The first artefact is a combination of three pictures; the opening scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey, a disembodied Marshall McLuhan and a broken television.
The second artefact is a more simplistic, obvious and linear expression of evolution.
Visual Artefacts: Two Expressions of Evolution
#1 by Sarah Payne on October 14th, 2009
Quote
Funny how the classroom didnt appear to have changed that much over time. I was expecting to see a pc on every desk – but then I left school in 1990 so what would I know!?!
#2 by tracy on October 15th, 2009
Quote
Yeah that surprised me too, I exected the contempory classroom to have computers and students in groups facing each other rather than in rows facing the teacher. Seems like all that changed is fashion and desk design. The kids look more bored as time wears on too.
The image is interesting but the references are a bit obscure for me – all I know of McLuhan is ‘the medium is the message’ so I will leave the unravelling of that to someone cleverer.
Great VAs Eneas!
#3 by jen on October 15th, 2009
Quote
McLuhan’s head as a weapon (my reading) – nice!
As for the classroom evolution video, I think you’ve got it spot on. A recent research project about museums and online learning (Sian was PI) included a component of observation in schools & IT labs – we wrote about (and showed photos of) how these rooms were organised to facilitate surveillance of students – you can see from the images just how ordered and linear and non-collaborative those spaces are. Also in 2009! http://www.education.ed.ac.uk/dice/nmolp/pdfs/stage2webquests.pdf
And I saw a video recently where Stephen Heppell took a trip through London, talking about ‘empowering young learners’ – http://www.mobilelearninginstitute.org/21stcenturyeducation/films/film-stephen-heppell.html – he starts by saying that in terms of school learning we’ve actually gone backwards: “In 50 years we’ve turned learning around from something that’s is actually mutuality and creativity and imagination to something that rewards conformity”. Maybe that’s why they looked less bored in the older photos!
#4 by Andy Murray on October 15th, 2009
Quote
Although I came across a similar film a few days ago, it wasn’t as clear a message as this one. I liked – or rather didn’t like – the bored expressions on pupils faces.
#5 by sian on October 15th, 2009
Quote
The point is really neatly made in each one – I really liked them. Is the ‘2001′ image a reference to a dystopian future *post* digital/broadcast media?
#6 by Silvana on October 15th, 2009
Quote
Do you think that we are heading for that dystopian future in ‘2001′? Like the classroom evolution or rather non-evolution video. It really makes the point.
#7 by Henry on October 16th, 2009
Quote
I always ask my colleagues what has changed in pedagogic terms since Socrates?
Answer: we went indoors and are wearing more clothes
There is hardly any other walk of life which has seen fewer changes.
Well captured Eneas.
#8 by arthur on October 18th, 2009
Quote
I wonder if the classroom images really represent the action and interaction in the classroom. Still photos can’t really generate dynamic can they? In my experience things have changed greatly in the past 30 years. More group and pair activities, more discovery-based learning etc. Perhaps the shell hasn’t changed enough to keep pace with the creatures inside?
#9 by Nicola Osborne on October 18th, 2009
Quote
Eneas, I really liked both of these. I took the image from 2001 with Marshall McLuhan to almost refer back to the Dark Ages and the idea that humanity is not smart enough to know what is worth keeping, that it must reinvent and resists progress once it ceases to understand the reason for this progress. This reading probably shows how many years I spent learning Latin at school and tutting horribly at the thought that engineering, sanitation and culinary skills had been actively suppressed for centuries in the UK after the Romans left. It seems wantonly destructive and I have my fears in the way legislation around terrorism seeks to limit what is possible in digital spaces and copyright of, for instance, genetically engineered or modified biological products, pharmaceuticals and agriculture, seeks to close innovation down rather than open up and progress thinking. That’s not to say that either attempt is completely successful but it is a valid area for concern I think. We are still trying to work out what the income model is for information in many ways and copyright and patents are hopefully not going to be the only route to sustainable business in a digital future.
Classroom wise I wasn’t surprised to see that little had changed but I am disappointed that, despite (or perhaps because?) of the end of corporal punishment in schools we still feel the need to treat schooling as a matter of unpleasantness, of surveillance, or enforcement. I was chatting to someone today and telling them that I was off to do “fun homework” and they looked appalled and made a joke about how that was paradoxical. I think enjoyment of learning is gradually becoming more normalized but by the looks of where classrooms are still at there is a heck of a long way to go…