Abstract:

We think that one of the keys to an effective education is to research and work on teacher training. We work in the art education field both in teacher training and in secondary education. We proposed in Schools and University, a semi-presential e-learning project of art education in order to bring the teachers in initial training and secondary education students to contemporary art, to explore the artistic identity of three artists who live in different countries and explore their own personal and artistic identity.

The project was realized by the use of an online platform specifically designed by art and education professionals in order to have contemporary art experiences in different educational settings such as museums, libraries, schools and universities. We proposed these experiences to teachers in initial training of Granada University and students of some Italian public secondary schools. Besides the e-learning methodology and the use of digital media and methods, we used traditional tools of the artistic disciplines in order to foment teacher and student creative skills in/with the use of various methods and educational-artistic tools.

The platform gave to the Users the opportunity to get in direct contact with the artists, discovering the poetics of contemporary art, the identity of the artists involved in the project and their own artistic, personal and collective identity, through a process of artistic research led by the artists themselves as well as educators. The project was positively evaluated by teachers and students, as evidenced by results of final practical experiences and the assessment questionnaires. Furthermore, this project fostered collaboration between art and education professionals, people from different countries, backgrounds and working methods. This type of collaboration is important to provide a complete education, flexible and open to new points of view, and in contact with external reality. Therefore it is important to continue research on arts-based educational methodologies including those that use e-learning and new technologies.

Keywords:

Initial teacher training, Secondary Education, Art education, e-learning, Identities.