visual arts students multimodal choices with carbonmade in 2010

This presentation is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 South Africa License.

PhD in Media Studies researcher at the Centre for Film and Media Studies, University of Cape Town.

Students’ multimodal choices with online portfoliosPresentation for the Design Development and Research Conference, Cape Town, 2011

Find more of my presentations onwww.slideshare.net/TravisNoakes

April 18, 2023This presentation is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 South Africa License.

Travis Noakes


0 Presentation structure

33 slides:

① Media Studies Research Area

② 2010 Field Research and Findings

③ Initial Conclusions and Areas for Future Research

Introduction


1 “Freemium”, easy-to-use online portfolio servicesMedia Studies Research Area Since 2003 several online portfolio services

have emerged that enable creative professionals and hobbyists to publish digital portfolios online using Web2.0 technology.

There are hundreds of thousands of free members and paying subscribers:

Example Number of portfolios*

Deviantart 13 000 000Carbonmade 393 450Cgisociety 184 784Coroflot 150 000* Stats taken from these websites on the 16th of August, 2011

April 18, 2023

Carbonmade.com

CGI Society

DeviantArt


2 Characteristics of traditional and online portfoliosMedia Studies Research Area

Traditional Portfolio Online Portfolio

Artist’s statement – Artworks - Curriculum Vitae

AnalogueA folder comprising originalartworks and supporting information.

Digital A database comprising digitised imagery and writing choices specified by the user (design format is mostly structured by itssoftware developers).

Artwork Folders - Artworks - Creative profile


3 Limitations and problems with the analogue portfolio mode

A. Difficult to assemble > only collated at year-end = difficult for teacher to monitor and for students to envision year-end exhibit= diificult for students to learn from previous year’s students’ examples

B. No back-up > One physical object = impossible to replace

C. Poor distribution > audience must be in the same space to view it = limited opportunity to study distribution and social reception

D. Lack contextualisation > students’ work is often contextualised by exhibition context = missed opportunity to teach more in-depth artwork labeling

Media Studies Research Area

April 18, 2023

The educator’s 2010 and 2011 curricula have shown the educator that he could use online portfolios to address these concerns.


4 Limitations and problems with the analogue portfolio mode

E. No “marginalia” > educators cannot place feedback directly onto their students’ work= educator’s feedback may be hard to find and not front of mind

F. Drawing bias > limited scope for students to include works done with reproduction (i.e. photography) and digital media (i.e. animations) tools= demotivates students with other (non-Fine Art) interests

G. May require digitisation for Tertiary education application > students could be inexperienced with digitising versions of their portfolios for tertiary study = for preparation, it would be beneficial to introduce students to practicing digitising artworks and collating online portfolios before they leave school.


2011 and 2012 curricula may enable the educator to identify how useful the online portfolio is (or may be) for addressing these concerns.

N.B. Read http://www.travisnoakes.co.za to learn more!


5 Online portfolios can be used as e-portfoliosMedia Studies Research Area

An important intention of online portfolio use can be enabling students to create showcase Visual Arts e-portfolios.

An “e-portfolio” is defined as a product, created by a learner, which collects digital artefacts and which articulates experiences, achievements and learning (JISC, 2008).

Students have used online portfolios as e-portfolios to; collect digitised art and design works, describe their creative projects, define their learning and accomplishments, reflect on their experiences and share their work with online audiences.


6 Examples of E-portfolio and Social Media research

Electronic portfolios•Hellen Barrett’s (2008, 2011) studies into the use of electronic portfolios for life-long learning.

Formal and informal learning with technologies•Mimi Ito, et al.’s (2010) research discusses digital media, learning and teenage media use patterns.

Social networks•danah boyd’s research (2006, 2008) into students’ self presentation and uses of social media.



7 Examples of research in formal classroom settings

• Lankshear and Knobel’s (2003, 2011) research into new media literacies.

• Kress (1996, 2010) and Jewitt’s (2006, 2010) research into the formal use of

multimodal resources.

• Prinsloo and Walton’s (2008) research into situated responses to the digital

literacies of electronic communication in marginal school settings.

• David Buckingham’ (2003, 2007) research studies in children’s use of new media.


8 Requirements for online portfolio curricular adoption.

1) School Management and Visual Arts and/or Design

Department buy-in

2) Appropriate computer access

3) Availability of scanners, cameras and other peripherals

4) Sufficient broadband

5) Supportive Information Communication Technology (ICT)

policies

6) Access to Online Portfolio and related Web 2.0 sites

7) In-class support: ideally from a support teacher AND a

technician

Field Research

Well-resourced public

and private schools only

?


9 Phase 1: Elite, well-resourced private school

Conveniance sample

One laptop per learner school (from grade 9 on).

Visual Arts educator who is motivated to include laptops in his syllabi for grade 10, upwards.

Well-resourced Visual Arts classroom environment.

Affluent students have out-of-class online portfolio access and digitisation support.

Field Research

April 18, 2023


10 Criteria for choosing online portfolio software

Free (for students’

storage needs)

Easy-to-publish

Appropriate-brand

Family-friendly

Popular

Variety

Sustainable

Legal (learners’

copyright protected)

Limited interaction

Brand association

with creative

professionals

Field Research

April 18, 2023


11 Carbonmade portfolio’s three page types

Profiledescription

Image

Titledfolders of digitised artworks

Name

Carbonmade

About Name

Contact details

Areas of expertise

SkillsArtist. Date.

FolderName,Description

Artwork

TitleTagsClient tags

1 Home page

3 Artwork Project Folder Page

2 Artist’s profile

Work

Carbonmade Artist. Date.

Availabilityfor freelance

Field Research

April 18, 2023


Prepared by Travis NoakesApril 18, 2023

12 Carbonmade for e-portfolio curricula

Combined Analysis

2010 2011

Create your e-portfolio

Improve your e-portfolio

less-well-resourcedpublic school’sClass of 2013

well-resourcedprivate school’sClass of 2012

Create your e-portfolio

WCED VAD’s curricular advisers’ input

Field Research

18 students’ choices 15 students’ choices

12 students’ choices

Visual Arts educators’ feedback

Same software,similarcurricula


13 Capturing student’s choices

• Took screengrabs of each and every online portfolio page that the 18 students had created with Carbonmade.

• Used screengrabs of the educator’s free (“Meh!”) Carbonmade membership to list all the choices his students could have possibly made.

• Used Nvivo 9 software to define and code all students’ choices from top to bottom, left to right for the three kinds of Carbonmade page: Home, About and Project Folder Artwork.

Field Research


14 Example: A tablulation of all 18 student’s choices for portfolio title

Field Research

Despite students following the same curriculum, using the same software and receiving the same guidelines from their educator, there was a wide variety of choice for most written fields and in imagery used. This should not be suprising for students (a creative class) who have made the unconventional choice of doing Visual Art!


15 Using Multimodal theory to describe multimedia choices

Multimodality is a form of semiotics: a theory for the analysis of sign systems, or modes of communication. (Burn and Parker, 2005).Its aim is to understand how we communicate with each other in many different ways, some of them mediated through the human body; others mediated through various technologies.


April 18, 2023

Artist. Date.

Modes of Carbonmade’s Home page

Design

Writing

Still image

Colour

Moving image

Hyperlinks

Image sourced fromhttp://mohammed.carbonmade.com/

A “mode” is a socially shaped and culturally given semiotic resource for making meaning. Kress (2010).


16 Common semiotic principles and systematic descriptionMedia Studies Research Area

April 18, 2023

Multimodality theory looks for semiotic principles common to all forms of communication that are relevant in any given instance. The theory looks for ways to describe systematically how these modes relate to each other: how the meaning of words mightbe changed by accompanying images.


17 PhD in Media Studies’ Research Questions

April 18, 2023 Prepared by Travis Noakes

Field Research

1. What are the modal choices that the online portfolio software, Carbonmade, affords?

2. What are the multimodal choices that grade 10 Visual Arts students made using Carbonmade?

3. What are the resonances of the online portfolio choices that students made?

4. What problems did the educator perceive with select modal choices and how can these be explained by the contradictions and tensions that result from a change to the traditional class’ rules, division of labour and community in the new Visual Arts class’ online portfolio activity system.


18 Three case studiesField Research

• EG’s Visual Arts E-portfolio Drawing Showcase

• AK’s Visual Arts E-portfolio Mixed Media Showcase

• AH’s Teen Media Interest Portfolio


19 A social theory of communication

Multimodality is rooted in social semiotics (Hodge and Kress, 1988), a theory of sign-making that sees all acts of communication as social. The sign maker may be driven to represent something in this world or bythe need to establish relations with other people. In practice both functions are performed, whatever the emphasis.

The sign-makers communications also depend upon the social and cultural contexts in which the communication occurs. Analyses of the semiotic structures of texts produced by students, must therefor try and relate the analysis to these contexts to determine the interests that motivate the communications underscrutiny.


April 18, 2023


20 EG’s creative orientation in “About”Field Research: Visual Arts E-portfolio Drawing Showcase

EmotionalEmotional

Drawing

Other mediuminterests

Other mediuminterests

Tag choicesnot prescribed in 2010


21 EG’s creative interests in “About”Field Research: Visual Arts E-portfolio Drawing Showcase

Drawing


22 EG’s homepage: Drawing showcaseField Research: Visual Arts E-portfolio Drawing Showcase

White background choice resonates with a sketchpad(versus black, the default choice)

Drawing is key to thefolder cover’s imagery


23 EG’s “Extra Mural Art Work” Project Folder example Field Research: Visual Arts E-portfolio Drawing Showcase

EG uploaded eleven drawings with just three works created in other media

Detailed description


24 AK’s creative interests in “About”

Art mediumsArt mediums

EmotionalEmotional

PhotographyPhotography

Field Research: Visual Arts E-portfolio Mixed Media Showcase


25 AK’s homepage overview: Mixed Media showcase

photography

graphic design

drawing

painting?

Top: most salientField Research: Visual Arts E-portfolio Mixed Media Showcase

Choices of a black backdrop and one thumbnail per row is closer to a cinematic experience.

Bottom: least salient


26 AK’s “Extra Mural Art Work” Project Folder example Field Research: Visual Arts E-portfolio Mixed Media Showcase

Camera type and lens

Photographic tag

Entire folder contained13 photographic images, compared to 9 in other mediums.


27 AH’s creative interests in “About”

Non-Visual Art interestsNon-Visual

Art interests

Field Research: Media Interest Showcase

Visual Culture

interests

Visual Culture

interests


28 AH’s homepage overview

Game scene 1

scene 2

scene 3

scene 4

Field Research: Media Interest Showcase

Opening folder Imagery sourced fromthe computer game, Mirror’s Edge (2008).

Resonates with teenagers’ typical patterns of profile creation


29 AH’s “Extra Mural Art Work” Project Folder example Field Research: Media Interest Showcase

Of the 12 images he uploaded, five were appropriated.


30 Initial ConclusionsInitial Conclusions

Research perspective There is value in combining multimodal and database-choice analysis to understand the choices youth make with digital media.

Students’ choices reflected the interests (or orientation) described in their profiles: drawing, mixed-media use and teen media practices (gaming).

Pedagogical perspective Educators and other decision makers should accommodate a variety of student interests when designing e-portfolio syllabi. As a result, it is recommended that these syllabi include a broad and flexible range of guidelines. These should best enable students to showcase the particular mediums, subject-matters or themes that their personal interests favour.


31 Areas for future researchAreas for Future Research

2011 and 2012.

•Describe the multimodal choices made online portfolios and how these choices reflect personal interests and motivations, e-portfolio syllabi and the software used and resonate with other genres.

•Describe emergent varieties of Visual Arts and Design e-portfolios by medium, subject and/or theme.

•Use Activity Theory to explain the background to select examples of students’ modal choices being perceived as problematic by Visual Arts educators.


32 Areas for future research

2013, onwards.

•Research students’ online portfolio choices in new curricula, such as “Get your online portfolio ready for post-school opportunities”.

•Research student’s choices with new tools, like diigo.com for social bookmarking.

•Research how Visual Arts educators must modify their pedagogy to better accommodate new tools (i.e. using peer-to-peer learning, self-publication and incorporating student feedback)

•Research less well-resourced public and private schools to learn about the multimodal choices, challenges and opportunities in more typical South African schooling environments.

Image sourced from http://portelizabethdailyphoto.blogspot.com

Image sourced from http://www.makingthedifference.co.za


33 For research updates, go to travisnoakes.co.za.


34 Thanks for your time !

National Research Foundation.Grantholders Research Fund.

University of Cape Town,Department of Film and Media Studies.Dr Marion WaltonDigimobs SA Research GroupMultimodal Research Group

Cape Peninsula University of Technology,Department of Informatics and Design.Prof Johannes Cronje& Educational Technology MA & PhD Colleagues

April 18, 2023 Prepared by Travis Noakes

and to this research’s supporters:

visual arts students multimodal choices with carbonmade in 2010

Education

media studies researcher

digital media

usefulthe online portfolio

field research

research conference

digital portfolios

analogue portfolio mode

examplenumber of portfolios