doi.org/10.15198/seeci.2018.46.117-125
RESEARCH
APPROACHING THE DRAWING THROUGH AN AUDIOVISUAL PROJECT
ACERCÁNDONOS AL DIBUJO A TRAVÉS DE UN PROYECTO AUDIOVISUAL
APROXIMANDO-NOS AO DESENHO ATRAVES DE UM PROJETO AUDIOVISUAL
Antonio Horno-López1
Joaquín-David Garrido-Parrilla1
1Profesor Ayudante Doctor del Departamento de Didáctica de la Expresión Musical, Plástica y Corporal de la Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación de la Universidad de Jaén
2University of Jaen. Spain
ABSTRACT
It is well known that education is committed to innovation and learning methodologies that go beyond the traditional resources used within the classroom. The use of new technologies, the incorporation of sound, image and movement, creates a new methodological resource that allows the integration and participation of students in classroom activities. This work analyses the advantages and disadvantages found during the execution of an audiovisual project in the subject “Plastic Arts and Audiovisual Culture in Primary Education” at the University of Jaén. Through the incorporation of the most up-to-date digital tools and the structuring in work teams, it has been possible to promote cooperative work and the interest of students, often saturated by theoretical work and master classes.
KEY WORDS: Audiovisual medium; Short film; Drawing; Audiovisual communication; Plastic Arts; Storyboard; ICT
RESUMEN
Es bien conocido la apuesta de la educación por la innovación y unas metodologías de aprendizaje que vayan más allá de los recursos tradicionales utilizados dentro de las aulas. El uso de nuevas tecnologías, la incorporación de sonido, imagen y movimiento, crea un nuevo recurso metodológico que permite la integración y participación del alumnado en las actividades de clase. En este trabajo se analizan las ventajas e inconvenientes encontrados durante la ejecución de un proyecto audiovisual en la asignatura “Las Artes Plásticas y Cultura Audiovisual en Educación Primaria” en la Universidad de Jaén, en el que a través de la incorporación de las herramientas digitales más actuales y la disposición de los alumnos en grupos de trabajo se ha logrado fomentar el trabajo cooperativo y el interés de unos estudiantes saturados, en muchas ocasiones, por los trabajos teóricos y las clases magistrales.
PALABRAS CLAVE: Medio audiovisual; Cortometraje; Dibujo; Comunicación audiovisual; Artes Plásticas; Storyboard; TIC
RESUME
É bem conhecido a aposta da educação pela inovação e umas metodologias de aprendizagem que vão mais além dos recursos tradicionais utilizados dentro das aulas. O uso de novas tecnologias, a incorporação de sons, imagem e movimento, cria um novo recurso metodológico que permite a integração e participação dos alunos nas atividades de classe. Neste trabalho se analisam as vantagens e inconvenientes encontrados durante a execução de um projeto audiovisual na matéria Artes Plásticas e Cultura Audiovisual na Educação Primária na Universidade de Jaén, na qual através da incorporação das ferramentas digitais mais atuais e a disposição dos alunos em grupos de trabalho conseguiram fomentar o trabalho cooperativo e o interesse de estudantes saturados, em muitas ocasiões, pelos trabalhos teóricos e as aulas magistrais.
PALAVRAS CHAVE: Meio audiovisual; Curta-metragem; Desenho; Comunicação audiovisual; Artes plásticas; Storyboard; TIC
Received: 15/08/2017
Accepted: 14/10/2017
Published: 15/07/2018
Correspondence: Antonio Horno López
ahorno@ujaen.es
Joaquín David Garrido Parrilla
jdcinematografia@gmail.com
How to cite the article
Horno López, A.; Garrido Parrilla, J. D, (2018). Approaching the drawing through an audiovisual project. [Acercándonos al dibujo a través de un proyecto audiovisual]
Revista de Comunicación de la SEECI, 46, 117-125.
doi: http://doi.org/10.15198/seeci.2018.46.117-125
Recuperado de http://www.seeci.net/revista/index.php/seeci/article/view/512
1. INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, contact with technology and the media is practically inevitable. We live in a world where websites, like YouTube, and a great deal of applications for mobile phones are becoming the main hobby of the youngest and the most common tools of their consultation in solving problems. A time when the technological predominance in the everyday life of any person is more than evident, reaching the point where with just a “click” we can have any type of information at our fingertips. Thus, the need to adapt to the new times by incorporating the most current tools, such as the availability of the Internet, audiovisual applications or digital format to class activities and thus bring an own environment of entertainment to the teaching field seems inevitable.
The creative industry of digital entertainment has developed tools that meet not only the purposes of leisure or entertainment but also included specific objectives that could be used in the field of education, and they can be assessed within the environment of school and university learning. This is the case of the YouTube platform, a showcase of audiovisual material where knowledge is no longer linear, but interrelated, interactive and enriched for students whose main source of reference is the videos on this website (Lucero Martínez, 2016), the audiovisual media being presented as something close and with a possibility of use for anyone.
Although frequently the use of audiovisual material with disciplines proper to the artistic field is associated, several studies show that its incorporation may be feasible in any material (Triadó, 2008) or academic level (Aguaded and Sanchez, 2008), not only as a methodological complement, by using fragments of films, series or documents that present some specific instructive content of the subject, but also as a practical proposal for students whose academic profile, in principle, has nothing to do with technological and audiovisual subjects (Díaz , 2014).
Authors such as Fernandez and Garcia stressed the importance of studying these resources in education:
Nobody doubts the fundamental role of the media in our lives. If press, radio and television coexist and participate in the process of globalization of societies, it is logical to think that, from different educational, pedagogical and family sectors, we begin to raise the importance that the presence of media communication should have in the educational process (Fernández and García, 2001, p.12).
Then, it seems urgent to make a call for attention on the need to include the media as instruments of study, so that the new generations have the right tools to transmit their own ideas. But also to understand and make fundamental criticism of the messages that the same means of communication present (Contín and A guaded, 2002).
From these premises, during the 2016-2017 academic year, students of the subject “Arts and Audiovisual Culture in Primary Education”, belonging to the second degree course in Primary Education at the University of Jaén, were proposed to introduce a short film, about five minutes long, the main theme of which was fundamentally linked to the educational system and with which it was intended to adapt the practical activities and methodology of this discipline to a study model of artistic and audiovisual language capable of attracting the interest of the students and of favoring cooperative work, and this without disturbing the general competences and the specific objectives demanded in the Teaching Guide of this matter.
2. BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
At the beginning of the academic year, and in order to know the degree of students’ acceptance of artistic education, a small test was carried out on their knowledge of drawing and the classical dynamics of the artistic education carried out during the last years in the subject. of “Plastic Arts and Audiovisual Culture in Primary Education”. The result of this survey showed absolute lack of preparation and disposition of primary education students towards the field of plastic arts, perhaps due to the conservative idea of ??artistic education in a traditional way that may be unattractive to some students completely demotivated with a discipline that, in principle, they consider completely alien to their interests. If their background in Primary Education is focused mainly on teaching, what good will drawing, painting or any other artistic process have in their professional future?
However, the importance of arts education in school is something that is beyond doubt. The New York artist Lichtenstein already expressed, in a video presented at the MoMa (Museum of Modern Art) in 1987, that drawing was a way to describe thoughts quickly and effectively. Thus, and taking into account this lack in the previous studies to the university, it is logical to think that both in the Degrees of Infantile Education and in Primary Education it is necessary to influence activities that strengthen the artistic and creative qualities of a student body that, in the future, will possibly be helped with images, videos and drawings for the presentation of their lessons. Activities that completely flee the academic drawing and exercises of reproduction of real images and, on the contrary, present the artistic medium as a language of their own capable of transmitting ideas.
In addition, from the point of view of the training interest of the students of Primary Education, it is convenient to know more creative ways of learning, based for example on the use of new technologies or audiovisual media as a pedagogical tool.
From these ideas and in order to try to change that lack of motivation and try to encourage creative and educational attitudes in students, we set out to conduct a complete audiovisual project that, by recording and editing video, would also accommodate drawing through the design of a storyboard - although in principle the students were not aware of it - .
The general purposes pursued with the development of this project are the following:
– Acquire resources and tools that help develop educational strategies.
– Develop teaching resources and educational material for training.
– Promote creative strategies through the incorporation of videos and audiovisual activities.
– Start in the use of video editing and audiovisual language for their comprehension and didactic application.
– Encourage teamwork and self-learning.
– Capture the attention of students and adapt the teaching methodology to the new times.
3. METHODOLOGY
As a first step in the realization of the proposed audiovisual project, students were recommended to form groups of five or six people. Each team would start with a brief “brainstorming” of the concepts they wanted to address in their respective short films, preferably topics with a certain didactic intent or related to the educational system. A simple exercise that brought the social reality to the classroom, favoring the intervention and participation of students and their personal involvement in the work they would develop during the rest of the course. This initial participation was essential for the development of the project, since an important fact at the time of motivating the students and involving them in the teaching-learning process is this type of group practices in which they themselves attribute the merit of their own learning (Blázquez, 1994). For this activity, a complete lesson was dedicated and the results were very diverse among the different groups, since they showed interest in topics related to environmental education, bullying and gender violence, among others.
Once the story of the short film was presented, it was necessary that they graphically explained how they would tell it on the screen. This way, drawing through the design of a storyboard was incorporated into their activities in a subtle way. With this practice, which lasted approximately one or two weeks, drawing was now presented in a different way, as a graphic language necessary to transfer the ideas and concerns of the group to the paper.
Image 1. Storyboard template. Source: Made by the author.
The template format of the storyboard seemed ideal for students, without habit or any vocation for drawing, to begin to make contact with this artistic medium. Interestingly, during these days and after showing some examples and even drawing with them, many began to be interested in the techniques of illustration, such as inking and coloring, in order to improve the final appearance of their work.
Through examples of movies and popularly known series, such as “ The Lord of the Rings” (director Peter Jackson, 2001), “Jurassic Park” (director Steven Spielberg, 1993) or the acclaimed HBO series “Game of Thrones” (2011), among others, students were initiated in parallel into the basic and theoretical concepts of audiovisual language - types of plans, the pace of the assembly, the symbolism of the color, lighting effects, music, etc. - , as well as its correct application and use in the production of a short film.
Finally, with the story correctly structured flat to flat in the storyboard, we proceeded to start the recording and editing process, which would take place in three or four weeks of class. Most of the recordings were made outside of the course schedule, using the lessons to review all the raw material and select or replace those parts that were finally to be used for the video.
It should be noted that this exchange of ideas resulted in mutual learning between the teacher and the students. Also note the fact that, although the Department put several digital cameras at their disposal, normally used for the explanation of some practical contents of the subject, all groups were self-sufficient and able to get their own recording media, both with cameras as with the latest generation of mobile phones, which fulfilled the imposed requirements of widescreen format (16: 9) and high quality resolution (1080 Full HD). An aspect that reinforces the fact that audiovisual resources are becoming a close and familiar environment for young people today, who have all kinds of tools that can be used in the classroom at their disposal.
4. DISCUSSION
In order to know the degree of satisfaction of the students with the development of the lessons and to verify if the incorporation of audiovisual means in the practical exercises really entailed an incentive that, In addition, would foster collaborative learning, at the end of the course, they were given a questionnaire or six questions that covered the different questions related to the new methodology proposed in the course. In each of the questions, they were asked for a simple assessment of whether or not they were in agreement with what was indicated and a section in which they could justify their answers, so that we could know more precisely the assessment made in each question.
The questionnaire provided was as follows:
1. Do you consider that the proposed activities have helped you in your training as a future teacher?
2. Do you think that the incorporation of audiovisual activities has encouraged your participation in class?
3. Do you think that the proposed practice has fostered teamwork?
4. Do you think the methodology used with the contents of the subject seems coherent?
5. In relation to other teaching methods, do you consider the procedure used to explain content in this subject to be correct?
6. In general, are you satisfied with the teaching methodology used in class?
Despite the fact that the subject had ended some months ago, 40 students answered the questionnaire and, in many cases, justified each of the answers, offering the possibility of evaluating and doing a study based on this teaching experience.
Out of a total of 240 answers, there were only four negative answers, two of them corresponding to the first question and another two referring to the fifth question.
In relation to the negative answers in the first and fifth questions: Do you consider that the proposed activities have helped you in your training as a future teacher? and Do you consider the method used to explain content in this subject to be correct?, the answers did not add justification in three of the four cases. However, one of them advised to include more theoretical content related to their training as future teachers. Therefore, to fill the gaps that could have occurred in relation to these issues, and taking into account the discipline of the Degree in which the subject is taught, perhaps a solution for future courses could be to expand the theoretical block with aspects that deepen more in the use of audiovisual resources as complementary teaching material, thus avoiding focusing practice only on an artistic or creative activity.
Graph 1. Percentage of positive and negative answers. Source: Made by the author.
The rest of the answers were positive (over 98%) and clearly demonstrated the high level of acceptance of the methodological process we used. But, in addition of the justifying comments to their affirmative answers to the prototype of activity we raised, it is possible to highlight, in a general way, that students are grateful for all aspects related to a project-based evaluation, as well as more personalized teaching that favors the active involvement of students and a more practical, striking and motivating approach to collaborative work. Likewise, the generalized opinion that the subject had given them a different, entertaining and attractive point of view about plastic arts and audiovisual culture is interesting.
5. CONCLUSIONS
This paper has proposed a new teaching methodology in which the audiovisual medium is used as a complementary didactic tool and as a practical activity. In this sense, we proposed the development of an audiovisual project by teams, with a maximum of six members, in the subject “Plastic Arts and Audiovisual Culture in Primary Education” of the second year of the Degree in Primary Education. The results obtained from this didactic experience make it clear that the incorporation of fragments of videos of films and popularly known series, as a model of the most important contents of the course and the inclusion of artistic practices of an audiovisual nature promote collaborative participation that motivates students. These results can differ qualitatively from those obtained with classical learning methods, which allows the incorporation of audiovisual media to teaching to have a positive criterion of validity capable of capturing the attention of students and promoting teamwork.
REFERENCES
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AUTHORS
Antonio Horno López
Doctor of Fine Arts and Extraordinary Doctorate Award from the University of Granada, he is currently Assistant Professor Doctor in the Drawing Area of the Department of Didactics of Musical, Plastic and Oral Expression of the University of Jaén. His research line has focused mainly on the field of animation, giving rise to numerous publications in national and international journals of recognized prestige. Author of the book “The language of the anime. From the paper to the screen” by Diábolo Ediciones, he directs and coordinates the postgraduate course of the University of Granada “Japanese Animation. History, aesthetics and production process”.
Orcid: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5397-0516
Joaquín David Garrido Parrilla
He has a degree in Audiovisual Communication from the University of Granada and a doctorate from the University of Jaén. Master of Digital Cinema from the International Film School of Philosophy and Master’s Degree in Secondary Education Teaching from the University of Jaén. He is currently a professor of the Master’s degree in Cinematography at the Philosophy Film School of Granada. His line of work is based on the study of the Media and their influence on Society and Education.