Sweeney Article

In the Sweeney article a concept that stuck out to me has important to understanding the overall ideas of the article is the section about the lines of sight in a digital visual culture, which include the cyborg, the clone, and the parasite. I found this article was making an argument for the use of technology as more of a tool for art education and really integrating a visual technological culture into the everyday lives of students and teachers. Sweeney touched on many types of technology and ways to understand relationships with digital networks, in these ideas the one that stands out the most as a big idea of the article was his concept of fostering relationships with technological networks in a school setting. I understand this to be Sweeney's attempt at showing the importance of technology in classrooms and how students and teachers alike can benefit from becoming more fluent in the language of the digital world.

Themes of more specific ways that technology can be used in the classroom can emerge from this big idea in Sweeney's article. I think that Sweeney has already given us some basic concepts in this department as the "lines of sight" which include; Cyborg Vision, Cloned Perception, and Parasitic Double-Vision. With the idea of the cyborg people and machines are becoming connected. This is directly referencing how individuals and others interact on the internet. Social networking sites are an example of the idea of cyborg and how individuals can have their identity simulated online.

 

 

 

 

 

I am mostly interested in this idea of the cyborg and how with the easily attainable nature of the internet people are becoming more and more attached or "plugged in" as some people call it. We now have the ability to access internet through mobile devices and through wifi hot-spots where anyone can connect to the internet and therefore millions of others. I focused on social networking sites because they have become the most used and maybe even effective way of staying in contact with people. Through anyone of the sites listed on the 2010 Social Networking Map there are ways for individuals to post their opinions, share cool things they've discovered or made and comment on anyone's posts. Social Networking did start out as a more simple concept which is easily explained through this video:

I think social networking sites are something that should be considered an advantageous part of the classroom. For instance, just with the way that our Art Ed. program has begun using blogs as a way to post homework and let teachers know that students are being active with readings by posting their responses. It also makes it much easier for students to share interesting visual media with classrooms. I think they could be considered a start off point for integrating more types of technology into the school setting.