#llconf2014 visual arts e portfolios & relationships

Five ‘Visual Arts showcase’ e-portfolios: amplifying learner PRIVILEGE or reflecting paucity …

George’s e-portfolio homepage 2012

Masibulele’s e-portfolio homepage 2013

Gary’s e-portfolio homepage 2012

Melissa’s e-portfolio homepage 2013

Nathan e-portfolio homepage 2013

Melissa’s deviantART homepage 201323-04-10 Prepared by @travisnoakes 1

@travisnoakesPhD in Media Studies student,University of Cape Town,Centre for Film and Media Studies.

Medium being studied.

The online portfolio exhibition super-genre has been used by many visual creatives since 2003, when self-publishing digital portfolios online became easy, efficient and inexpensive (for the well-resourced).

Carbonmade.com CGI Society

DeviantArt

Example Number of portfolios*

Deviantart 13 000 000Carbonmade 393 450Cgisociety 184 784* Stats taken from these websites on the 16th of August, 2011

23-04-10 Prepared by @travisnoakes 2

Behance

http://about.deviantart.com/

http://carbonmade.com/

http://portfolio.cgsociety.org/

Profiledescription

Profile image

About button Portfolio title

Contact details

Areas of expertise

SkillsFooterArtist. Date.

FolderName,Description

Artwork

TitleDescriptionTagsClient tags

1 ‘Home’ page template

3 ‘Artwork project folder’ page template

2 ‘About’ page template (artist’s profile)

Carbonmade Artist. Date.

Availabilityfor freelance graphic

Digital self-presentation and portfolio self-curation using Carbonmade as one’s ‘virtual curator’

Work button

Creative’s name

Portfolio title

FooterArtist. Date.

FooterArtist. Date.

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4 ‘Search page results’ template

IDENTITYSHOWCASE ARTWORKS &

Folders of digitised artworks

Carbonmade banner logo


SPECIALITIESRESEARCH ROLES &

Fieldwork: 2010 - 2013

My three year action research project explores 29 learners’ e-portfolio use at an elite independent secondary school and at a less well-resourced ‘Arts and Culture focus’ government one.


Government school in AthloneIndependent school in Rondebosch

Action research supported sustained e-portfolio appropriationby independent secondary school learners (2010 – 12)


@school•One-laptop-per-learner•ICT training (school intranet)•Scanners and cameras•Wireless access •Poster design in Visual Arts•E-portfolio syllabus integration•ICT support@extra-curricular•Extra-mural societies•Learners often better resourced at home than at school (flip the class)

Aligned with a ‘National Curricular Statement’ module.

Appropriated to help learners improve their ‘Management and Presentation’ skills.

• ‘Visual Arts showcase electronic learning portfolio (e-portfolio)’ meta-genre taught for two weeks each year;• Ultimate aim is to support matric-exhibition preparation.

Screenshot of “Hui”’s Carbonmade ‘homepage’, November, 2010

Screenshot of Hui’s Carbonmade ‘homepage’, December, 2011

Screenshot of Hui’s Carbonmade ‘homepage’, May, 2012

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Two years later, action research on online portfolio use by government secondary school learners began (2012 – 13)


@school•One Khanya computer lab•No ICT training for Visual Arts learners •1 scanner and teacher cameras•E-portfolio curriculum for volunteers@extra-curricular•Frank Joubert art school•Three learners preferred to use faster internet access on their mobile phones in the lab•Only three learners had regular home internet access to do e-portfolio work

Requirements for e-portfolio creation & related classroom issues

Easy to underestimate the resource changes which e-portfolio creation and maintenance requires…

Requirement

Uninterrupted power

Fast, reliable network

Accessible software

Black out

Copper cable theft Local broadband cable failure

Software virus infectionAppropriatehardware

No swop-outs

International broadband cable failure

Intermittent power

Timeous ICT support

Router failure No traffic shaping

Expensive to license sufficient copies UnstableDifferent by OS

Suitable pedagogy No or insufficient policies

Missing drivers

Battery failure

No guidelines No roadmap

Slow warranty resolution

Stopgap implementation

Old, slow and unstableUnder-specification

UnavailableProblem detection Notification

No incentives

No ‘teaching-with-technology’ supportLimited budget

Difficult to get a new password

‘New wine in old bottles’ approach

Different GUI by browser

Additional scanners and cameras

Inexperience with freeware

Problems experienced at research sites (2010 – 2013):


Lots of data from four years of fieldwork…

1. E-portfolio lessons (30 independent and 12 government lessons);

2. Screenshots of e-portfolios at the independent school (in 2010,

2011, 2012) and the government school (in 2013);3. Screenshots of Carbonmade’s graphic user interface;4. E-portfolio and out-of-class questionnaire feedback (from all 29

learners);5. Individual interviews with 16 learners and both educators;6. Research journal notes.

My PhD’s main research questions

Question 1. What choices do Visual Arts learners make in response to formal e-portfolio curricula?

Question 2.How do Visual Arts e-portfolios and the genres of participation they reflect relate to the possibilities and constraints of learner circumstances?

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For research updates, go to travisnoakes.co.za or follow @travisnoakes on Twitter

Prepared by @travisnoakes23-04-10

Potential contributions to knowledge

Explore learners’ digital self-representation using e-portfolios and the specific relationships they manifest;

- Describe how learners reproduce, transform or resist the self-representation as Visual Arts learners through choices in response to an emergent ‘Visual Arts e-portfolio showcase’ meta-genre over up to three years;

- Describe the varied cultural fields and disciplinary identities that learners choose to portray and develop over two to three years;

- Describe the Social Semiotic aspects of learners’ choices in relation to an emergent, disciplinary identity;

- Highlight the important role of affect in digital self-representation through e-portfolios;

- Highlight the neglected role of personal media communication ecologies (considerations for BYOD, mobile phones, broadband speed, et al.)


The long and winding theoretical road of my PhD…

✖ Usability testing

✖ Diffusion of Innovations Theory

✖ Use-In-Practice Methodology

✖ Social Network Theory

✖Activity theory

✖Genre and Multimodality

Social Semiotics (genre, content analysis of resources used in multimodal choices)

Cultural Theory (Symbolic Interactionism, [(habitus) + (capital) + field] = practice)

Media Theory (describe digital self presentation & personal media ecologies)

Prepared by Travis Noakes April 10, 2023

Positive dispositionto acore visually creative self and complimentaryaspects ofidentity


To achieve Visual Arts showcase e-portfolios requires many relationships

student_site.carbonmade.com

Positive about the constraints of a ‘freemium’ service:- 35 images, max.-Very limited ‘aesthetic self’-No social networking

Positive relationship to the prescribed ‘virtual curator’ software

Self presentation (about page)

1. enabling students to practice creating disciplinary presentations of self

Self curation of an oeuvre (folder and homepage)

Curricular > drawing, painting & design mediums

Extra-curricular > sculpture

Disciplinary > Visual Arts learner Other visual cultural interests

Non-disciplinary > other subjects, hobbies, relationships, likes and dislikes

2. enabling students to digitize and self curate their creative productions

Appropriation > inspiration, youth interest

Positiverelationships to their

educator’s pedagogical

priorities

Access tohigh levels of economic,cultural, socialand symbolic capital

Relationships tp internet and ICT for

digitisation - knowledge, access,

use and support

Relationships in accessingand using

varied medias

Holistic ID & creative showcase= Tangible symbolic capital

Privacy concerns > undesirable audiences

Reputation concerns > undesirable comparisons

CulturalTheory

Making is connecting

Formal education

Cultural fields

Habitus

Social trajectory

Disciplinary identities

Classification

Evolution of disciplinary identities - anchored ortransitional

Genres of-participation

Creative production

Friendship and Interest driven (cross-over)

Feelings

Choices for reproduction, extension, resistance and negation

Genre

Visual Artsshowcase e-portfoliometa-genre and sub-genres

Online portfoliosuper-genre

‘Presentationalmodality’ choices(truth to super-genreversus sub-genre)

Restricted language

Trajectory versustraversal

Personal homepage genre

Prescribed sub-genre

Learners’ sub-genreresponse

Disciplinary self re-presentation

Self- representation(front stage)

Frames

Non-representation(backstage)

Ongoing SSMC objectives & choices

- Relationships- Anticipated outcomes- Audiences

Visual Arts learnerID projection objectives

Communicationecologies

Social shaping

Curricular appropriation

Resource intensivefields/genres of participation

Affordances of ‘participatory culture’,‘Maker culture’ and ‘Connected Learning’as constraints outside ofrichly resourcedcontextsAmplification of

distinction

Informal appropriation

Formal media communicationecologies

hardware

software

bandwidth

SCHOOL

SELF

Selfhood

Forms of capital Educational and SymbolicEconomic, Social and Cultural

Different contexts

Time

Theoretical perspectives combined to describe 14 case studies in detail

Taste and distinction

Digital self representation(collpased


Links from ‘drawing, painting or design' to other genres of creative production/ Visual Culture fields



Content analysis to frame 29’s learner’s multimodal choices

1. Defined constraints of the ‘virtual curator’; the possible fields learners could enter. 2. Listed choices for all 29 learners in the fields for their e-portfolios at the end of

curricula, each year.

3. Did a content analysis that aggregated choices into Social Semiotics’ representational (i.e. oeuvre and identity) and communication (i.e. contact and copyright) categories.

Question 1. What choices do Visual Arts learners make in response to formal e-portfolio curricula?

‘Selfies, self and group portraits’ (IS field site)

‘Selfies’ (GS field site)


Content analysis: representational aims

Digital self presentation 1.Almost all learners chose to use a genuine identity (‘core self’)

2.GS students show more variety (three pseudonyms and one philosophical statement)

3.Long self-descriptions of IS learners (9 -33 sentences) vs. GS (1 – 9 sentences)

4.Greater extra-mural involvement featured by IS learners (esp. in sport and cultural productions)

5.Differences in (sub-) genres featured in profile pictures between sites 6.Five GS learners did not upload portraits, two IS learners didn’t.

Showcase oeuvresa)> 19 images uploaded (and > 3 folders created) by average IS learner.b)< 14 images uploaded (and 1 folder created) by average GS learner.c)Resource-rich media used by 15 IS learners and 4 GS learnersd)Graphic design and videography media often serve IS ‘distinction’e)Sub-genres often serve as GS markers of ‘distinction’f)No third-party artworks sampled by GS learners.g)Four IS learners linked to other portfolios, one GS did


Content analysis: communication aims

Communication1.A school email address is a marker of distinction;2.13 students are keen to do freelance work (7 IS, 6 GS); 3.15 students did not add copyright statements and only six used the prescribed format.

Overall…Visual Arts pedagogy and assessment strongly shape learners’ choices;There is a wide variety in what individual learners do; no common ‘object’ since learners source objectified cultural capital developed in many visual cultural fields;Limited use of irony or parody;Few examples of ‘participatory culture’;To achieve e-portfolio showcase design (versus bricolage) requires extensive resourcing.

Genres of participation in creative production by independent school learners


Five varied examples

Self-representation in Visual Arts e-portfolios


Five examples


George’s profile image (2013)

Masibulele’s profile image (2013)

Gary’s profile image (2013)Melissa’s profile image (2013)

Nathan (2013)

Learners' identities and relationships in Visual Arts e-portfolio design

Learners' relationships in class, and outside it, are important contributors to their self-presentation in e-portfolios as Visual Arts learners or performances in other roles.

I explore a cross-section of five e-portfolio examples from 29 learners. I describe the varied relationships and identities their designs reflect.

Understanding these aspects is relevant for helping address a gap in research literature. It is also important for educators to cater for in their design of e-portfolio syllabi.


Unequal landscapes in digital self presentation and portfolio publication

[(habitus) + (capital) + field] = practice)

1.Fields and Habitus (disposition)videographer, fine art (drawing and painting) exhibition curator, fashion designer, anime illustrator, visual arts learner

2.Economic capitalType of school attended & medias & digitisation tools & home internet access & mobile phone access

3.Cultural capitaleducator’s syllabus & co-curricular societies & extra-mural learning

4.Symbolic capitalEducator assessment & social trajectory

5.Social capitalStaff-, parent-, classmate- & peer relationships



The e-portfolio’s significance to Gary (case study 7)

‘Who produced it?’Gary with feedback from his educator and some from parents (both work in film) and peers.

‘For whom was it produced?’Gary produced it for an assessment audience only.

‘In what context was it produced?’ Boarding house

‘Under what constraints was it produced?’Gary was frustrated that he could not upload videos to the free version of Carbonmade, nor customise his template to produce the ‘aesthetic self’ that he wanted.


Case Study 3. Gary’s homepage

2011 2012

‘So, you have the three, three portrait faces. So that gave quite a cool effect and also... I don't know, Mr Rupert said that he would prefer if it's like that and I am not going to go against what he says, because I want marks...’ (Int CG1, 6 November 2012, R32).


Case Study 3. ‘about’ page2012

‘I would say that most, or some of the artwork does express my interests and if you look at my 'about page' there, there is a percentage of what is me... like what my interests are. And if you can what their interests are, you can see what they are like…’ (Int1 CG1, 6 November 2012, R45).


Case Study 3. An ‘artwork project folder’ page

2012

- George was keen to show the full range of his creative production and extended the sub-genre by adding links to his videography and boarding house blog sites. However, he also did not pay sufficient attention to detail and this resulted in multimodal disjuncture on some pages.

Genres of participation in creative production by government school learners



Case Study 10. Masibulele’s homepage


Masibulele’s search result (case study 10)


The e-portfolio’s significance to Masibulele (case study 10)

‘Who produced it?’Masibulele with feedback from his GS and Frank Joubert educators and some from his friends in class.

‘For whom was it produced?’Masibulele produced it for ‘audiences from other countries’ and ‘future invigilators’ and did not believe viewership was limited to his school. He is keen for freelance work.

‘In what context was it produced?’ At school.

‘Under what constraints was it produced?’Access limited to breaks and e-portfolio curriculum lessons.Access to other online portfolios services (i.e. Flickr) blocked in lab.Costly mobile phone broadband access.


Case Study 10. Masibulele’s about page


Case Study 10. Masibulele’s SoiL folder


Case Study 10. Masibulele’s Pencil/Sketch Work folder


Case Study 10. Masibulele’s Different Medium page


Case Study 10. Masibulele’s Clay Work folder


The e-portfolio’s significance to Melissa (case study 14)

‘Who produced it?’Melissa with feedback from her educator and some from peers.

‘For whom was it produced?’Melissa produced it for feedback from artists who work in similar media and she is also keen for freelance opportunities.

‘In what context was it produced?’ At school and home.

‘Under what constraints was it produced?’Accessed at school and at home.Used Autodesk 3Ds Mac, Adobe Photoshop, Blender, etc.She has four online portfolios (Deviantart, Behance and MyFolio)


Melissa’s name search result (case study 14)


Melissa’s peer’s name search result (case study 14)


Melissa’s homepage (case study 14)


Melissa’s about page (case study 14)


Melissa’s Sourcebook Work/Works in Progress folder (case study 14)

Melissa’s Landscape and nature folder (case study 14)


Melissa’s Extra Mural artwork folder (case study 14)



The e-portfolio’s significance to Nathan (case study 9)

‘Who produced it?’Nathan with feedback from his educator and advice from peers.

‘For whom was it produced?’Nathan believed it could help him in; applying for Tertiary Studies in graphic or interior design, seeking internships or receiving feedback on improving his artworks.

‘In what context was it produced?’ At school.

‘Under what constraints was it produced?’Nathan would have preferred to reflect an aesthetic self through an ‘arty’ template. Although keen to do freelance work,


Nathan’s search page (case study 9)


Nathan’s homepage (case study 9)


Nathan’s about page (case study 9)


Nathan’s visualart work 1 (case study 9)

The value of George’s e-portfolio design to him


He identified the value of his e-portfolio as adding another dimension to his art in supporting; sharing with audiences, organizing artworks for display (Int2 EG1, 7 November, 2012, R124, R129) while also revealing his artistic identity and the evolution of his artistic creativity at school (Int1 EG1, 15 November, 2012, R50, R51, R53).

He intended to use his e-portfolio as a drawing archive post-school:He enjoyed drawing and contrasted his e-portfolio focus on drawing to a friend, learner AK1, who had foregrounded photography; ‘But he had always been focused on his photography and was very passionate about it. Whereas I was more passionate about the work that we had done and, like, presenting the work that I enjoy.’ (Int1 EG1, 15 November, 2012, R79).


The e-portfolio’s significance to George (case study 1)

‘Who produced it?’George used feedback from his educator, plus some from parents (both work in advertising), peers and friends.

‘For whom was it produced?’George produced it to reflect his emergent identity as a fine artist to his audiences.

‘In what context was it produced?’ Although George had successfully applied in matric for admission to the Medical School of the University of Cape Town, his admission could be withdrawn if he failed to continue achieving a high subject average.

‘Under what constraints was it produced?’George ‘flipped the classroom’ to work at home and overcome slow Carbonmade use at school.Did not publish extra-mural photography and many extra-mural artworks.


case study 1. ‘about’ page (2012)

Case Study 1. George’s homepage

2010 2012


George adopted a unique design approach that differed from all his classmates in serving as a metaphor for the ‘clean type of gallery look’ he likes (Int1 EG1, 15 November, 2012, R66). He wanted it to look simple, elegant and not to distract from the actual works (Int2 EG1, 7 November, 2012, R113). He extended the Visual Arts showcase e-portfolio sub-genre through consistent application of this metaphor.

Case Study 1. An ‘exploration of colour’ page (2012)



Case Study 1. An ‘extra mural’ page (2012)


2012

Case Study 1. ‘Sketchbook/sourcebook work’ page (2012)

‘I think a sketchbook almost forms the strongest basis of our art, especially at <school name>. Even above other schools, we use sketchbooks so much, where at other schools might be doing bigger projects at a larger scale, where we always have a sketchbook that we are updating every week or every two weeks.’ (Int2 EG1, 7 November, 2012, R126).


- Many learners struggled with the online concept of ‘ongoing design’ (this explanation was written in 2011, while his ‘about’ page featured the current 2012 revision)


Case Study 1. An ‘inspiration’ page (2012)


Case Study 1. A ‘structure form light shade’ page (2012)

Preliminary findings

Learners who create Visual Arts showcase e-portolios are NOT involved in a liberatory process since their work manifests differences in levels of economic, cultural, symbolic and social capital (Bourdieu, 1979). At worst, e-portfolio curricula can reflect paucity and amplify distinction in digital self-representation, potentially reproducing inequality in educational access (Bourdieu, 1993).

Richly resourced Visual Arts learners could resist their disciplinary representation by featuring visual cultural fields not taught by their educator (such as videography and photo-editing). By contrast, well-resourced government school learners extended their classroom activities into related visual cultural fields (Manga illustrations extended drawing).

The ‘Visual Arts showcase e-portolio’ design exemplar manifested high levels of these capital forms. By contrast, bricolage examples typically manifested low levels of capital in formal and extra-mural contexts.

Privacy is a serious concern, particularly for female learners. It affects the extent of ‘genuine identity’ and type of contact details learners made available.


THANKS to supporters of my research project

National Research Foundation.

University of Cape Town,Department of Film and Media Studies.Dr Marion Walton & Digimobs SA & SAME research group colleagues

Cape Peninsula University of Technology,Department of Informatics and Design.Prof Johannes Cronje& TERPS MA & PhD Colleagues

23-04-10 Prepared by @travisnoakes

Video screengrabs fromJohn Salt of

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#llconf2014 visual arts e portfolios & relationships

Education

e portfolio creation

eportfolio work

eportfolio lessons

learners eportfolio

melissas eportfolio

garys eportfolio homepage

nathan eportfolio homepage

formal eportfolio curricula