Social networks, social pedagogy
This is the fourth in a series of 13 profiles of some of Concordia’s leading instructors. Here, NOW profiles Juan Carlos Castro, assistant professor and undergraduate programs advisor in the Department of Art Education.
Pinterest is a pedagogical tool, not just a place to display your lust for Hèrmes handbags, tattoos or vintage Converse high-tops. Who knew? — Juan Carlos Castro, for one.
The assistant professor in the Department of Art Education promotes Moodle and such social bookmarking sites as Pinterest, Diigo, and Delicious to his students. They’re encouraged to post their own work to Moodle and anything else that interests or informs them as neophyte art educators, or to a social bookmarking service.
Castro calls such sites a “collective memory” for students. “They're looking at each other's images and learning from it. They're not only learning from what other people are doing; they’re learning cues in terms of how people are talking about each other's work also.
The nice thing about Moodle and social-bookmarking is that it captures those conversations so that students can access them asynchronously and in a different space.
“For instance, not everyone's necessarily going to have the confidence of a teacher to get up, walk over, and look very closely at what someone else is doing in an art class. But if a student posted work to a shared space online, other students could look at what they've done and learn from it. My research – how mobile media and the visual arts curriculum can engage youth in their communities and their education – has found that this is a very powerful thing.”
Castro notes that “it's enriching to me, too, because they're bringing content to me that is applicable to what I'm teaching. Instead of having the teacher as knowledge giver, it's a reciprocal relationship in which we have 35 minds all contributing together.”
On the web, the concept of intellectual property gets short shrift. Accordingly, Castro also teaches his students about attribution and copyright. “We talk about the nature of sharing, how when we put our work out there, people could take it,” he says. “We have to think about how we can protect our intellectual property while also contributing to the larger cultural collective knowledge systems. We spend a lot of time talking about Creative Commons licensing structures. And I encourage my students to license all of their work that they post so that they feel comfortable in sharing.”
Castro is currently the undergraduate programs advisor for his department. He’s been developing his insights first as a high-school art teacher and now as a researcher. Earlier this month, he received the 2013 Manuel Barkan award from the National Art Education Association for an article he published in the journal Studies in Art Education.
Barkan, a prominent art educator in the 20th century, believed that art education encourages children to interact with others. He believed that the social environment enables children to learn through such interactions. Sounds like a prescription for Pinterest, doesn’t it?
Related links:
• Department of Art Education
• Juan Carlos Castro's profile page
Other profiles:
Jordan LeBel: “The makings of a great teacher” — NOW, February 20, 2013
Philippe Caignon: “Using blogs and wikis as teaching tools” — NOW, February 26, 2013
Lisa Lynch: “Helping journalism students get in the game” — NOW, March 5, 2013
Alexandre Enkerli: “Using technology to facilitate dialogue” — NOW, April 3, 2013
Arshad Ahmad: “Moderating MOOCs" — NOW, April 3, 2013
Mamoun Medraj: "Terms of engagement" — NOW, April 30, 2013