Running head: TEACHING K12 ART ONLINE

The Effectiveness of Teaching K12 Art Online:

A Review of the Literature
GEORGE ANDERSON
Kennesaw State University

TEACHING K12 ART ONLINE

The Effectiveness of Teaching K12 Art Online:

A Review of the Literature
The 21st century is filled with technology that has changed the human way of living.
There are technologies for the home, work, and especially the way we communicate with one
another. There are mobile devices that help individuals to interact with one another from remote
locations and to carry out their work duties without confining themselves within the walls of
their offices. The change in communication and the way we work has permeated into education,
bringing changes into the way teachers teach and students learn. Increasingly, a growing number
of educators find themselves teaching in virtual classrooms without walls (Archambault, 2009).
While the change in the way educators work has effected a number of school programs,
little has been seen in the area of visual arts education. In education, art has been seen as
entertainment and decoration and the first subject to go when there are budget cuts or test-score
pressures (Zhao, 2014). Digital technology is used in schools to foster creative expression,
teacher-parents communication and online learning (Sabol, 2013). The big question is how
effective is online learning in the area of visual art as in the other school programs?
There has not been much research on how visual art educators incorporate online
activities with their students, either as blended or fully online programs. The literature review
was aimed at documenting how art teachers used to interact with their students in the past, what
has changed, the positives that the change has brought to students learning, and the challenges
that are associated with the change.
Traditional method of teaching art relied heavily on one-on-one tutorial the master
apprenticeship approach that took place between the tutor and the learner, often resulting in the
tutor demonstrating skills to improve aspects of the learners work (Souleles, 2013). Macdonald

TEACHING K12 ART ONLINE

(1970), indicates that painters, sculptors and master builders formed associations known as
guilds that were not interested in training new generation of master craftsmen but primarily
functioned as closed professional circles to protect the trade and economic interest of the master
craftsmen derived from the practice of their craft (as cited, Souleles, p. 244). The pedagogy and
craft acquisition included observation of an expert at work and imitation by the novice, a
laddered or staged sequence of subtasks, a great deal of trial and error, the demonstration of
diligence and motivation on the novices part to attract the attention of the expert, and little or no
verbal instruction or even structured demonstration by the expert (Lancy, 2012, p.120).
With the establishment of formal education, the contact between a teacher and the
students has still remained paramount. Teachers observe students as they practice and provide
guidance to improve the students work. Students observe teachers as they demonstrate and
practice their trade. Generally, students expect faculty to walk the walk, to demonstrate
competence in their fields and to reflect the skills and concepts that they teach (Obermiller,
Ruppert, & Atwood, 2012).
The advent of digital technology and the Internet has altered the way students learn art
making, the forms of art that they learn, and the way teachers interact with their students.
Teachers are able to take their students to museums to study the art of professional artist, both
old and contemporary, without necessarily taking their students out of the physical classroom. A
2004 study found that 87% of the US art museums had Web sites offering educational resources
(as cited, Wetterlund, 2008, 116). Even the smallest museums have educational programming
designed to connect with K12 teachers and students (p. 117). Teaching has evolved into
combining physical classroom activities with online activities. Student make research on the
Internet for information that otherwise would have been provided through the teachers lectures.

TEACHING K12 ART ONLINE

Some school programs solely rely on online activities, including teacher-student interaction, for
reasons ranging from inability of the student to connect physically with the teacher, to deliberate
attempt by the student to avoid staying in the physical classroom with others. Greer (2014),
indicates that some students take online classes because of bullying and other social challenges
(p.87). It offers some relief.
There are difficulties associated with studying and connecting with teachers online. The
Center on Online Learning and Students With Disabilities, 2012, found online teachers of
students with disabilities particularly challenged in identifying, developing, and delivering
appropriate accommodations to support the diverse learning needs presented in the blended and
virtual environments (as cited, Greer, 2014, p.80). Also, some arts education programs continue
to struggle to provide their programs with the technology needed for curriculum development,
instruction, assessment, and creative studio work (Sabol, 2013). Barbour et al, 2014, also identify
difficulties that students face in the online courses as lack of interaction through the formal
course tool, lack of access to technology, a sense of isolationism, overload of work, and off-task
behavior during the scheduled online learning time in school (p. 10).
Of course there have been problems acquiring and using technology necessary for art in
schools because of neglect. If art faculties were able to acquire the necessary technology,
teaching and learning would be more effective as students would connect with each other and
with experts for advice from remote places. Students would also be able to use contemporary
tools that experts use in their various fields. Research could be done online for information to
supplement what students learn in their art studios with their teachers if art courses were
structured to combine studio work with online activities. As there is no literature on how art
educators rely solely on fully online activities to help students learn the art, it is recommended

TEACHING K12 ART ONLINE

that research be made on how students sense of isolation could be addressed through the fully
online programs, and to maintain the one-on-one interaction that are evident in the
apprenticeship and the traditional school programs. Students need to observe their teachers as
they demonstrate and practice their trade, and teachers need to be able to provide instant
feedback on students work.

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6
References

Archambault, L. (2009). K--12 distance educators at work: Who's teaching online across the
United States. Journal Of Research On Technology In Education (International Society
For Technology In Education), 41(4), 363-391.
Barbour, M., Siko, J., & Simuel-Everage, K. (2013). Pictures from an exhibition... of online
learning: A creative representation of qualitative data. Qualitative Report, 18(23),
1-15.
Greer, D. J. (2014). Critical considerations for teaching students with disabilities in online
environments. Teaching Exceptional Children, 46(5), 79-91.
Lancy, D. F. (2012). 'First you must master pain': The nature and purpose of apprenticeship
'first you must master pain': The nature and purpose of apprenticeship. Anthropology
Of Work Review, 33(2), 113-126. doi:10.1111/j.1548-1417.2012.01084.x
Obermiller, C., Ruppert, B., & Atwood, A. (2012). Instructor credibility across disciplines:
Identifying students differentiated expectations of instructor behaviors. Business
Communication Quarterly, 75(2), 153-165. doi:10.1177/1080569911434826
Sabol, F. (2013). Seismic shifts in the education landscape: What do they mean for arts
education and arts education policy?. Arts Education Policy Review, 114(1), 33-45.
doi:10.1080/10632913.2013.744250
Souleles, N. (2013). The evolution of art and design pedagogies in England: Influences
of the past, challenges for the future. International Journal Of Art & Design Education,
32(2), 243-255. doi:10.1111/j.1476-8070.2013.01753.x
Wetterlund, K. (2008). Flipping the field trip: Bringing the art museum to the classroom.
Theory Into Practice, 47(2), 110-117. doi:10.1080/00405840801992298