The Age Of The Ginormous Survey Textbook Is Finally Over?

PART I - THE SURVEY TEXT

Could it be that age of the ginormous survey textbook is finally over? Surely the signs have been mounting. Only the most tired-tenured-tethered-to-the-lectern bunch could have failed to notice how expensive textbooks have become. (More on this in part II of my posts on the survey text.) Across the board prices have skyrocketed often for hurried, uninspiring new editions, from Janson, Gardner, and Stokstad et al. More astonishing is the lack of foresight on the part of big book publishers when it comes to integrating technology and education. For many of us, the internet has been an indispensable part of academic life for years now and we have been left wanting new tools to marry our mastery of the Web 2.0 world, useful in countless ways in our personal lives, with our professional lives.

Once upon a CAA meeting, I was unlucky fortunate to be part of a focus group on web technology in the headquarters of big publisher. I was really looking forward to the event in the hopes of sneaking a peek at the next great thing, only to be underwhelmed with yet one more online database of images. The saddest note of the afternoon was struck at the end of the meeting when they paraded in one of their techies, obviously the youngest employee they could locate, who proudly displayed art images from their new database saved as (proprietary) flashcards on his iPod. This highlighted for me the true lack of understanding as to what students need, and more pointedly the lack of fresh ideas to see beyond the printed book. The publishers treat technology like add-ons, shiny gadgets designed to dazzle.

We all remember our first love, mine an 8th edition Gardners - yikes. The story of the great survey text is a long one and while it may seem difficult to imagine art history without one, the time is now. We at Dithering About applaud the great work of the good folks at smarthistory.org to usher in the age of the online textbook. True to the spirit of collaborative learning, the smarthistory.org text promises to be a game changer. More than just links to images, it features thoughtful analysis through use of video, screencasts, podcasts, et al. In other words it plays to the strengths of the web. It reaches out to students of different learning styles and welcomes other scholars into the conversation. We are grateful for this bold step and have feel the shift happening.

I see this as a heroic first step, yet there is much more work to be done. I must admit my intital reaction is to wonder if a web-text can ever fully replace the survey textbook or might it act as a complement to some new incarnation of the survey? (Then again, I do read novels on my iPhone.) My concern stems from how I use the textbook in my survey courses. For me it acts not simply as a repository of images and facts, but as the authoritative voice in the room that I use to line up new theoretical information, e.g. "Stokstad writes this..." or "Janson claims..." Perhaps the smarthistory text, or something like it, might eventually be expanded to incorporate other established theoretical voices in an attempt to broaden the conversation.

So it goes with all great innovations come fresh challenges. We stand in awe, ponder, and get back to work.

(In part two I will deal with what is pushing the high price of textbooks.)

Still a Place for Slide???

Along with the ongoing discussion of the logistics of transferring images to databases (an issue that is striking hard at all colleges and universities in the US and the world), I also wonder about the persistence of the slide as a necessity. Should they be kept? Should they be whittled down to a smaller, more imperative collection? Will they, and should they, ever be completely discarded?

I must admit to being somewhat old fashioned in respect to this, firmly believing that we should, for the foreseeable future, have at least a small, essential collection of slides on hand. While the availability of the digital image grows, it is still currently on shaky footing. The issue of copyright notwithstanding, there are the issues of collecting images, quality control of images, and consistent upgrading that must be done. While we are certainly witnessing the end of slide use as many of us knew it, I'm not sure that the time has come to completely abandon the slide as a backup to technology!

What's a Slide Projector Anyhow?

Teaching the Arts has changed forever in this digital age. This will be a space to discuss fresh ideas for the use of digital images and technology primarily in the classroom. We intend to discern a path forward to a new standard for the projection of digital images, presentations, and any other technological marvel that can improve our abiltiy to communicate to students in the classroom - and have fun doing it.
Welcome change. Join us as we go dithering about...