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DAY 2 | FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2022

8:35 – 9:00

BYOD> Bring Your Own Danish

9:00 – 10:00
Keynote: Dr. Nettrice Gaskins

Culturally Relevant Making in STEAM Education

The growing maker movement in education has become an integral part of both STEM and STEAM learning, tapping into the natural DIY inclinations of creative people as well as the educational power of inventing or making things. And yet African American, Latino/a American, and Indigenous people are underrepresented in maker culture and education. Dr. Nettrice Gaskins will discuss a novel approach to STEAM learning that engages students from historically marginalized communities in culturally relevant and inclusive maker education. Techno-vernacular creativity (TVC) connects technical literacy, equity, and culture, encompassing creative innovations produced by ethnic groups that are often overlooked.

Find out more about Dr. Nettrice Gaskins at https://www.nettricegaskins.com/

10:00 – 10:10
Break
10:10 – 11:10
Parallel Session 1

All presentations in this session are simultaneous. Select one and click the zoom link to join.

Session A
:: CASE STUDY ::

Changes of Online Art Education Curriculum in the Post-epidemic Era: A Comparative Case Study of China and the US

Jingwen Li (Shanghai Normal University Tianhua College, China)
Kyungeun Lim (Kennesaw State University)

ABSTRACT
Since the beginning of 2020, due to the epidemic, the global college teaching system is undergoing a change from offline to online teaching. In the post-epidemic era, although most countries have restarted offline teaching, many fundamental changes have occurred in education due to the involvement of the internet. Under the overall systemic change, the art education curriculum is also facing unprecedented challenges. How to make full use of the advantages of online teaching and network in different regions, and utilize the characteristics of art education courses is the focus of this paper. This comparative case study will analyze the online teaching of art education courses of universities in China and the United States, and discuss the innovation of online art education courses in different regions and cultural backgrounds, what is similar and what varies. The comparative perspectives include elaboration and comparative analysis from the categories of learning platform, course structure, teaching method, communication, and students’ reflections. So as to provide audiences with a broader global perspective, as well as empirical experiences and reflections for art educators. The case in China is chosen from the course “Early Childhood Art Education” at a university in Shanghai. This course is about the studies of art education and the implementation of art activities for preschool children. It forms a horizontal connection with other disciplines in early childhood education, with strong theoretical and practical characteristics. Students are supposed to learn the goal, content, approach and implementation of early childhood art education. The online teaching platforms mainly used in this course are Chaoxing (asynchronous) and Dingding (synchronous). In order to make full use of the advantages of online learning, the teaching methods and student learning methods of the course are different from those in the past, which are mainly reflected in curriculum design and learning assessment methods. The case in the United States concentrated on the course of “”Arts-Integration for the Elementary Curriculum”” at one of the universities located in the Southern region. Similar to the first’ case, this course was delivered on an online format during the pandemic. While it was designed for teaching arts integration in elementary classrooms, the course required various hands-on art-creating activities. That’s why this course included both synchronous and asynchronous learning platforms to encourage students’ artistic creation and art appreciation. The course utilized mainly Canvas (asynchronous) and Zoom (synchronous) software. After introducing two different cases and how we designed the courses, we will discuss students’ reactions and contents differences between the courses. The differences will include students’ cultural backgrounds, familiarities with the technologies for online learning, and demographic data. Finally, we will examine how these differences result from learning outcomes in this presentation. Through this presentation, the audiences can see how the involvement of online technology in art education courses has indeed provided a new direction and perspective for the future development of the field.

:: PAPER PRESENTATION ::

Spatial Design in Online Teaching: Environmental Metaphors for Empowerment, Participation, and Influence

RAY LC (City University of Hong Kong)

 

ABSTRACT
In-person learning uses the context of the classroom setting with the instructor’s positive encouragement to enable students to actively participate in the paradigm, take intrinsic motivation over their own projects, and work in the constraints of available technology in thematic sessions. Online learning makes each of these affordance more difficult to achieve due to the lack of contextual understanding of the classroom and the purposive actions encouraged in in-person formats. To investigate how to mimic classroom-like affordances in online formats, we compared discussion and presentation scenarios in a video meeting-only format (Zoom) and spatially situated video meeting format (Ohyay) in 2D scenarios. The difference in engagement and perspective taking found suggests interaction strategies based on spatial design for modeling common classroom-based tasks such as group discussion, interactive demos, and watching presentations. Zoom meetings have been found in the research literature to be demotivating and confining for idea generation (Wiederhold, 2020), and is particularly unsuitable for intrinsically motivated tasks in the classroom such as building circuits and collaborative storytelling, which require student-empowered initiative to figure out problems and common points of interest, relying on fast interactive feedback from classmates and instructors (Liguori & Winkler, 2020). To enable an environment of interaction and feedback for technical exercises and storytelling and discussion tasks for art and design education, we used the platform Ohyay, which allows students to use spatial localization to access resources, chat with particular students and instructors, and provide a spatially interactive environment to explore a pre-rendered background that attempts to mimic the analogous situation in real classrooms. In comparing Zoom and Ohyay formats in the discussion-based format, we found that participants had greater engagement with those farther away in digital space and greater empathy with those closer-by, when in the Ohyay as opposed to the Zoom format. There was also greater self-awareness in Ohyay over Zoom. These differences in self-reported engagement and empathy was not due to different patterns of participants speaking in the two situations. These findings suggest the design of 2D video-based e-learning based on spatial design that optimizes student engagement and participation. The placement of students in Ohyay can be used to indicate the scenario for interaction in the equivalent classroom context, for example viewing of a common presentation, debugging of circuits, separated group discussion, etc. Although less powerful than 3D tools like Mozilla hubs and Altspace VR, these simpler 2D formats still influences student perception of the context of the learning activity, and produces greater engagement than static Zoom-like interfaces. Moreover the result of spatial effects in the Zoom scenarios suggests that we should be more careful even in seemingly non-spatial setups in Zoom, since putting students in particular areas of the screen like corners and the middle of the frame, leads to counter-productive consequences like hiding and unwanted spotlighting. Together this set of research highlights the need for spatial considerations during design of 2D video format teaching scenarios that accounts for students’ perception of spatial metaphors.

Session B
:: PAPER PRESENTATION ::

Teaching in the Time of Coronavirus: Blended Learning & Online Teaching at London College of Fashion

Matti Juutilainen (London College of Fashion (LCF), University of the Arts London)

ABSTRACT
This research investigated the experiences of 5 technicians and 5 academics teaching at London College of Fashion across a wide range of fashion design disciplines/roles during the Coronavirus Pandemic (March 2020 until January 2022). The main question for this inquiry:; How have teaching practices evolved for technicians and academics in an Arts and Design setting, while implementing a Blended learning approach towards teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic online and in-person? Qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews focused on the teaching experiences of the 10 participants from across a range of disciplines/roles in Fashion subject specialisms. The investigation asked participants questions to comprehend how implementing a Blended learning approach towards teaching and learning during the Pandemic online has affected their current teaching practice. In conducting the literature review, there is recognised gap in the literature with a lack of research carried out in Art and Design institutions. The aim of this study is to contribute to this area of research. The literature review found in the Community of Inquiry model introduced by Garrison (2001) as an appropriate framework to support the development of the interview questions and analysis for the study. Communities of inquiry consist of three essential elements: Cognitive Presence, Social Presence and Teaching Presence. It is evident from analysis of the interview transcripts, that the three presences related to the wealth of descriptive coding generated for the interviewees accounts. Three supplementary themes emerged from the analysis that developed categories for teaching practice: Appropriate Tools, Staff Development & Support and Compassionate Pedagogy. It is felt that for the Community of Inquiry framework to work efficiently requires the supplementary themes as foundations in place to support it. To demonstrate this idea visually, Juutilainen (2022) created a diagram to illustrate how the additional three key foundations wrap around and support the three presences that comprise the Community of Inquiry. Through experiences of teaching staff in this case study I hope to provide some insights for the participants to gain a better understanding of how implement blended learning strategies, with the goal of helping university teachers (in particular those who have little experience with online teaching and learning) to navigate these new teaching modalities.

:: UNCONFERENCE ::

Dismantling the Supremacy of English in Transcultural Academic Settings

Jennifer Teeter (Kyoto Seika University)
Kae Amo (Kyoto Seika University)
Evelyn Kwok (Hong Kong Baptist University)
Rada Leu (Zurich University of the Arts)

ABSTRACT
Language serves as a vehicle for transmitting meaning and belief. It also has the power to produce power imbalances between people in varying social strata. Often, it is assumed that English is the medium of transnational academic discourse. While facilitating communication across borders for those with the privilege to have academic English proficiency, this assumption excludes people who have either not had the access to English as a Foreign Language or who have simply devoted their time to other, equally important academic pursuits. A result of the dominance of English is the perpetuation of both native speakerism and the privileging of Inner Circle varieties of English, their socio-cultural paradigms and practices. Furthermore, these practices are consistent with mechanisms of power and control in colonial ideology (Macedo, 2017) where certain cultures and their languages are “negated…undervalued or even forgotten (Navas-Davilla, 1978). In this unconference, we draw upon specific experiences of the presenters, who co-taught an interdisciplinary online summer school for students in the arts in the context of the emerging global cooperation platform, Shared Campus, in the last two years. In congruence with the focus of the programs on destabilizing hierarchical structures and emancipating invisibilized knowledge systems (Spivak, 1994), as we address how the multi-faceted transcultural program interacted with the different abilities and proficiencies of students and how we, as teachers, can anticipate and accommodate a varied linguistic setting. Furthermore, we question the assumption that English is and should be the language of transnational exchange while presenting strategies for instilling in participants that global communication is the responsibility of both the speaker and the listener.

Interaction
How can transnational academic communication be more inclusive? – What knowledge and people do we lose by supporting the dominance of English-only communication? – How can we engender new models of communication through the arts that dismantle systems of colonial power and allow subaltern voices to be
heard?

11:10 – 11:20
Break
11:20 – 12:20
Parallel Session 2

All presentations in this session are simultaneous. Select one and click the zoom link to join.

Session A
:: CASE STUDY ::

Developing an Online Maker-Based Education for First Year Interior Designers

Aanya Chugh (University of Kentucky)
Ingrid Schmidt (University of Kentucky)
Hannah Dewhirst (University of Kentucky)

ABSTRACT
The 2020-21 school year created immense challenges for design education. With the raging Covid-19 pandemic disrupting higher education, instructors were tasked with rapidly adapting their studio based courses to online delivery formats. Although the apparatus of zoom and similar platforms helped eliminate distance, it did not address the needs of a hands-on, design education rooted in physical exploration. Attempting to address this divide, a team of faculty developed a maker-based online interior design curriculum for incoming first year students. Acknowledging the systemic barriers to entry within Interior Design, the approach utilized easily accessible materials and methods while capitalizing on a generational interest in photographic representation found on major social media platforms. Factoring in the rates of anxiety and depression among this cohort, the faculty positioned the first year as an optimistic exploration of interdisciplinary ideas, encouraging students to use their eyes and view the familiar in new ways. Working across a range of platforms and tools, students learned how to effectively navigate key challenges posed by this digital divide. This experience demonstrates that certain adoptions may continue to be beneficial in today’s physical studio environment, while addressing key issues of equity, inclusion and accessibility within the discipline.

:: CASE STUDY ::

Poetry Club: Online, Inclusive and Extracurricular

Karen Harris (University of the Arts London)

ABSTRACT
In 2021, I established an online Poetry Club for students at my institution. Originally, my reasons for putting it online rather than in a physical space were largely practical, owing to the ongoing pandemic restrictions. However, to my delight, I found that the online environment provided excellent opportunities for generating a warm and inclusive community spirit. Previous experience suggests this would have been far less successful in a physical setting, in which awkwardness, self-consciousness and a sense of vulnerability can ensue when a group of total strangers are placed together. Indeed, this prospect might deter some from venturing into a physical club space at all. An online club, to a large extent, frees students from the tyranny of automatic visibility and performative pressure – as well as the practical tyrannies of location and time. Its potential to empower -especially for those who are nervous or reticent, or trying an activity they have never experienced before- is therefore enormous. An unexpected aspect of the Poetry Club was that many of the student members had, it turned out, been writing poetry for years – but had never before given a public recitation. The online environment gave them the confidence to do so, for the first time ever. I believe this is much to do with the freedom it offers to be the focus of attention or to conceal oneself in the shadows. In a heartbeat, one can switch between visibility or invisibility, audibility or inaudibility, presence or absence. Two elements are worthy of exploration here. Firstly, in an online gathering, we are simultaneously in the virtual “room” with the other participants – and elsewhere. This gives the sense of a safety net: one can drift freely between the real and virtual environment without feeling trapped in a social setting that might become uncomfortable, yet difficult to escape. The effect of this safety net can be highly liberating, especially for those who might suffer from anxiety-related disorders. Secondly, the online setting allows one to have more control over their specific actions. Responses to other students’ recitations, for example, do not have to be said aloud and instantaneously: they can be quietly put into the chat box, once the writer has had time to formulate a response and is ready to post. Extracurricular clubs for students, when run online, can be socially enriching and confidence-boosting. They create a uniquely relaxed and unpressurised setting for members to share their creativity and respond to one another’s work. Their responses can be intellectual, playful, thought-provoking, mutually supportive … sometimes all of these things simultaneously. The organising of such clubs requires care and sensitivity, enthusiasm and imagination. The Poetry Club at my institution is an example of how a purely online forum can create a flexible, safe space in which participants can be as visible or as anonymous as they wish, at any given time.

Session B
:: PAPER PRESENTATION ::

STEAM Camp: Teaching Middle School Students Mathematics and Coding through Digital Designs

Marja Bertrand (Western University)
Li Li (Western University)

ABSTRACT
Mathematics and coding are inextricably linked. Coding is frequently used as a third language (along with oral and written language) to access mathematical concepts in K-12 mathematics education. To make mathematics and coding mutually supportive, a suitable pedagogical approach is required. To explore this concept further we researched the following question: How does digital design help young people learn about mathematics and coding? We facilitated a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) Math camp for students in grades 5-8 in Ontario, Canada, and conducted a qualitative case study of this camp. A university research team, based in the Faculty of Education designed and facilitated this camp. There were 22 students registered in the STEAM camp, and 18 of them participated in the study. We gathered data from observations, interviews, and surveys, as well as images of the students’ work on the design project. The research team created activities that would promote equity, diversity, and inclusivity and improve the participation of all learners. Because the participants were recruited using online platforms the team anticipated a diverse group of students; it was important for activities to be inclusive with low
entry and opportunities for enrichment. The main findings are that 1) the STEAM camp activities helped students gain a deeper understanding of both mathematics and coding; and 2) the design activities at the STEAM camp bridged students’ understanding of mathematical and coding concepts, making coding and mathematics mutually supportive. The findings of this research have implications for researching, designing, and implementing design projects as a pedagogical approach to teaching mathematics and coding, in order to optimize learning in mathematics as well as in other disciplines, in both in- and out-of-school contexts.

:: PAPER PRESENTATION ::

Strategies of Assessment for Digitally Engaged Artistic Learning

Kyungeun Lim (Kennesaw State University)
Borim Song (East Carolina University)

ABSTRACT
How can educators measure students’ understanding of art? How can educators evaluate students’ art creation? What are the differences between assessing art in-person and online? This presentation will discuss three main questions based on the presenters’ long teaching experiences in art studio and art education classes. In order to answer these questions, we will discuss 1) formative and summative assessment tools for art, 2) formal and informal assessment tools for art, 3) our course assessment design, 4) students’ responses to the evaluation structures. We invite educators who teach art studio, art education, and general education courses to get ideas about assessment designs for hybrid and online learning environments.

12:20 – 12:50
Lunch Break
12:50 – 13:50
Parallel Session 3

All presentations in this session are simultaneous. Select one and click the zoom link to join.

Session A
:: PANEL ::

Digital Teaching Spaces as a Point of Purposeful Practice

William Culpepper (Academy of Art University)
Laurie Haycock Makela (Academy of Art University)
Samantha Perkins (Arizona State University)
Troy Alders (Academy of Art University)

 

ABSTRACT
In this panel discussion, participants will engage in a dialogue focused on the learning that is taking place for faculty as they continue to accelerate teaching careers into more digitally engaged learning spaces. Panel participants were selected based on their purposeful transition into digital teaching spaces as a point of practice, with an understanding that value and outcomes can occur with a purposeful focus in digital teaching spaces. All panel participants have extensive previous experiences teaching in traditional classrooms. Panelists will discuss how and why they have transitioned and bridged the digital divide of teaching well before the pandemic. Panelist will share thoughts on the digital education learning process, the arc of a teaching transition from analog to digital classrooms, where they are present day and post pandemic with their teaching practice, and finally, panelist will share potential future casting ideas for continued and evolved
digitally engaged teaching.

Session B
 :: PANEL ::

Bridging the Leadership Gap to Build Competence, Confidence & Community

Judy Oskam (Texas State University)
Angela Ausbrooks (Texas State University)
Candace Hastings (Texas State University)

ABSTRACT
Through an interdisciplinary lens, three university administrators will present their blueprint for elevating faculty learning during a time of transformation. We used a collaborative, reflexive research design to bridge the leadership divide, empower faculty leaders and build community. Seeing a need to prepare department chairs and school directors for their new administrative role, the Office of Faculty Development created an online monthly leadership program. The School of Social Work established a Leadership Academy to prepare program coordinators for career advancement. The School of Journalism and Mass Communication integrated strengths programming for sequence leaders, faculty and students. Panelists will discuss how they fostered connections and confidence during COVID and the unexpected digital divide. Researchers will share feedback about practices and processes from faculty participants from all three programs.

13:50 – 14:00
Break
14:00 – 14:30
Parallel Session 4

All presentations in this session are simultaneous. Select one and click the zoom link to join.

Session A
:: CASE STUDY ::

Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité: Teaching for Equity & Inclusion…in France

Sheena Daree Romero (The New School)
Rita Pisalet Breidenbach (The New School)

ABSTRACT
This case study looks at a US based design school’s efforts to provide virtual equity and diversity training to faculty at its French campus and asks how US educational values might be translated to a setting that both is and is not a US university. What tools and practices might help overcome cultural divides? Participants who teach at universities with international campuses and are familiar with inclusive teaching principles in online and in-person instruction are particularly encouraged to attend.

Session B
:: UNCONFERENCE ::

Let’s Agree to Agree: Community Agreements for Equitable Learning Environments

Jessica Walker (Parsons School of Design)
Jeongki Lim (Parsons School of Design)

ABSTRACT
We are faculty from the School of Design Strategies at Parsons with backgrounds ranging across creative arts, entrepreneurship, leadership, and social practice. Through our teaching, creative practices, research, and academic leadership roles, we are exploring emergent systems that promote equitable learning spaces, with a particular focus on those enabled in online collaborative environments. Our recent scholarship within the field of learning engineering focuses on participatory evaluation and community agreements as the building blocks for establishing classroom assessment strategies. We are guided by research that indicates that relying solely on standardized grading practices has been proven to widen the achievement gap among learners from under-resourced backgrounds. By centering collaborative peer-informed assessment, we are exploring opportunities that aim to dissuade teacher bias, which has been documented to impact low income and students of color at disproportionate rates. In what ways might we center inclusion and personal reflection by calling students into the setting of ground rules and giving them more decision-making power in how they are assessed? We see a promising research domain where the objective is to develop a selforganizing assessment practice built on the establishment of community agreements. We are in the early stages of developing Allgrade, an experimental online collaboration tool that challenges the dominant topdown approach to classroom assessment. Our model will center participatory assessment practices such as community agreements and peer-review, as potential ways to consider how frameworks of inclusion promote resilience, self-efficacy, and belonging among all stakeholders within the learning environment. 
Interaction
Put yourself in your students’ shoes. What context can your teacher set that would enable you to engage openly and honestly in the collaborative process of establishing community agreements? What digital tools have you explored in your classroom that promote an equitable learning environment? What were the pros and cons of using these tools? Imagine a tool that would transform grading and student assessment into the most fun and engaging activity ever. What does that tool look like and do?

14:30 – 15:00

DEL 2022 Closing Gathering