Digital Steward Lesson Plans: The Internet and Social Media

Lesson Plan #1: The Internet

1. Title: Into the Abyss of the Internet
2. Activity: "Hyperlink Blink"
• Students will begin activity with a Google search, aimed at anything their heart desires. It can be a search for something that is interesting to them, something random, or anything at all.
• After scrolling through the results, they will click the link to a page that gives them what they are looking for.
• On the new page, students will find another link to click on, or find some element that leads them to a new search .
• This process will continue on and on to see how far into the internet the students can venture. The objective is to go from link to link, website to website, and search to search, venturing deeper and deeper into the internet.
• At the end of the activity (whenever time is called), students will discuss their original Google search, along with where they ended up, and share their process of exploration.
3. Age Group: 9-12 Grades
4. Learning Objectives:
• To ensure that students understand that the internet is a massive resource! Any and all information that is available in the world can be found with a simple click. 
• To illustrate that the internet is a place for exploration and discovery. There is always something new to be found, and students should feel free to go out and find it!
5. Materials: Laptop/Desktop Computers, The Internet

Lesson Plan #2: Social Media

1. Title: Traversing the New Social Landscape
2. Activity: "Digital Novellas" - Students will construct a story that is confined to the characters allotted by a Twitter tweet. Stories can be anything from favorite memories, to funny/interesting thoughts, to fantasies, etc., but the only restriction is that their stories must be short enough to be contained in ONE tweet. When the students finish their Twitter stories, they will do a creative component that corresponds to the story they just told, and upload it to a different social media platform of their choosing (Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, etc.). Again, there are no restrictions for the creative component, however it must be something that can be uploaded to social media. When the students are finished with their activity, we will read the tweets, and examine what they've created. If students finish early, or have extra time, they may do additional tweet stories and begin the creative components for these as well. 
3. Age Group: 9-12 Grades
4. Learning Objectives:
• To demonstrate how social media can speak across platforms as a potent tool for expression.
• To highlight the extremely public nature of creation within the digital realm. With social media, even intimate thoughts/memories are publicly shared with the world!
5. Materials: Cellphones, WiFi/Cellular Data, Internet, Social Media Apps/Platforms (Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, etc.), Miscellaneous Digital Technologies (to be used at the students' discretion)

3.1 Darien's Digital Landscape and Reflection

Digital Drawing/Painting Reflection:

Just from this exercise alone, I can see how digital drawing and painting can be potent tools for artists. I don't really consider myself an adept painter (or even a good painter), yet I found it quite easy to use the paint tool for the creation of my landscape above. What makes these digital tools especially useful is the fact that you can play with transparencies and layers, which allows you to have greater control over where things go in your work. Additionally, using digital mediums means that you can always Control-Z any misstep, effectively undoing the unsightly mistakes that you may have made along the way. Overall, digital mediums simply afford artists a greater range of tools and flexibility when working towards a final product, and this greatly alleviates many burdens that may be difficult to cover and work around with traditional drawing/painting mediums.

3.2 Two Reflections on Kylie Peppler and Nancy Baym

1. Kylie Peppler Reflection: I think the main point of Peppler's argument is crucial for potential art teachers because we must work to understand what students are already doing creatively, and then tap into that to create lesson plans. While there's no inherent problem with traditional art education, I do believe that in certain regards it must evolve with the times to reflect what young students are concerned with in the modern era. If you have a classroom full of kids who are already creating videos, animations, podcasts, graphics, and other things that they can use to build their "brand" in the digital world, there is scarcely a need for them to regress back into the formulaic monotony of Drawing Foundations or Painting 101(of course both drawing and painting are fantastic, but these are just examples). What I think Peppler is getting at is that interest-driven learning affords more flexibility for students to use their skills in the modern world, and apply what they are learning to things that they truly care about. While standard art education programs might inform these things as well, its more important to put student interest first in order to best gage what creative sensibilities need to be stimulated in the classroom.
2. Nancy Baym Reflection: The most interesting part of the Baym reading came when she described the "deterministic" relationship that we have with new technologies, wherein in we view technology as a cause-and-effect sort of deal; If some new form of technology arises, it becomes the cause, and we immediately jump to conclusions about the effects that it will have on our humanity or even our basic human conduct. Baym states that this deterministic relationship isn't necessarily the case with new technologies, and shouldn't be the case--and I have to agree wholeheartedly with her. We are deterministic in our view of technology, and I think this stems from a looming fear of how society might change for the worst (rarely ever do we have concerns about the potential positives of new technologies). However, just as Baym articulates, we determine how technology will factor into our lives with our use of it and adaptation to it. It isn't particularly fair for us to villainize our own creations simply because we are the ones who are misusing it. If ever a new technology arises which radically shifts the landscape of our world, we must understand that any developments that may result are the product of human action. This idea--that we are the catalysts, not new techologies--is the key to understanding technology, as well as its relation to our world; and perhaps this is what Baym was attempting to illustrate. 

2.3 On/Off Experiment Teabag Drawings

 Wet teabags drawn with my RIGHT hand, using charcoal and sketch paper.

Wet teabags drawn with my LEFT hand, using charcoal and sketch paper.

2.2 On/Off Experiment Summary

For my On/Off experiment, I decided it may be worthwhile to kill two birds with one stone by combining this assignment with another assignment from my A&HA5060 Intro to Drawing class. Per the mandate of my professor for that class, I am required to draw outside of class for at least six hours each week, and I figured that this would be a perfect goal to set in order to best gage how long I could last without any form of technology (although six hours is a bit lofty). For this week's assignment, we were tasked with drawing a wet teabag using both our dominant and non-dominant hands; Thus, with my parameters set, I went to a place far away from my laptop and game systems, turned off my phone, and set out to drawing as many wet teabags as possible.

About ten minutes in, I discovered that the decision to bring my phone was a horrible mistake, and one that nearly compromised the entire experiment. Almost as if I was some sort of drone, anytime that I became bored, idle, or zoned out from my focus on the teabag, I instinctively reached for my phone. Naturally, when I reached for it, I turned it on, but I instantly remembered what I was doing, and quickly set it away from myself--far across the room. The fact that it only took ten minutes for me to gravitate toward technology was already somewhat concerning, but even more concerning was the fact that it genuinely took a concerted effort for me to keep myself away. After this initial blunder, I honed in on the teabag with a newfound intensity, attempting to draw as slowly and deliberately as possible. Once I hit a rhythm of drawing, the experiment became far easier to handle, and I began to forget about what I was doing. When I'd finally had enough of drawing wet teabags, I checked the time on my phone and discovered that I'd barely managed to survive an hour without being connected to the digital world. It'd only been an hour and fifteen minutes of being unplugged.

2.1 Favorite Quotes from eEtiquette

Spell-checking, proofreading, and exercising caution before posting a social media update are all things that I myself practice and place in extreme importance, because, in a sense, the digital world is a reflection of who you are and of how you'd like for yourself to be seen.

While I've never Googled my name for the sake of finding "Darien Clones," I do think that periodically Googling yourself is a great way to maintain keen awareness of the information that may be circling about you on the internet.

This rule resonates with me simply because it's true; I ALWAYS ensure that anything I upload to the internet is completely Mama-friendly.

Digital Steward Presentation: The Internet and Social Media

Link to Digital Steward Slide Presentation

Link to Kahoot Game "Google IT!"

1.4 Two Reflections on Chapter 1 of Douglas Rushkoff

#1: Rushkoff explains that during the early days of the internet, digital technology was originally used as a way to eschew the constraints of time. One could only log on to the internet via a large physical computer, and once doing so, everything operated at the pace we commanded. Emails were checked, and responded to at our leisure, and we had time to formulate our responses to online occurrences because digital technology was not always at our side and forcing us into a sense of urgency (i.e. modern cell phones). Here I thought it was interesting that Rushkoff outlined the history of the digital landscape, because in doing so we are able to understand how our society has progressed and developed alongside it. Many of us can hardly remember the era when the internet was an after-school/after-work activity because we are in the era of the now, or the "always on" era as Rushkoff describes it. While I don't think Rushkoff is advocating for a nostalgic return to the days of dial-up internet,  I do believe that he is advocating for a return to the habits we once held in relation to the digital world. By reiterating the original purpose of digital technology, Rushkoff is attempting to make us wary of the pitfalls that can come with trying to make the internet align with our sense of time. It seems that we are best placed in a healthy middle-ground of digital consumption: The internet is indeed a integral part of our lives, and by extension our society, however it is also a potent, and sometimes double-edged resource that must be handled with extreme care--lest we want to begin losing our minds, and our humanity. Digital technologies are our means of getting a break from our time, they are not meant to operate in conjunction with our time.

#2: At the conclusion of Chapter 1, Rushkoff emphasizes the importance of recognizing the biases that technology brings into our lives, as well as our own tendency to change ourselves in order to  accommodate technology's place in our lives. I believe this is a crucial point in Rushkoff's argument because we often do not stop consider the cost that comes when we use technology to facilitate daily functions that were once done without the internet. One of the simple, yet effective, examples that Rushkoff uses is the process of mapping a route, which is something that we easily allot to digital technology without understanding that frequently doing so may result in the net loss of a human skill. Using myself as an example, if I wanted to find a great place to eat in New York City, I would Google "great places to eat in NYC," copy and paste the location from Google into LYFT or Uber, and be well on my way to eat some good food. However, this small series of actions is merely a means of using digital technology to cut corners, when in all truth, I am perfectly capable of exploring the city myself by reading a map, learning bus/train schedules, and talking to real people to discern the best places to eat. While technology certainly facilitates ease of access for tasks such as this, it is also healthy to question the necessity of using technology as prevalently as we do--and this is a crucial point of wisdom Rushkoff offers for 21st Century living.

1.2 Philipp Frank's "Video Murals"

Philipp Frank is a self-taught, multidisciplinary artist based in Munich, Germany that has become somewhat renown for his unique blend of traditional and digital art, the most famous of which he calls his "video murals." These murals are created by utilizing 3D video-mapping techniques in conjunction with painting on objects, and the resulting work amounts to a dynamic experience that makes the art itself feel truly alive. What's even more interesting about these video murals is that they largely vary depending on the time of day. In the daytime, Frank's installations are remarkable, yet static--merely resembling a beautiful graphic mural that is scarcely different than any other. However, in the nighttime, motion sets in, and the true artistry of Frank's work emerges. Frank himself prefers to coin his creations as works of "futurism," and he has explicitly stated that he delights in cross media experimentation that takes full advantage of the technology at his disposal. In an interview conducted with Book A Street Artist, Frank states that the idea for a video mural was created during his brother's tenure at a 3D video-mapping agency. In the spirit of having fun, the two brothers decided to mix their talents, and the result was Frank's very first video mural--a moment which served as the origin for his artistic inspiration. The magic created in that one instance of spontaneity is something that Frank has sought to replicate and continue throughout his subsequent works.

1.3 Digital Interface Technologies at The Cleveland Museum of Art

In June of 2017, The Cleveland Museum of Art launched its ARTLENS gallery, an attraction best described as an experimental venture into digital art interfaces geared at innovating the manner in which viewers may perceive, understand, and connect with works of art. The exhibition features:
-Eye Tracking
-Facial Recognition
-Motion Detection
-Motion Games
-Depth Cameras
-Video Projection Walls and Video Multitouch Walls
-ARTLENS App (with Bluetooth)
-Stop-Motion Video Beacon

1.1 Darien's New Media, New Forms Blog Introduction

Hi, my name is Darien Ray Long, and I am a current student in the MA Art & Art Education (Initial Certification) Program. I originally hail from Irmo, SC, however for my undergraduate career I lived in Boston, MA for 4 years whilst studying Film and Television at Boston University. During my time in BU's Film and TV program, I became proficient in filmmaking, animation, sound design, graphic design, visual/special effects, and photography, so I feel relatively comfortable when it comes to utilizing visual and aural multimedia technologies. However, many of the art forms explored in New Media, New Forms are entirely new to me, and as such, I am excited to learn these forms and incorporate them into my artistic arsenal.