Students and teachers as developers of visual designs with AR for visual arts education

Students and teachers as developers of visual learning designs with AR for visual arts education. This paper reports from a project where communication students collaborated with art teacher educators and art student teachers about developing visual digital designs for learning which involved mobile technology and Augmented Reality (AR). The project exemplified a strategy for visual learning design where diverse stakeholders’ competences were involved throughout the design process. Visual arts education in Denmark is challenged by the national curricula’s requirement of integrating digital technology in visual learning processes. Since 1984, information technology has been mandatory in the school subject as well as in teacher education (ref.). Still, many digital resources such as Photoshop and Paint, offer remediating more traditional means for pictorial production, which give rise to question the purpose of using digital imaging and thereby lose the material experience from painting and drawing with tactile materials. The project’s pedagogical rationale behind integrating digital technologies in arts was that it should rather elicit different new art forms drawing on interactivity and social practices than replicate former art forms. Thus, the project participants explored the possibilities for developing a visual learning design based on digital communication technology and contemporary visual arts pedagogy. The theoretical framework drew on current discussions of learning designs (Beetham, 2013), AR (Dunleavy & Dede, 2014), and of digital media in visual arts education (Peppler 2010, Rasmussen 2015, Buhl & Ejsing-Duun, 2015; Buhl, 2016). The methodological approach was Design Based Research (DBR), which is a pragmatic research approach that combines an iterative development of a design with research aimed at improving the design and development theory and with an emphasis on cooperation between the designer and stakeholders.The result was three visual learning designs that show opportunities to work with AR experiences in very different formats, but beyond traditional re-mediating programs. In addition, the design shows that cooperation can promote the new aspects of didactics, where visual art pedagogy gain new opportunities for development and practitioners can take a new position in integrating digital technology into school subjects. ReferencesAmiel, T., & Reeves, T. C. (2008). Design Based Research and Educational Technology: Rethinking Technology and the Research Agenda. Educational Technology & Society, 11 (4), 2008, pp. 29–40Beetham, H. (2007): An approach to learning activity design. In: Beetham, H. & Sharpe, R. (eds.) Rethinking pedagogy for a digital age. Designing and delivering e-learning. Abingdon: Routledge. p. 26-40 (14 s.)Buhl, M. (2016) Theory-generating practice. Proposing a principle for learning design. Læring og Medier (LOM), Vol. 9, No. 15, 2016, p. 1-21Buhl, M. & Ejsing-Duun (2015) Blended learning promoting new developments for Nordic master programs in visual studies and art education, ECEL Proceedings, Hatfield Peppler, K. (2010). Media arts: Arts education for a digital age. Teachers College Record, vol 112, nr. 8, p. 2118-2153 http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.700.7662&rep=rep1&type=pdfDunleavy, M. & Dede, C. (2014). Augmented reality teaching and learning. in. J.M. Spector, M.D. Merrill, J. Elen & M.J. Bishop (eds), The handbook og research for educational communications and technology New York: Springer http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic1116077.files/DunleavyDedeARfinal.pdfRasmussen, H. (2015). Digital Picture Production and Picture aesthetic Competency in It-didactic Design. Risk and opportunities for visual arts education in Europe. Proceedings, InSEA conferene, Lisbon, Portugal