Overview

In this chapter, students will be introduced to digital foundations of art, design, and digital media. Students must have not only digital literacy but also digital competence. In this unit of study, students will understand digital foundations, digital literacy, and digital competencies. They will learn how to use digital technology and digital tools to create digital art, design, and digital media to communicate a new idea effectively.  According to UNESCO, digital literacy involves the confident and critical use of a full range of digital technologies for information, communication, and basic problem-solving in all aspects of life. It is underpinned by basic skills in ICT: the use of computers to retrieve, assess, store, produce, present and exchange information, and to communicate and participate in collaborative networks via the Internet.

1.1 Digital Foundations

Digital Foundations are growing trends in art schools across the country providing new opportunities to merge digital tools with traditional techniques in art education according to Arnold P. Martin and Meg Mitchell (2012). The word “Foundation” is defined as a principle, an idea, or a fact that something is based on and that it grows from according to Oxford Learner’s Dictionary. Digital foundations of art, design, and convergent media consist of key elements and principles of visual design. Digital tools and technologies such as “3-D printers, laser cutters, easy-to-use design software, and desktop machine tools, along with freely available information about how to use, modify, and build upon these technologies” (Sweeny, 2018, p. 349 in Tiffany Holtje, 2019, p. 3-4) have become part of teaching and learning digital foundations. Moreover, these are the applications that students have most likely experimented with outside of the classroom in the form of photo editing applications and game software that encourages the 3-D design of buildings and other structures. Therefore, students would be interested in learning more about these technologies in schools. To learn digital foundations for art, design, and convergent media practice successfully, it is vital to acquire digital literacy and digital competencies.

1.2 Digital Literacy

Digital literacy is the basic skills or ability to use a computer confidently, safely, and effectively, including the ability to use contemporary software and digital tools or create, edit, and present images, audio, and video and use a web browser and internet search engines according to the Royal Society in UK (2012).  UNESCO-UNVOC (2018) also defines, digital literacy is the ability to access, manage, understand, integrate, communicate, evaluate, and create information safely and appropriately through digital technologies for employment, decent jobs, and entrepreneurship. It includes digital competencies that are variously referred to as computer literacy, ICT literacy, information literacy, and media literacy.

1.3 Digital Competence

Digital competence involves the ‘confident, critical and responsible use of, and engagement with, digital technologies for learning, at work, and for participation in society. Digital competence is defined as a combination of knowledge, skills, and attitudes. According to the Joint Research Center of the European Commission, the key components of digital competence in 5 areas.

1. Information and data literacy: To articulate information needs, and to locate and retrieve digital data, information, and content. To judge the relevance of the source and its content. To store, manage, and organize digital data, information, and content.
2. Communication and collaboration: To interact, communicate, and collaborate through digital technologies while being aware of cultural and generational diversity. To participate in society through public and private digital services and participatory citizenship. To manage one’s digital presence, identity, and reputation.
3. Digital content creation: To create and edit digital content. To improve and integrate information and content into an existing body of knowledge while understanding how copyright and licenses are to be applied. To know how to give understandable instructions for a computer system.
4. Safety: To protect devices, content, personal data, and privacy in digital environments. To protect physical and psychological health, and to be aware of digital technologies for social well-being and social inclusion. To be aware of the environmental impact of digital technologies and their use.
5. Problem solving: To identify needs and problems, and to resolve conceptual problems and problem situations in digital environments. To use digital tools to innovate processes and products. To keep up-to-date with the digital evolution (European Commission).

A digital literacy competence framework developed in 2013 by the Joint Research Center of the European Commission consists of 5 key areas and 21 competencies as shown in Table 1.

Table 1 Digital literacy competence framework

Source: Vuorikari, R., Kluzer, S. and Punie, Y. (2022)

1.4 Digital Technology

Digital technologies are powerful tools that can help improve education in various ways, such as making it easier for instructors to generate instructional materials and providing new methods for students to learn and collaborate.  Moreover, digital technologies have continued to play an essential role in delivering education to students both inside and outside the classroom. Digital learning fosters creativity and gives students a sense of success, encouraging additional learning by thinking outside traditional techniques (Haleem, et. al. 2022)

Digital technology is an electronic system and resource that helps us learn, communicate, play, and more. Digital technologies include:

1. Computer
2. Smartphones
3. Smart TVs
4. Online games
5. Video on demand websites
6. Traffic lights and pedestrian crossings
7. Automatic doors (BBC)

1.5 Digital Tools

Digital tools are vital for art and design education. Digital tools provide new opportunities for creative expression and experimentation. Digital tools consist of 1) graphic design software, 2) 3D modeling software, and 3) animation software. These tools can open up new possibilities for creative expression that were not previously available. These digital tools can help students create digital artworks, animations, and designs that can be shared and exhibited online. Additionally, digital tools can facilitate new forms of creative collaboration, by allowing students to share ideas and collaborate on art projects with classmates and teachers from around the world. Another important way that digital tools can impact art and design education is by providing access to a wider range of resources and materials.

Digital tools also include the internet and online databases. They allow students to access a vast amount of information and resources that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to find. Additionally, digital tools can also make art education more accessible to a wider range of students such as students who live in rural areas, older students, students with special needs, and students with language barriers. This can be done by providing online classes, video tutorials, and mobile apps, and creating art education programs that are tailored to different skill levels and learning styles. Digital tools can greatly enhance the art and design education experience by providing students with new opportunities for creative expression and experimentation, and by making art education more accessible to a wider range of students (Sharma, 2022). Moreover, digital tools can help art, design, and digital media students document their learning progress and tell a story about their learning journey and others (Gillespie, 2003).

Digital tools for art, design, and digital media are similar and different in some areas. One of the contemporary software used in the creative industry is Adobe Creative Cloud.  According to the NWCT Art Council, there are other digital tools for making art available for students to explore such as Krita, Autodesk SketchBook, MediBang, ibisPaint, Procreate, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Illustrator. Tablets include Huion Inspiroy, Wacom Intuos Pro Digital Graphic Drawing Tablet, and Apple iPad Pro.

In this course, students will learn to use digital tools and contemporary software used in the creative industry. As ART109 digital foundations course is a prerequisite of ART205 Graphic Design I and ART206 Websites I, this course is designed to prepare students and enhance their digital literacy and digital competencies of art and design students. The digital tools and technologies in Figure 1 are used to create art, design, and convergent media in the creative industries.

Figure 1 digital tools and devices used to create art, design, and digital media

Created by Siriporn Peters, 2024

A computer is a machine that can be programmed to automatically carry out sequences of logical operations.

1. Computer Hardware 

There are two types of computer hardware: external and internal. External hardware devices include a monitor, keyboard, tablet, and mouse. Internal hardware devices include motherboards, hard drives, and RAM.

2. Computer Software

Computer Software is used to control a computer. Three different types of software run on a computer: system software, utility software, and application software.

System software is designed to provide a platform for other software like macOS, Linux, Android, and Microsoft Windows. Utility software is a program specifically designed to help manage and tune system or application software. Application software or App is designed to help people or users perform an activity.

3. Input Devices 

Input devices are equipment used to provide data and control signals to an information processing system, such as a computer or information appliance. Examples of input devices include a keyboard, a computer mouse, a tablet, a scanner, a camera, a microphone, and a mobile phone.

4. Output Devices

Output devices are computer hardware devices that retrieve and present the result of the inserted input data from the computer system and further translate that data into human-understandable language. The output or result is then presented to us in the form of text, visuals, audio or a hard copy (printed on paper). The output devices can be mainly classified into four categories such as visual, data, print, and sound. Based on the type of output and requirements, different output devices can be attached to the computer systems to retrieve the output

• Monitor
• Printer
• Speakers
• Headphones
• Projectors
• GPS
• Plotter
• Braille Embosser
• Haptic Devices
• 3D Printer (Aparna, 2024)

5. Storage Devices

Computer data storage or digital data storage is a technology consisting of computer components and recording media that are used to retain digital data. There are 5 different

• USB drive.
• Hard Disk.
• Floppy Disk.
• Compact Disc.
• Cloud Storage

Students will learn how to use these digital tools and devices inside and outside the classroom or computer lab, and Makerspace at the Library at Morehead State University.

References:

Eshet, Y. (2004). Digital literacy: A conceptual framework for survival skills in the digital era. Journal of educational multimedia and hypermedia, 13(1), 93-106.

Ferrari, A., & Punie, Y. (2013). DIGCOMP: A framework for developing and understanding digital competence in Europe.

Gillespie, T. (2003). The stories digital tools tell. In New Media (pp. 107-123). Routledge.

Haleem, A., Javaid, M., Qadri, M. A., & Suman, R. (2022). Understanding the role of digital technologies in education: A review. Sustainable operations and computers, 3, 275-285.

Nascimbeni, F. (2019). Digital literacy for children: exploring definitions and frameworks. UNICEF.

Vuorikari, R., Kluzer, S. and Punie, Y. (2022) DigComp 2.2: The Digital Competence Framework for Citizens – With new examples of knowledge, skills and attitudes, EUR 31006 EN, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg. ISBN 978-92-76-48883-5, doi:10.2760/490274, JRC128415.

Sharma, B. P. (2022). Digital tools in art education: From expanding creative horizons and facilitating collaboration to increasing access and resources for a diverse student population. Applied Research in Artificial Intelligence and Cloud Computing, 5(1), 55-65.

UNESCO. (n.d.). Digital Literacy.