A Visual-Oriented Generation: Designing Tours at The Toledo Museum of Art for School-age Students

 

It is a well-known fact that the usage of personal technological or digital devices, in the classrooms and at home, have become more common and widespread in the U.S.A. Comparing to other generations, current school-age students are the most visually-oriented generation. Besides their sense of vision, the students’ senses of hearing and touch are in an almost constant state of stimulation by their use of digital devices as tools of learning and communication. 

In order to help me design activities for students visiting the art museum I interviewed two high school students (K.B. and M.G.C.) regarding their usage of technological devices. Below, you will find the questions and answers: 

K.B. : Do you own a smartphone, a computer, an iPad? Yes, to all three. How many hours do you use the phone? How many times do you check your phone? I also have a watch that connects with my phone, so I get a buzz every time my phone receives a notification, and the watch being at my wrist I am checking a lot more. Are you involved in social media? Yes. Which one do you use the most? I am probably on Facebook the most, the next one Snapchat, then Instagram. What do you do the most with your phone: text, talk, social media, internet? I text mostly, I check e-mails in the laptop that it is easiest.

M.G.C.: Do you own a smartphone? Yes. How long? Since 8^th grade. Do you own a computer? Yeah. How long? This year. An iPad? Yes. How long? Fourth grade, I would like to say. Do you take your computer to class? Or it is just for use at your home? No. It is just for use at home. Do you have a computer in school that you can use? Yes. So, do you take notes in your computer in the classes? No. It is hand-writing. Are you allowed to use the computer for note taking or you are not allowed? All the kids, hand-write notes. I am pretty sure we can use computers, but I am not too sure about that. Do you know how many hours do you use your phone? I do not. I don’t check. Which device do you use the most? Computer, phone or iPad? The phone. What do you use the phone most: texting, e-mailing, talk, searching in the internet, social media, play, or applications? Can you tell me the most use to the least use? First, social media, and then internet and then games. Are you also a video-gamer? No. Do you text also? Yes. In social media, which one do you have? I have Snapchat. Do you have Instagram? No. Do you have Facebook? No. Do you have WhatsApp? No. Any other Apps that you use? No. Do you like YouTube? Yes. About TV, do you watch TV? For sports. Streaming Netflix or other streaming channels? Yes. Netflix to watch movies. Do you go to the movie theaters? Yes. Not usually, but yes. Do you use your phone or computer for homework? Yes. Which one? Both.

The Toledo Museum of Art (TMA), since 2004, has been promoting education by applying visual literacy and visual language strategies such as: open-ended, guided or direct questions, two-way conversations, lecture or presentation, small-group activities: art projects, drawing, writing and comparisons with works of art displayed in other museums of the world (School Tours). 

It is important to consider that art museum tour-guided visits provide school-age children an opportunity to communicate their point of view out loud (learning how to argue/take a position in an argument/to use language vocabulary) that will help them in their organizational skills of thought (critical thinking), association of memory/knowledge and personal experience, understanding of symbolisms, other countries’ cultures and values and creativity. 

Considering that the interviewed sample is very small, it can give a general idea by the students' (M.G.C. and K.B.) answers to evaluate how the above mentioned cognitive factors are being developed by the interviewed students:

M.G.C.: Do the teachers have screens as blackboards? Yes. Do you multitask? Using the computer at the same time you are in the phone and watching TV for example? No. Do you try to concentrate one thing/action at a time? Yes. What other technological device they use at school? iPads? Chromebooks and computers. Do you have online books at school? No. You can search at the textbook online, but we have the actual books. The printed books? Yeah. Do you like to do your homework on time or you like to procrastinate and leave it to the last minute? How do you describe your study habits? I like to do my homework on time, so I don’t need to do at the last minute, and I like to study before test. What kind of memory do you have? Visual, graphics, repeat a concept over and over, read aloud, writing or scribbling, highlighting? I like to go through books and read over and over again. Sometimes you use your memory to use the concepts or you try to just understand the concept without committing it to memory or memorization? All both. First, I understand the concept and then memorize what you understand from the concept. What kind of exams you like the most? Multiple choice. Do you like to write essays? Yes, because you can memorize what the essays are about and get a good grade on it, by memorizing it. Do you study alone, in a group or with a friend/classmate? I like to study alone, so there are no interruptions. Do you like to study with music or in silence? Usually in silence or sometimes with music. Music with words or lyrics or just instrumental? With lyrics.

K.B.: Do teachers use screens as blackboards in the classes? Yeah, couple of my teachers are more technologically inclined than others, some use projectors sometimes. Do you use iPad instead of books? A lot of books are online, so I use the laptop. How much time do you spend in technology in the class? A lot, I feel at my school anyway. Everybody is on the laptop taking notes. How long do you think it has been like that? I think it has been 8 years, my school is fairly new, and I remember my teachers when the school started talked about that the school didn’t have computers at first and they have to rely on paper and that sort of thing. Do you watch TV? I watch news in the morning when I wake up: checking the weather purposes. I mostly watch Netflix. Do you play games? On my phone. Are you a video-gamer? No. Do you multitask? Yes What is a typical multitasking scenario? I work on two things at once. Technological speaking: I listen to music and using my phone at the same time. Where do you leave your phone at night? I leave closer on my bed. But it is not under your pillow? No, at the sill of my bed. Do you check your phone in the middle of the night? Is it on or silent? My phone is always on silent, if it lights up when I am still awake, I look at it, but if I am sleep I don’t look at it.

Both adolescents interviewed were born between 1995 and 2005. They belong to the first generation (named iGen, Z generation, post-millennials, or App generation) that has been exposed exclusively by screen devices such as: computers, iPads and smartphones since they were small children. These digital devices are a tool to engage in social communication, organize their time, do their homework, classroom-work, entertainment and enhance their creativity. The technological devices help them in their school activities such as taking notes, searching for school information or reading their school textbooks and other didactic programs that the school offers. Also, the smartphone is a device to play games, listen to music, watch YouTube videos or movies, take pictures or videos, and serve as calculator, clock, alarm-clock, calendar, GPS and all sort of Apps that stimulate their attention, concentration and mostly influence in their sensorial stimulation, memory and metacognition. 

The smartphone is a personal and private tool. The reasons of its use are only known by the owner. The adolescent’s smartphone is helping him or her, by their choices of use, to define their identity and independence. There is a sense of belonging to a culture that has embraced the use of the smartphone and this choice is defining their generation. This is not only an American youth phenomenon, but it is transcending generations, cultures, values, and countries. The smartphone is used worldwide (Twenge).

K.B. is a seventeen year-old, female, who is in 12^th grade at a public school. She has been enrolled in honor classes since seventh grade, the same is true to all of her classmates. In the last two years, she has also been attending classes at the University of Toledo (UT) campus. She is currently a college sophomore by all the college credits she has earned. The technological devices, that she owns are: computer, iPad, iPhone and iWatch. She explains that the high school is equipped by technology such as: screen blackboards, and that students take notes by typing in computers. She constantly checks her iWatch. She follows social media: Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. She doesn’t check the phone in the middle of the night, but it is the last thing she does when going to sleep, and the first thing she checks when waking up. She likes to stay up late at night and she sleeps an average of 5 hours. She does her homework in any place and time when she has some availability. She doesn’t socialize or goes out with friends. She would like to major in Public Health and eventually become a Medical Doctor.

M.G.C. is a fourteen-year-old, male, who is a 9^th grader in an all-boys, private and catholic school. He is taking all honor classes, except one: AP class. He speaks Spanish at home. He has some technological devices, but its use is being controlled by his parents. He describes that he is being slowly introduced to them and he is not allowed to use the smartphone in his room at night. He leaves the phone outside the room when he sleeps. He is only involved in Snapchat as social media. He sleeps well at night, even when he likes to stay up late, he knows that he needs to wake up early due to the long drive that takes him to school. He is not a morning person. He is not sure what he will study in college, but he would like to be a professional: maybe an engineer or physician.

K.B.'s and M.G.C.'s age and gender differences should be consider, aa they relate to their maturity level that is noticeable by the short answers (Yes or No) given by M.G.C., who is a male and early adolescent. By their responses, both students have set a high-standard academic pursuit that demonstrates that they are high-achievers, who are motivated to continue their educational careers to become professionals. This educational motivation will influence in the development of their identities (how they and other people view them) (Steinberg).

An UTNEWS' article, on October 15, 2018, defined visual literacy as "a set of abilities that enables and individual to effectively find, interpret, evaluate, use and create images and visual media. Visual literacy is a skill that is critical to effective communication, creativity and design thinking” (Cunningan). With this definition of visual literacy and its educational promotion at the TMA in mind, interviewing two high school students helped me to learn their personal digital devices usage, and this knowledge will broadly assess their visual literacy stage/step of development that eventually will help me, as a Toledo Museum of Art (TMA) docent, design visual literacy tours that would better engage students in their museum school-tour visit experience.

Works Cited
Cunningan, Meghan. "UT, Toledo Museum of Art Partner To Advance Visual Literacy." UTNEWS 18 October 2018.
School Tours. n.d. 4 December 2018. <https://www.toledomuseum.org/education/guided-tours/school-tours>.
Steinberg, L. Adolescence. New York, New York: Mc Graw Hill, 2017.
Twenge, Jean M. iGen. New York: Atria Books, 2017.