was mentioned in an overview of this conference, that the relevance of the Virtual Learning Environment to ‘hands-on’ or practice-based disciplines such as Art and Design is not clear. Much of Art and Design education is delivered through intensive one-to-one contact between lecturer and student, and in technical workshop situations, ‘learning environments’ that require real rather than virtual contact.

Is virtual interaction not ‘real’? In my experience, intensive one-to-one contact can take place online, and sometimes, the processes of online dialogue can make interaction between educator and student more intensive, and which are integrated into the learning process of online education.

This is a map of Best Practices I created with colleagues as part of a training programme for Socrates.

*click link above to see larger view

As you can see on this map, creating online dialogue is formed through a series of strategies in order to make it inherently viable within the education process. One of these areas is Setting the Tone for Learning, which is concerned with Facilitator Accessibility, Facilitator Visibility, Facilitator Modeling and the Quality and Quantity of educator feedback. These are just a few of the strategies that are designed to lead to integrating dialogue into the online education process.

Encouraging Exchange and Interactive Discussions are inherent aspects of online teaching, and this online education software emphasizes many strategies in which this can take place, such as teachers having ‘office’ hours in which students can communicate in real time.

The program allows the instructor to communicate with students in many different formats in order to create several viable ways for students to interact with the instructor. There are also sections of the site which are focused on students communicating with each other outside of the academic content focus.
The ability of a student to participate in online dialogue is a large aspect of their fulfilling the requirements of the course.

In my courses, it factors in at about 1/3 of their grade. Students not only learn how to create quality dialogue with their instructor, but this also takes place with their fellow students. This kind of peer communication is extremely valuable to the learning process, and another level of the educational value of an online learning environment.

Online Courses in Partnership with On-site Courses

Interdisciplinary thinking is reflection of contemporary society. Ideas and people are connecting, versus a previous focus on individual disciplines. This has taken place primarily due to the Internet. Contemporary art is interdisciplinary; it can be viewed and understood in a variety of contexts. The intersection between the ‘real’ and the ‘virtual’ in art education is especially relevant.

Online education can have much value on it’s own, or in can be enhanced in combination with an on-site component.

In 2002, I designed and taught an online/on-site project for a Fine Arts graduate program in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. 'excerpts from Current English' had two components; an online program of net.art and an on-site program of video. Both the online and on-site programs were curated based on themes that responded to a theoretical framework - such as Hybridity and Translocality – and/or fall between the lines of traditional definitions. Students explored and discussed these concepts through experiencing a variety of net.art and video works. *click link above to see project documentation.

This kind of project could also take place in a predominantly online environment, in connection with an accessible video art library.This library can be developed for the school or by working with institutions with video art libraries, which are world-wide.


Online students can be from anywhere in the world.

As an example of integrating the physical with the virtual, they can be asked to experience a cultural event where they are located and present it in the online classroom. They could be asked to include references taken from the local press, as well as their own images taken of the event.

Discussing the similarities and differences in experience - in relation to location - can create a larger understanding of physical context. It also creates an expanded understanding of other cultures through art and through academic communication with ones peers.

A larger global awareness is one of the foremost contributions the Internet has made to contemporary society. This can also be an aspect of art education. Students can have the possibility of working with teachers - and with educational and art based institutions - all over the world. This could lead to collaborations between students, educators and institutions on a global level.

Some Thoughts Regarding Institutions Designing e-learning Programs

I mentioned at the beginning of my presentation that the use of the VLE in art and media education has exploded in the last 5 years. One of my main interests is in seeing this form of education explored towards advancing education as a whole. One of my concerns is that institutions are developing e-learning programs for it’s financial advantages. If these programs are not focused on education first, they will not be utilizing it’s potential. They also will not be promoted to students properly. This could mean that students taking these courses will be primarily made up of those thinking that an online course is ‘easier’ or just taking it because they need to travel during the school year. Institutions with e-learning programs should develop them with an understanding of the advantages of a Virtual Learning Environment, and of having students become a part of exploring it’s potential.

An arts based institution can especially expand the field of online education in relation to the visual design of the online program. Web design has been fully integrated into society and students [especially those in art-based programs] have had many experiences with sophisticated web design. Art-based institutions could design visually high-end online education programs which reflect the importance of the educational process while making the visuals used an inherent aspect of the learning process.

Another aspect institutions should consider is setting up an online network so that online educators can communicate with each other about specific issues and strategies, as this will expand the potential of the medium.


Thank you for being open to an alternate form of presentation, as a reflection of an alternate form of education. I look forward to responding to your questions and comments online. You can send them to this address:

brownl@newschool.edu

Thank you, and I would like to thank DIT for inviting me.

Laurie Halsey Brown has taught Media Studies online with the New School University since 2000. She also teaches online with several universities internationally. Along with her committment to expanding the potential of online education, she is an artist researcher in the interdisciplinary intersection of art, architecture and psychology. She is also open to consulting with institutions that are considering online programs. e-mail

©2007 laurie halsey brown