ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION
ARTS EDUCATION:
NEW TECHNIQUES AND CHALLENGES
Friday, March 27, 1998, 3:15 - 4:30 p.m.

Presenters: MADELEINE HOLZER, Program Director, Arts in Education, NYSCA, TERRY BAKER, Senior Research Scientist at the Center for Children and Technology. By: Philip Rothman

Over 50 people gathered at a roundtable discussion to consider topics posed under the general guise of the title “Arts Education: New Techniques and Challenges.” Facilitating the discussion were Madeleine Holzer, the arts-in-education program director for the New York State Council on the Arts, and Terry Baker, Senior Research Scientist at the Center for Children and Technology.

Mr. Baker opened the discussion with some general remarks about the uses of multiple technologies in arts-in-education programs. He challenged the participants to think about what can be accomplished at different levels. “What do you do in a K-5 program as opposed to a high school program?” Mr. Baker asked. “What are the software issues? Educational goals?” He stressed the importance of finding a few quality items and developing them extensively.

Ms. Holzer focused on the issue of integration of technology into the classroom. “How do we make what’s happening on the web intrinsic to the learning process?” she asked. “Using the computer changes the way teachers run their class. Instead of a teacher-oriented classroom, it becomes a student-oriented classroom. Students can go in and do work on their own.”

The discussion rapidly opened up, with Patricia Barbanell, the president of the New York State Council of Educational Associations, agreeing with Ms. Holzer. “Within the first three days of encountering the World Wide Web, my whole idea of what education is and should be changed,” Ms. Barbanell said.

Geo Geller, consultant for the New York City Board of Education Website, was an advocate of the changing technologies. “One of the things that excites me is for the kids to be able to point and tell their friends that they’re published,” Mr. Geller said. “The Web is such an easy vehicle in which to publish information.” He also noted that the technology must be exciting and appealing to use. “I’ve been looking how to make interactive content come alive,” Mr. Geller said. “A lot of it is about vision. The Web has potential as a social sculpture.”

The necessity of having a vision was of prime importance to many of the participants. Karen Helmerson, Associate Director of the Educational Video Center in Manhattan, noted, “We come to this new technology with historical perspectives, but those perspectives are loaded with assumptions. They are disconnections with our daily lives. Digital technology is non-linear. If we don’t have vision, we must take a step back and see why we don’t have vision.”

In this three-day conference devoted to “the arts in a digital age,” it is indeed easy for many of the technologically minded participants to lose perspective. A “step back” was also advocated by Jane Curliano, an arts expert from the New York City Board of Education. Ms. Curliano referred to the issue of access. “There’s the assumption that every school is connected to the web,” she said. “I think there needs to be some other system in place to make this technology available.” Mr. Geller, while not solving that issue specifically, mentioned another element of the access issue. “Unless you train the teachers,” he noted, “you’re giving them a vehicle that they don’t know how to drive.”

Barbara McGregor, a member of the Queens Council on the Arts board, agreed. “Whatever goes out on the market,” Ms. McGregor said, “should be of high-quality, it should be technologically simple to use, and it should be cheap.” Harvey Dzodin, vice president of ABC-TV, challenged participants to find educational items of high quality. “What’s wonderful to you in an MTV age?” Mr. Dzodin asked. “Have you seen any non-commercial things on the Web that are wonderful?”

Although many of these complex issues were not solved in this seventy-five-minute session, one participant reminded the group that the computer and the World Wide Web did not replace the vital role of the teacher. “A lot of that information on the Web is false,” he said. “You still need the teacher.”