Keeping up with our students: The evolution of technology and standards in art education

Abstract

This article addresses the standards of technology in the visual arts, arguing the standards function as de facto policy, the guidelines that shape what teachers teach. In this study, we investigate how art education standards approach technology as a teaching tool and artmaking medium, analyzing the current National Visual Arts Standards, the 21st Century Skills, the National Art Education Association (NAEA) Standards for Art Teacher Preparation, the NAEA Professional Standards for Visual Arts Educators, and how 26 university art education programs teach technology. Because a new set of digital standards were developed as media arts, separate from the visual arts, we believe that media arts should be considered a subset of the larger umbrella of visual arts, seeing visual art educators are the best equipped to address the new digital media arts standards and forms of making. Finally the article makes suggestions about how university art teacher preparation programs can redirect their courses to better relate to contemporary art practices, current educational uses of technology, and the world of ubiquitous computing.