ERIC Number: EJ850015
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2009
Pages: 3
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0190-2946
EISSN: N/A
Your iPod, Your Art Museum
Mills, Jean
Academe, v95 n3 p23-25 May-Jun 2009
The author became involved in a project called "Making Objects Speak: Portable Audio Guides for Teaching with Visual Culture in the Humanities." Faculty members from different disciplines formulated the idea for the project, which aims to make museums more accessible to students at City University of New York's (CUNY's) John Jay College of Criminal Justice. It was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities in Spring 2008. Work and family commitments often make museum visits difficult for many students. The author was invited to design the podcast tour of the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) for introductory students, linking the art to literature that the students encountered in class. As a tour creator, the author sought to use the technology to empower her students to make their own choices regarding art and to show them that they belong in the museum, that the museum belongs to them. The Making Objects Speak project provides an opportunity to bridge the gaps between and among technology, gender, and class, and the author and her colleagues are hoping that it will operate as a template or model for other podcast tours in any town or city that has a museum or historical site nearby. In her own experience, creating the tour has revealed feminist pedagogy to be effective in helping students to gain access to art, to reject monolithic thinking in understanding art production, and to introduce their voices into the conversation about art. The prospect of facilitating access and providing a virtual comfort zone by being able to "accompany" students through a museum's collections audibly has demonstrated to students that art is not dead, static, or dull, and that this art (or history) belongs to them.
Descriptors: Historic Sites, Art Education, Museums, Historical Interpretation, Cultural Background, Technology Integration, Technology Uses in Education, Electronic Learning, Video Technology, Feminism, Research Projects
American Association of University Professors. 1012 Fourteenth Street NW Suite 500, Washington, DC 20005. Tel: 800-424-2973; Tel: 202-737-5900; Fax: 202-737-5526; e-mail: academe@aaup.org; Web site: http://www.aaup.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A