The following article is a practical guide to implementing the teaching of digital literacy within the context of VCE Visual Arts. This includes the subjects Art Creative Practice, Art Making and Exhibiting, Media and Visual Communication Design.
Digital Literacy: An Introduction
Students currently undertaking senior secondary education in Australia are no doubt already familiar with the need and advantage of possessing a basic digital literacy, both inside and outside an educational environment. As society becomes increasingly digitised, educators arguably have more responsibility than ever before to ensure proficiency in digital literacy skills to best assist and equip students to be able to take advantage of the opportunities in society post their graduation.
For the purposes of this article, digital literacy is defined as possessing the ‘cognitive authority, safety and privacy, creative, ethical, and responsible use of digital media’ (Meyers et.al 2013). In 2022 the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) introduced new digital literacy capability requirements for students into the Australian curriculum. Their intent was to ‘equip young Australians with the knowledge, skills, behaviours and dispositions to live and work successfully in the twenty-first century’ (ACARA 2022).
This updated ACARA framework is organised into 5 elements: practising digital safety and wellbeing, communicating and collaborating, investigating, creating and managing and operating. These are illustrated in the diagram below.
(ACARA, 2022)
As teachers of VCE Visual Arts it is important to keep in mind each element of the ACARA framework and pay attention to implement these into our coursework whenever and wherever it is possible and appropriate to do so. Allowing for openings and opportunities to add these elements while developing extended learning and assessment sequences will prove positively beneficial for visual arts students both in the short and long term. As well as coursework and assessments, group activities, demonstrations or short presentations, informational handouts and Q&A sessions are a great way to incorporate these elements into the classroom and get students acquainted with fundamental digital literacy skills.
The Contemporary Digital Landscape: Opportunities & Challenges
It is an exciting and opportunistic time to pursue a visual arts education and subsequent career as a contemporary artist. The emergence of the internet in the late 20th century and the following development and concept of Web 2.0 from the early 21st century onward (D. DiNucci 1999), (T. Oreilly et al. 2003) has enabled new career pathways for artists to take and new commercial opportunities to pursue. It is no longer necessary for students of visual art to wait until after graduation from school or university to begin developing their art careers. The advent of social media allows them find and grow an audience for their art as well as connect with commercial art galleries via a successful online presence. Having access to social media from a relatively young age, many VCE students likely already have personal accounts on apps such as Instagram and TikTok. Some students might even have dedicated accounts to showcase their artwork. This should be welcomed by educators with encouragement and positive reinforcement. Although predisposed to be in a position of authority, a teacher from a generation that did not have access to Web 2.0 promotional tools is not necessarily in a position to direct, persuade, advise and certainty not discourage the younger generation from using the internet and social media when it comes to their art education and potential art careers. Teachers should take a progressive approach to pedagogy with regard to the teaching of digital literacy, in particularly social media, in the teaching of visual arts. Practicing humility, they should not be afraid to learn from the moment and from their own students as much as from the past, from where they received their own educations both as practicing artists and as teachers in a secondary school environment.
As great as the technological advancements and opportunities are, there are also certain challenges that cannot be ignored in today’s highly digitised environment and particularly within an educational context. The appropriate and safe use of social media within an educational context is of course essential, and this will be examined in the following section of the article. Another notable challenge of a highly digitised landscape in the context of the visual arts is that of increased competition among social media users as well as the oftentimes difficult learning curve that comes with seeing personal success and growth on these platforms. VCE Visual Arts students will soon become VCE Visual Arts graduates and will need to be equipped for the realities of navigating a career that in many ways relies on the use of the internet for its flourishing. The necessity of learning new skills such as digital marketing and social media expertise are not necessarily skills that the average person would like or know how to acquire. Therefore, approaching the topic of the importance of the internet and social media and the opportunities this provides to students must be accompanied by empathy, understanding and a highly student-centred approach to pedagogy (Webster & Ryan 2019)
Staying Safe Online by Avoiding Harmful, Explicit & Offensive Content
As teachers within a secondary school environment, we have a responsibility to provide for the safety and wellbeing of our students (VIT 2024) and provide a duty of care that extends to the teaching of digital literacies. The use of digital technology and particularly social media as a resource within an educational environment comes with various potential risks. These include overuse and excessive screen time, misuse including accessing inappropriate material, and potential institutional limitations or restrictions with regard to the use of social media. Currently, the Victorian Department of Education does allow the use of social media in an educational setting when it is ‘used for student learning if it serves an educational purpose directly aligned with a Victorian Curriculum framework, and if it provides unique learning benefits not possible in face-to-face contexts or by using other technologies.’ (Vic.Gov.Edu, (2024).
VCE Visual arts teachers should be forthright and attentive with regard to ensuring students practice cyber safety and responsible internet and social media use. For this reason, it is a great idea to dedicate an entire lesson or significant portion of a lesson of your coursework to educating students about best practices when operating in an online environment. These could include password and privacy protection basics such as 2FA (two factor authentication), educating students to never sharing their passwords with others and being able to ensure to the websites they visit are safe and legitimate.
Digital Literacy: Approaches to Pedagogy
It is important to understand that not every student will have the same interest levels, adaptabilities and capabilities when it comes to using digital tools and digital software in their creative practice. While digital devices and apps can be effective in either enhancing or speeding up the creative process, they can also require a steep learning curve, particularly for students who are not already familiar with the operation of these devices. To navigate this, a highly student-centred and progressive approach to pedagogy is suggested by facilitating students to learn through discovery (Webster & Ryan, 2019). The idea is to encourage and assist each student to follow their own path to achieve the creative digital literacy skills necessary to flourish in the contemporary visual arts environment. While this will take an attentive and oftentimes patient approach from teachers, both students and teachers will ultimately benefit. For example, some students might learn best through an in-person demonstration via the teacher, while others would prefer to watch a YouTube video in private and go at their own pace, stopping and starting as needed. The intended outcome is to have each student feeling as comfortable, empowered and inspired as possible to utilise digital tools and techniques which are available to artists and to assist the artistic practice. The goal is not to command students to use any particular software or app, but instead to expand their horizons about what they do have available to them and the ways in which these technologies can potentially help and enhance their creative practice.
Utilising Digital Technologies to Assist & Enhance the Creative Process
The creation of the Apple iPad and other digital drawing tablet devices has drastically impacted the way many artists and illustrators approach their creative process. Uniquely sensitive and responsive hand-held pencils can provide an intuitive and adaptable experience for drawing and painting digitally. Popular apps such as Procreate and Adobe Fresco allow for endless digital techniques that mimic real life painterly marks and gestures and pencil, pen or charcoal styles.
VCE Visual Communication Design focuses on equipping students with the necessary skills to further their education in design and illustration after secondary school with intent to become a graphic designer and/or illustrator. Within the graphic design and illustration industries, Adobe Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator are industry standard software. Therefore, developing basic elementary skills on these programs should be a high priority for teachers of Visual Communication Design.
Potentially and hopefully, there will always remain a place for traditional forms of art making. Painting and drawing by hand on various surfaces is a timeless and limitless human activity dating back more than 35,000 years (Britannica 2024). The teaching of digital literacies and digital skillsets in particular within the context of visual arts, it is argued here, is best treated as a both a necessary and highly useful add-on to the creative practice.
Teaching Digital Literacy in Visual Art: Practical Examples For Utilising Software
There are many ways in digital technologies and teaching of digital literacies can be of great use within the context of VCE Visual Arts education. Technology in general is a tool and can be used to speed up, enhance and create new ways of working.
Students begin the creative process by becoming inspired to create their own art. In order to become inspired they need to conduct artistic research of various kinds to discover what it is they want to create for themselves. This includes looking up other artists, imagery, texts and articles, interviews and presents a great opportunity for teachers to implement the teaching of digital literacies within their visual arts classrooms. With a focus on their artistic research students can learn to proficiently navigate the internet using Google, various websites and social media apps including Instagram and YouTube. Importantly, when done digitally, this artistic research also covers the element of investigation within the ACARA framework.
The next stage of the creative process is for students to begin to create their own artwork in response to their artistic research. This involves communicating, another element of the ACARA framework. When creating their artworks, either independently or collaboratively, digital options should be provided and, in some instances, welcomed by visual arts teachers. Many practicing artists now utilise various digital mediums, programs, apps and techniques in service of their creative practice. These include creative software programs such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign and Premier Pro. There are also many drawing apps designed specifically for iPad, the most popular ones being Procreate and Adobe Fresco.
Teachers of painting, drawing and illustration might therefore want to encourage their students experiment with a drawing tablet and to try Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator in their own creative practice. Teachers of media and students interested in video art would be well suited to learning and teaching the basics of Adobe Premier Pro or the many video editing apps available for the iPhone to assist students with their own creative process.
Once students have completed their various artistic projects it is common practice in visual arts education to share their finished work with the class in the form of a presentation or a crit (feedback and dialogue within the group in response to each students work). This presents another great opportunity for engagement with digital technology and the teaching of digital literacy. Students could create a PowerPoint presentation, or film and edit a video presentation (for example using the Adobe software) to present to the class.
Navigating the World of AI and Copyright
The emergence of Generative within the last few years has had a profound impact on how people think about authenticity, legitimacy and originality within the context of the visual arts. It is safe to assume that many students will be curious and perhaps already familiar with using apps and companies such as Open AI’s Chat GPT. Other multinational corporations including Adobe and Canva now also have advanced AI software capable of producing highly finished and ‘unique’ visual art.
It is important for teachers to educate students about practicing transparency and honesty with regard to the use of generative AI. The Victorian Government Department of Education currently allows the ‘use generative AI tools in a safe and responsible way’ and outlines ways for teachers to ‘promote academic integrity in recognition of potential student use of generative AI tools.’ (Vic Gov 2024)
If a student would like to utilise GenAI technology as part of a visual arts project, this would have to be done with full disclosure and include the use of the AI as a central part of the artwork’s idea, theme or messaging. As we are still in the early phase of the impact of such technology teachers should take a measured and careful approach with respect to its use and allowance within the visual arts classroom. Other subject areas rightly have a stricter policy surrounding AI when it comes to tasks such as essay writing, yet within a creative specialisation area such as visual art, the responsible use of these new technologies is not as clear cut. For example, is a student who uses AI to generate an artwork or a single image as part of their own creative process practicing plagiarism? The intuitive response would be no, since these are currently legal and easily accessible programs. They are also not banned from use in an educational context. Ultimately, every teacher will need to take their own approach to pedagogy with respect to the use of AI and Generative AI in their classrooms.
Conclusion
Digital literacy is among the most important and fundamental skillsets we can possess in contemporary society. Educators and students alike will continue to communicate via digital means, produce much of their work professional work via digital means and operate outside the educational environment increasingly via digital means. Digital literacy within a visual arts educational context is in a way no different to that in an English, mathematics, science or economics environment. All will require the essential digital skills in order to stay productive, safe, creative, collaborative, organised and successfully operational in the many and varied demands of secondary education and all post-graduation industries.