So, in the past month or so I have been working in a semi- local high school in various parts of the art department. The areas that I've been a part of have shown me a new light on the idea of technology which I have never seen in a high school setting. When I arrived at the school, the first classroom that I was observing was a sculpture class. To no surprise to me, the use of technology was almost completely absent except for the powerpoint that took up a majority of the class time. Powerpoint. that was all. I laughed to myself in the class because this was a pure and simple exemplification of what I had gone on about in my previous blog entry. I could only think to myself how this all just made it more concrete, the art room should be about physical and tangible works. They may start out on paper but there is a true technical skill that is required for this and that can be built upon and learned.
As the day went on I was observing in four more classes that were all the same with the title of Visual Communications or VisCom. The VisCom classes are primarily focused in a lot of graphic design concepts and basic design concepts... which are pretty much the same thing I think. The initial first third of the school year is all done on paper, measuring borders and layout concepts while exploring typography and letter history as well as the other 5 concepts of design. The remaining two thirds of the school year that I will not be present for are mostly done in the schools newly refurbished Mac lab. Each computer is equipped with the most up to date version of Photoshop, CS6. While watching my teacher struggle with the new program during a free time I thought to myself again, with ever changing technology, how am I going to keep up with teaching it in a classroom. My teacher/mentor who has been working in this school for years is having extremely frustrating issues with adapting to the new program, so how is this going to relay to the students?!
The remaining projects laid out on the syllabus seem interesting and challenging for students and teachers alike but it comes back to my initial question: Where does this all fit in? I can see that they are looking into advertising and graphic design but I am still unsure of how I feel about it all. It's interesting and cool but at the same time, I still feel that it belongs on a collegiate level. When you still have students sitting there playing around on computers when the teacher isn't looking, I feel that they look at it as an easy way out. From my point of view of observations, I feel like initial studio work should be the answer. Classes like this are useful but should maybe be reserved for students that go through a lot of studio training first. At least that's the feeling that I've been getting... otherwise there are students that are just there to play around on a computer and dish out some sub-par levels of work.
