Tony Ferguson on wed 31 aug 05
Vince,
I am not sure why you think I was justifying online art. I was merely stating the positives that I see and have experienced. In addition, Vince, its here whether you, me or anyone else likes it or not. You can argue all you want at the travesty, but the dean and administration wave their bottom line higher than what we think is best and I don't think online education is a bad thing as I think it has much potential. We can either embrace it and figure out how to give the best education we can or we disagree with it in which case they will find someone else who maybe does not care about education as much as we do to develop and deliver the course. I, personally, if there are going to be studio courses, would like some involvement in making sure they are the best they can be. It is the future Vince and the future is now.
I am not sure how you can compare what I said to "standardized" testing. I don't see the connection here. I'll be the first to say I think standardized testing is bull shit. Tell me a Mexican kid in Minneapolis is going to test the same as a white kid from a rich school district schooled by bording school educators with advanced degrees, experiences only money can buy, travel under their belt etc, etc. who in turn may have been educated indirectly by the test writers with similar educational, majority cultural disposition. Let's not even go there.
The plain and simple fact of education is this: public dollars are running short. The educational elite allowed the majority of opportunities. It is not free and equal education. Educational opportunities are being cut by those who need them the most on all levels except those rich enough to be unaffected. Instructors have little say or power to enact any change on the admistrative level as we have now entered into the student as "paying customer." Many folks already covered this recently much better than I can in my nutshell.
The deterioration of American education is only going to get worse and you can bet online education is not going to be an option for many people, it is going to be the only cost effective solution to furthering their education--this could very well be a reality in 20 years and we are seeing it now. The average student in the community college is no longer your 18 year old--it is someone older with 1, 2, or 3 jobs and a family. The demographic of the college student is changing as are their needs and responsibilities beyond their education. As far as studio courses go available via physical classroom--they too will become something only available to those students who can afford to support the costly infrastructure we know as a college or university. When will this happen? I believe it already is happening and the marginalization and polarizing is only going to get worse.
Going slightly tangential here, and this is, in my opinion, is the least of our worries. Instructors teaching online is only a transitional period to AI. AI (artificial intelligence) virtual computer generated instructors will eventually replace a real human instructor much like robots replaced human workers in a factory. Maybe not in our life time, and not in all subjects, but in a not too distant future you will not know who is human and who is AI in a virtual environment--throw in 3D holographic projection and your instructor will appear in your room ready to assist you. Your AI instructor will have access to untold amounts of information and knowledge and they too will be programmed for hands on direct instruction, critical analysis, etc. Scary but very probable.
Artists in the future as we embrace/become a slave to technology will certainly deal with the aspect of "losing our humanity" in a variety of areas through their artwork. Conceptual art will not be conceptual anymore--it will be experiential and fully interactive. When you can jack in to your fantasy land and your brain interfaces and is stimulated knowing not the difference between what is real in the physical world versus the virtual world, because scientists have figured out what chemicals and sensors to activate and stimulate, well, I don't even know what to say about that quite yet--there is a very good chance with current developments this will happen in our life time. Exciting and yet scary at the same time. The 21st century "Techno-addiction" will make the 60's "tune in and tune out" an every day slogan.
Tony Ferguson
http://www.tonyferguson.net
Vince Pitelka wrote:
Tony Ferguson wrote:
"I do however find that art history, art appreciation, digital photography,
2D & 3D art can and are taught effectively online with the use of
multi-media (still, video & audio clips providing supplemental, virtual
instructor if you will)."
Tony -
I still hope that I won't offend you by my comments here, but all of your
justification sounds to me like the same kind of rationalization used to
defend standardized testing and other things that represent the
deterioration of American education. I would agree that art history and
appreciation might be taught fairly effectively online for well-motivated
students who do not have the option to attend classes at a college or
university.
But I would never agree that any online studio art course could even begin
to approach the effectiveness of a live course. The whole dynamic would be
a shallow immitation of live teaching and learning in a real studio. It
could not be otherwise. The whole concept of teaching a visual art studio
course online is a contradiction in terms and a travesty of studio art
education. And regarding those students who do not tend to speak up in
critiques, it is up to the instructor to draw those students out, to help
get through their defenses in a non-threatening fashion. That's just part
of the challenge.
- Vince
Vince Pitelka
Appalachian Center for Craft, Tennessee Technological University
Smithville TN 37166, 615/597-6801 x111
vpitelka@dtccom.net, wpitelka@tntech.edu
http://iweb.tntech.edu/wpitelka/
http://www.tntech.edu/craftcenter/
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Tony Ferguson
...where the sky meets the lake...
Duluth, Minnesota
Artist, Educator, Web Meister
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Vince Pitelka on thu 1 sep 05
Tony -
Again, I hope you won't take offense from my stubborness on this issue. I
think that you are completely wrong about the future of education. I admit
to being an idealist, but I believe that there will be a huge backlash
against the deterioration of education. There has to be, if America is
going to remain the least bit competitive in the global market (or the
intellectual market, for that matter). High tech advancements are critical
to the constant improvement of education, but it doesn't mean that
technology must eliminate the efficiency and humanity of education. It
seems to me that the high-tech "artificial intelligence" future of education
that you describe is just science fiction gone bad. The whole picture that
you paint horrifies me. If there were a chance of it actually being an
improvement in education, then I might give it a chance, but it only
represents a downward spiral in the efficiency and value of education.
The fact that academic administrations are currently looking for every
conceivable cost-saving measure is no indication that the long-range picture
is so bleak. Time will show that such measures have contributed to the
deterioration of educational quality.
The solution is not for the serious, committed art teachers to aquiesce and
agree to design the online studio coursework. The solution is for them to
stand up and FIGHT this misdirected trend.
Again, I agree that online courses work well in some situations. This
conversation started in regards to online studio art courses, and I cannot
see the possibility of any sort of real quality studio experience in an
online studio art course. As I said before, it seems a complete
contradiction in terms.
Artificial intelligence teaching in the classroom? No thanks, let's keep
REAL intelligence at the center of things.
Best wishes -
- Vince
Vince Pitelka
Appalachian Center for Craft, Tennessee Technological University
Smithville TN 37166, 615/597-6801 x111
vpitelka@dtccom.net, wpitelka@tntech.edu
http://iweb.tntech.edu/wpitelka/
http://www.tntech.edu/craftcenter/
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