Linda Muse

AEET/EDET 780

June 7, 2006

Pamela G. Taylor

Chair and Associate Professor of Art Education

Virginia Commonwealth University

Pamela G. Taylor is a chair and associate professor in the Department of Art Education at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. Her research has been published in such journals as Studies in Art Education, Art Education, FATE in Review, The Journal of Cultural Research in Art Education, a number of book anthologies, and online at Eastgate.com. Taylor was awarded a Getty doctoral fellowship for her dissertation research entitled "Hypertext-Based Art Education: Implications for Liberatory Learning in High School" at the Pennsylvania State University. Taylor authored the book Amazing Grace: The Lithographs of Joseph Norman (National Center of Afro-American Artists 2002), and her Interdisciplinary Approaches to Teaching Art in High School will be published by the National Art Education Association in 2006. She is currently Editor of Art Education for the journal of the National Art Education Association. Above information taken directly from: http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=person&id=7983

I was not sure what to expect when I began this assignment. I was very intimidated by Ms. Taylor’s long list of accomplishments and unsure of whether she would have the time, or inclination to grant me an interview.

As I researched her information for my interview, I came across very exciting information. The work she has done in her high school art classes with hypertext is amazing. It empowered students to use their own voices and be responsible for their own learning. A particularly moving account of how one young lady changed her views through this way of learning can be read at Storyspace.

You can see an example of her research on her Faculty web page (click on research project). She also participates in outside projects such as the Cyber-kitchen, which is an online installation where many artists submit a portion of a larger project.

When I finally contacted her, she was very happy to answer my questions.

What follows is my interview with Dr. Taylor:

1. When you began using hypertext with your students, how many computers did you have in your
room? I began in 1995 and there was one computer in the classroom. A Mac SE! Or did you have access to a computer lab? There was a lab in the high school but it did not have the software we needed.

2. What was the average number of students in a class? 25-30

3. What were the biggest hurdles you faced with this new innovative way of thinking about Art?
Believe it or not, it was not the computer as the students loved the software. They did not like "thinking" so much. They were accustomed to just making things and the hypertext provoked them to do so much more than that.
How did the students respond at first? Some grumbled about having to think and others really loved the way someone was actually interested in their thoughts. I have some great video of the students saying things like, "I just never really thought about all the connections before. Now I can't stop thinking about them."

4. I read your article “Critical thinking in and through Interactive Computer Hypertext and Liberation
in High School, did you find that the Art 1 students were capable of using the hypertext to make
connections? (Maybe to a much lesser extent than the AP class, or not at all?) I got the feeling that it
was most successful with your AP class. (Lindsay’s story was inspirational!)The Art I's and Art II's created communal hypertext webs due to the limited number of computers (by the end of the study we had 2 computers and I brought in 2 from home). But, they did a great job really. The AP students had more time on the computers and actually had a mission of finding their concentration area through the magic of hypertext.

5. How did you become interested in Technology? What made you think of applying it to Art? I was drawn to the Macintosh computer when it first came out and I was working as a Graphics Editor of an entertainment magazine in Nashville, Tn. When I started teaching again, the school gave the art department a Mac SE and allowed me to take it home over the summer. I was hooked. Then when I went to Penn State, Dr. Marjorie Wilson presented her research using hypertext to deconstruct works of art and I was amazed. I immediately purchased the software and started webbing everything!

6. How is technology different in the schools in Cuba, or in Cuban society for that matter? (Please forgive me if this is an ignorant question, I know some places in the world are without electricity….) They have computers and software in Cuban schools but they are typically older PCs. The teaching is mostly done through rote memory---tell the students something and have them repeat it in unison. However, every community, town, village, part of the city---has a Casa de la Cultura (House of Culture) where the entire community may be involved in arts classes (visual and performing arts). This is where I witnessed the most expressive works of art being created. I saw very few computers in these spaces though.

7. Your work with hypertext in Art is incredible, I can see the same idea applying to many other subjects as well, however in our current climate of test, test, test, do you think it would be possible to implement this type of learning? Can we guarantee that State Standards are met (Is that important)? Yes, but more importantly we can go beyond them. I'm working (when I have time) on ways to show this--As many art teachers know, standards are met and/or addressed in varying aspects of a unit of instruction---therefore I feel that hypertext is an excellent way to reveal this. Perhaps through keywords or phrases and more importantly, having the students themselves link areas of their VLP to specific standards would work----I'm thinking as I type here....

8. Are Storyspace and Tinderbox expensive? Can you link between these two programs? (In one screenshot they looked overlapped) Tinderbox will open storyspace files. Mark Bernstein is wonderful and agreeable to answering any questions about the software. http://www.eastgate.com

9. How do you see the future of technology in education? I imagine schools without walls-----actually schooling everywhere---it is already here, really. We can find answers to most any questions by searching the World Wide Web. When students and teachers learn with and from each other it is more of a community of learners. And interactive computer technology allows our community to expand beyond the insular walls of the school. The teachers role in all of this is provocateur (provoking students to think and go beyond their limited views of the world), attentive agitator/irritant (demands criticality, poses the difficult questions, requires substantial and critically reflective responses), quality controller (throughout it all-----we don't want to lose artisanship, etc.....yes, we are all about breaking the rules but we must know them in order to break them-----and know that there is meaning in the breaking of the rules as well-----and be able to explain this in our art), perpetual learner as well as accomplished in the content area in which they teach (if teachers are to be authentic/real interactive computer technology users, they must acknowledge that they will never know all there is to know and that often their students will know more than they do----I say embrace and use this well-known phenomenon and work together-----being the constant provocateur and attentive agitator in the process. but I digress from your question. . .I'm all about problem-posing education. I believe that interactive computer technology---just like cultural understanding----should simply be part of what we do every day (not separated in a computer lab or only taught during specific months). So, until the "place" of schools changes......I would like to see computers in every desk or table.....on hall way walls, doors, etc.....with touch pads that students and teachers can interact with daily. Kiosks in the common areas---wireless ....
I see (like VLP) the learning that goes on in schools continuing into play time, home time, car time, etc....through the use of handhelds and gaming. I would like to imagine young people engaged in learning activities on their handhelds in much the same way I see them playing games-----this is happening now.....I just want teachers to be able to add and alter activities that relate to specific communities and schools-------a malleable standardized assessment that contributes to the learning process---not just test it.

10. In what direction is your current research heading? See above. I'm also deeply involved in service-learning and see it as a part of what we do. I am working on VLP and on another book about service and art foundation programs---seeing service as a technique and style---so it is a form of art as well as a way of making art.

While researching Ms. Taylor I found what she was doing with Art and learning to be very inspiring. I wish I could participate in one of her classes to see how she motivates her students. I was very surprised at how prompt (she answered me within 24 hours, both times) and how generous she was with me. She also sent me a breeze presentation of an online interview she gave. I would like to have questioned her further on the service and art foundation and on seeing service as a technique and style.

This was the assignment I was dreading, as it turned out, it was my favorite!