Alena Drury Sojková is a PhD student at the Department of Art Education at the Faculty of Education at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. Her passion for contemporary education through art was initiated by lectures by Prof. Igor Zhoř, who was an icon in the world of art education. She graduated with a thesis on video art from Masaryk University. She is an InSEA member, focusing on the holistic paradigm and its implementation models in art education. Her creative activities have been ranging from multimedia installations, to collaborative performance art events, to making objects as relicts of the slow art process. Currently she has been involved in pedagogical research regarding the role of new media at the secondary school art education.
Video art as a means to dialogue. Collaboration. Participation. In motion. In the mainstream education system, students have still been widely experiencing art education in its traditional form. Drawing, painting, clay modelling, possibly visiting a gallery. Most of the time working at the desk, individually, expecting teacher assessment. In the research the secondary schools are offered a possibility for the students to experience model lectures in video art. Students actively discuss, share, create and enjoy collaboration on a participative work of art.
Video in Art Education at the Secondary School
The contemporary media-saturated society lives in the world of image. Mobile phones, tablets, digital cameras and video cameras have become an integral part of our everyday life. How do secondary school children perceive this reality? Equipped with smartphones, they are encountered with rules in the public school environment either restricting using their favourite companion or prohibiting it altogether. In the testing-based education system focused on individual performance, this approach makes sense. However, smartphones have a video camera as well. With the internet access, the phone becomes a compact film making device offering the possibility to unfold the creative potential of the students in both visual and audio-visual production. Due to the simplicity of use and the power of expression, these audio-visual means of communication have become a distinctive area of artistic creation called digital or new media. Art teachers have an exceptional opportunity to develop the potential of digital media in the school environment. In the art class, children can work with video not only individually, but also in a group which then encourages mutual communication and collaboration. A challenge might arise in situations when the student has a higher level of skill than the teacher when it comes to operating the smartphone functions. We will look at how this can be taken as an opportunity for teachers to share responsibility with the students for the purpose of acquiring or applying knowledge, and to change their roles within the class. The medium of video offers a space to shift teaching methods from transmissive to constructivist and the learning process from individual to collaborative. Incorporating video art into the teaching practice naturally contributes to transformation of the traditional conceptual pedagogical paradigm in art education.