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March 15, 2001
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Artistic Inquiry
Another institution involved with inquiry-based learning, but from a significantly different perspective, is the Museum of Modern Art in New York. "Our educational programs are intended to promote conversation about works of art," says Victoria Lichtendorf, a distance learning educator with MoMA. With thematic slide sets and study guides, students and teachers can explore modern and contemporary modes of artistic representation and delve into why objects evoke the responses they do.
"We emphasize evidential reasoning and critical thinking in putting together our programs," says Lichtendorf. With a collection that holds some of the twentieth century's most renowned-and controversial-works, there is plenty to choose from.
MoMA's core educational offering, Looking with MoMA, is built around the concept of longer looking. "It's not necessarily about information," says Lichtendorf, "though that of course has a role to play." Rather, she says, students get at the meat of the artist's work by looking, reacting, and discussing. Then, through guided questions, they are encouraged to justify their responses based on what they see in the object itself.
"Students are aware of the skills they're gaining," Lichtendorf says. "Learning to look changes their lives in other areas, changes their way of thinking."
Encouraged by the response to its programs, MoMA has collaborated with the Educational Enterprise Zone at the New York Institute of Technology to adapt student learning and professional development offerings to the videoconferencing medium in order to reach farther afield. "The choice of technology is critical," says Lichtendorf. "Because our programs are highly interactive and the content is student led, we want to use technology that is almost transparent."
"It's been a process of discovery," Lichtendorf muses, "and much of what we learned through the videoconferencing has improved what we do in the museum."
The museum's videoconferencing programs work on two levels. "First," she says, "we're raising the comfort level of educators in working with contemporary art. And second, they're getting oriented to distance learning. We try to model good practices." And what are those? Workshops are limited to 15 enrollees-sometimes fewer. This keeps dialogue flowing and enhances the interactivity. "We also have discovered the importance of breaks-for coffee, water, whatever. It really aids retention," says Lichtendorf. Perhaps most importantly, the format is active. Participants have lots to do, and time in front of the "tube" is minimized to prevent the "turn on, tune out" syndrome. Also, Lichtendorf reports that the obstacles of the technology-for instance, the time delays inherent in low-bandwidth videoconferencing-work to instructional advantage, as they become built-in pauses offering opportunities to reflect.
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