Learning Objectives

Objectives

Students participating in the course are expected to be active learners and will increase their fluency in the use of technology. They will explore ways in which technology can be used as expanded materials for the making of art in their studio practice and/or future classrooms. 

Learning Objective 1, art & literacy: learn to draw from their creative potentials and expand their artistic practice.

To achieve this numerous creative assignments will be given throughout the semester.

Assessment: Students will be required to do weekly creative assignments in each medium explored - in class and/or at home. They will explore digital and social media, audio, video, digital fabrication as well as physical computing, basic circuits and creative coding. Participants will work across 2D and 3D, as well as time-based media. A class blog (URL t.b.d.) and collaborative online-spaces (URL t.b.d.) will serve as archives and repositories for individual course work and group achievements. 

Learning Objective 2, tech-habits & creativity: approach technology as makers and creators of technology rather than consumers; revisit existing media practices and re-approach them creatively.

To achieve this a creative experiment will be conducted at the beginning of the semester. Assessment: In order to re-approach technology creatively, students will be encouraged to take a step away from their habitual ways of dealing with computers and mobile devices and create an artistic response to this on/off experience. By creating a critical distance to the immediacy of new media students are able to reconnect to technology in a different way. The visual representation of this experience and self-observations will become part of their individual blog-sites. 

Learning Objective 3, research: conduct research into the work of artists and teachers who have been placed at the intersection of new media, learning, and technology.

To achieve this, every type of media explored will be approached through visual examples, discussion and individual research.

Assessment: Throughout the semester students will be shown examples of artists working with new and emerging technologies as their respective material. Students will be required to become digital stewards, conduct, share, and present their research into creative media practices and come up with their own artist-examples. Their individual blog-site and the class site as well as the course LMS (t.b.d.) will serve as a repository for their research and presentations. 

Learning Objective 4, education: make connections between digital-based media and their particular value for educators.

To achieve this students will be asked to make numerous connections between technology-infused art making and classroom teaching.

Assessment: Students will engage in class-discussions and individual assignments throughout the semester addressing the integration of new media in classroom teaching. As part of this they will create learning objectives and simple lesson plans, write blog entries and work either individually or - at times - in collaboration.

Learning Objective 5, collaboration: explore the social potential of media learning and digital technologies.

To achieve this students will be asked to approach digital technologies collaboratively on-site and online, alone and together. They will form learning communities and collaborate on select assignments in order to acquire and share knowledge as well as build on the possibilities to engage in team learning with and through technology.

Assessment: Throughout the semester students will work with blogs and wikis, among other far-distance learning platforms. A special assignment, “Impact 25” will serve as a possibility to collaborate and create an artful challenge to help students locate, create, and connect to a broader audience. Select in-class workshops will be conducted in teams, demonstrating how a 21st century classroom and community of learners can share expertise and advance together.

Learning Objective 6, reflect & critique: present and critically reflect their output in a number of presentations and in a final feedback session.

To achieve this students will take reflective notes, be reflective practitioners and share their assignments at multiple points with each other for peer feedback.

Assessment: Throughout the semester students will be required to present their weekly assignments in small groups or with the entire class. Continuous discussions will happen throughout as well as occasional feedback sessions towards the end. Students will be required to present select projects (“Impact25” and “Final Project”, among others) that exemplify their artful explorations. Students are encouraged to actively showcase their processes and outcomes.

Learning Objective 7, connecting all materials: explore a broad variety of media while making connections between traditional and new materials as a means to build new combinations. 

To achieve this the focus of the class instruction will be put on fluency rather than expertise. Instead of introducing them to classroom technology on the level of quickly out-dated tools and continuously changing software packages; students will be asked to approach new media creatively, i.e. as expanded materials for art making. This will put the focus of the course from being a shallow step-by-step guide of soft- or hardware packages to a deeper learning focusing on how new media can be approached imaginatively and intuitively. While not becoming experts, students will be presented with a survey of new media in contemporary art making and teaching. 

Assessment: Students will be asked to work with digital media in a variety of forms. They will be encouraged to actively seek out connections between new media and traditional materials. Apart from “blank” or “empty assignments”, which will give students space to connect more deeply with select class-explorations, they will be create a final project in which they combine traditional and new materials. Their individual blogsite, the class-blog, and wikipage will serve as a repository for these explorations.

Personal Learning Objective 8, critical thinking: make connection between class content and what is most important to them to learn.

To achieve this students are encouraged to continuously revisit their own interests and to adapt the homework assignments in a meaningful way to their particular interests and needs.

Assessment: Students are mandated to take ownership of their own learning. If they have troubles with the assignments, they must contact their instructor who will make efforts to accommodate and adjust to their specific needs. Along the same lines, students are expected to tailor their desired learning outcomes (including their homework assignments) with the instructor in order to increase flexibility and adapt to their own, particular learning outcomes in addition to the core learning outcomes as described above.

Learning Objective 9, curiosity & play: Ask for what you need, help each other, have fun, be curious and playful. Technology is a language and if you don’t know every new vocabulary — nobody does —, circumscribe what you are trying to say.