VIRTUAL: Learning. Life. Work.

Abstract

Within contemporary creative practices, individuals communicate and collaborate through different modes and interactions. Working within this dynamic process, art teachers draw on past experiences while pursuing new methods to enhance student competencies, often replacing outmoded practices with emerging technologies. Numerous studies advocate the integration of emergent media into art education in high schools. By using technology in creative exploration, research has shown better development of creative ideas when compared against traditional art teaching methods. However, on a practical level, multiple factors can influence the attitudes of art teachers in adopting such an approach. To understand this issue, we draw from Csikszentmihalyi and Wolfe’s (2014) systems model of creativity to interpret the classroom teaching process. Within this interactive system, with the Domain as the school and the field as the Teacher, the Individual (student) represents the initiator of the creative process, introducing new ideas in response to traditional teaching methods. Whereas in an integrative approach incorporating emerging media, where innovative art teachers are willing to try new creative approaches in their instruction, teachers take on the role of initiators. In this latter setting, a teacher’s creative integration of emergent media establishes a more dynamic and creative process due to the transference of roles between Field and Individual.