Running head: DEVELOPING THE INNOVATIVE GLOBAL CITIZEN IN THE NEW MEDIA

ART ROOM

Developing the Innovative Global Citizen in the New Media Art Room

Andrea Rico

Eastern Illinois University

October 14, 2016

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Abstract

Driven by globalization and technology, the digital world is the new classroom. Our

heavily saturated visual culture has the greatest influence on children and young people

(Freedman & Stuhr, p. 821) and shapes their whole being. Thus, it is imperative for art educators

to embrace new media and creative digital learning as a means develop skills that will empower

students on the individual level, local, and global. This paper provides an overview of the three

competencies that can be developed in the new media art room, which will be required for

students to experience success in the global world. The skills highlighted are intercultural skills,

participatory skills, and emotional and metacognitive competencies. The paper closes with some

examples regarding how these skills can be practiced in the new media art room.

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The digital world is the new classroom. Globalization demands that students develop

skills that will allow them to communicate, collaborate, and problem solve with people all over

the world. At the same time, technology insists that students be ready to interpret and manipulate

technologies that have yet to be invented. Thus, educators today have the great responsibility of

applying their knowledge of technology, pedagogy, and content to create interactive learning

experiences that will foster these 21st-century learning skills (Punya, 2012, p. 14).

For art educators, this means embracing new media and creative digital learning as a

means to develop skills that will empower students on the individual, local and global levels.

This paper is organized by the three skills educators should teach students, so that they may

successfully participate in the global digital world. First, interculturality and its importance as

21st-century skill will be discussed. Then, participatory culture will be examined with the ways it

can be nurtured in the new media art room. After that, the value of helping students develop

emotional intelligence and metacognitive skills will be reviewed. Finally, the paper will close

with some examples regarding how I intend to incorporate these skills into my art curriculum.

Developing the Innovative Global Citizen

Interculturality

The Internet and new technologies now provide young people the ability interact with

and influence people all over the world. As Delacruz (2009a) explains, the Internet is

increasingly proposed as the very arena in which global civil society will come together to forge

public opinion and facilitate collective civic action (p.10). Thus, it is the responsibility of

parents and educators to model and teach students how to behave respectfully and responsibly in

the global digital world. More specifically, fostering intercultural and collaborative competencies

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within the classroom is of the utmost importance. At school, intercultural lessons can be taught

across the disciplines. However, the new media art room is uniquely qualified as a safe place

where students can practice interacting and learning from and about a variety of cultures through

their artistic and creative endeavors (Delacruz, 2009b, p. 16).

According to Parks (2009), teaching intercultural skills should be considered an

important aspect of contemporary art education theory and practice in a globalized world.

Intercultural learning experiences are no longer limited to traveling abroad or exchange

programs, they can occur through online discussions, social networks, websites, virtual

communities, and video games (Parks, 2009, p. 194). The framework for teaching intercultural

competencies starts by presenting the visual arts in their contemporary, socio-cultural context

(Freedman & Stuhr, p. 816). New media art lessons should be guided by Freedmans principals

of meaningful aesthetics, social perspectives, cultural response, technological experience and

constructive critique (Parks, 2009, p.193).

Participatory Culture

Jenkins, Purushotma, Clinton, Weigel & Robison (2007) report that fifty percent of

American teens are actively involved in what has been termed, participatory culture, by creating

and sharing media content online (p. 3). Participatory culture is a culture with relatively low

barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement, strong support for reacting and sharing ones

creations and some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced

is passed along to novices (Jenkins, Purushotma, Clinton, Weigel & Robison, 2007, p. 3).

Young people engaged in this digital culture value social connections and believe their ideas

matter (Jenkins, Purushotma, Clinton, Weigel & Robison, 2007, p. 3). In an attempt to ensure all

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students have access to acquiring the skills developed through this participatory culture, Freire

and McCarthy (2014) assert that educators must create learning experiences that foster critical

ways of producing collaborating and interacting online (p. 29).

Some ways educators can help students develop participatory skills, according to

Delacruz (2009a), is by having conversations that lead to public engagement, including civic

works that have both personal and societal importance, caring enough to take time to do the

kinds of things that matter both in and beyond the classroom, and by forming more direct

partnerships and collaborations aimed at public engagement (p.11). More specifically, Lin and

Bruce (2013) assert that students should practice participatory skills through the process of

critical community inquiry (p. 337). The focus of critical community inquiry involves

investigating how to address real-life issues within the community through the use of art and

digital media. According to Chung (2010), through this process, students can strengthen their

collaboration and social skills while utilizing their creative skills and media knowledge to

educate the larger Internet audience (cited in Lin & Bruce, 2013, p. 30).

Emotional Intelligence & Metacognition

As educators work to create well-rounded global digital citizens, it is important to

remember the core individual. How are teachers designing lessons to nurture the emotional

intelligence and metacognitive skills students will need to navigate the global world? It is easy

for young people to lose themselves online, so it is important that educators to help students

develop emotional and metacognitive competencies as a way to establish a solid understanding

of who they are, their place in the world, and their moral obligations as digital citizens.

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One way we can foster emotional intelligence in class, according to Delacruz (2009a) is

by asking students what is important to them, listening to what they say and then allowing time

and emotional space to let their ideas germinate and develop (p. 12). Another way we can help

students develop their metacognitive and emotional intelligence is through reflections,

discussions, and critiques online. Overby (2009) asserts, that a blog, website, or social media

page, allows students extended time to respond and converse with others about making art, and

creates an opportunity for all to participate and share insight, removing the social dynamics that

affect dialogue in the classroom (p. 23).

Implications

After reviewing the literature regarding new media art skills, digital literacy, and global

digital culture, the urgency to prepare my students to become innovative global citizens becomes

apparent. I now recognize that I must teach my students the skills for jobs that probably do not

exist, yet. However, regardless of what career field my students enter, I believe their success will

depend largely on the skills discussed in this paper. Now that I understand the value of these

skills how do I incorporate them into my curriculum?

I believe all teaching starts by establishing the appropriate mindset for the particular type

of learning involved. I will introduce interculturality by helping my students develop an open

and curious mindset. I am not interested in teaching my students how to be tolerant of other

cultures. I want to instill in them a genuine curiosity of others and an appreciation of what

different cultures bring to our global society. One way I could implement this in my class is by

connecting with other art teachers and their students online. I could use social media or a class

website as a safe place for my students to communicate with students in other countries. Through

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this kind of interaction, students will be able to not only exchange ideas about art and artmaking,

but share information about culture and daily life and thereby be practicing their intercultural

skills.

Encouraging students to be active members in participatory culture online will not be

difficult because they are already doing it. However, I am interested in how I can use their online

participatory habits to develop intrinsically motivated citizens who will influence change in real

life. I believe following a social justice media art curriculum could help me achieve this goal.

This type of curriculum could also serve as a way for students to continue developing their

intercultural competencies as well.

Lastly, I believe the emotional intelligence and metacognitive skills of my students will

ultimately determine how successful they are in all their future endeavors. I can help foster these

skills in my class by providing opportunities and time for students to practice connection,

reflection, and self-contemplation. I intended to establish a class blog, but I also would like for

each student to have his or her own artistic space online. I would require each student to have an

online artists journal/sketchbook. Students would be encouraged to discuss, reflect, and critique

each others work. Interacting online would remove some of the social barriers discussed by

Overby (2009) and would allow students the time and safe space to practice emotional and

metacognitive skills.

The new media art room provides an excellent opportunity to show students what the

world has to offer, but we must prepare them. As art educators, we are responsible for creating

the innovative, global citizens of tomorrow. Thus, we must empower students by creating new

media art experiences that invite students to interact with and learn from people from a variety of

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cultures, and that instill within them a desire to be agents of change, and that help to develop an

internal emotional and cognitive strength to thrive our increasingly complex, global world.

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References

Delacruz, E. (2009a). From bricks and mortar to the public sphere in cyberspace:

Creating a culture of caring on the digital global commons. International Journal of

Education & the Arts, 10(5), 1-22. Retrieved September 5, 2016, from

http://www.ijea.org/v10n5/v10n5.pdf.

Delacruz, E. (2009b). Art education aims in the age of new media: Moving toward global

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http://old.library.eiu.edu/ersvdocs/9443.pdf.

Delacruz, E., Brock, D., Fuglestad, T., Ferrell, K., Huffer, J., & Melvin, S. (2014). Teaching art

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