Monday 14 October 2013

Artefact?...

Artefact? What is an artefact?

1. Something made or given shape by man, such as a tool or a work of art.
2. Anything man-made, such as a spurious experimental result.


I believe an artefact is a great way to support the research I have carried out in previous modules. By definition I want it to be a creative tool (and hopefully a work of art that can be used by fellow teachers).  It is an inventive way of culminating all the work I've done to date. I enjoy being creative and I am looking forward to watching my artefact take shape.

The vision is to create a video/montage of advice, strategies and approaches to dealing with the learning needs of boys from teachers themselves. Through my research I have discovered that tips, advice and strategies specifically aimed at teaching boys are rare and I think it would be an incredibly useful tool to have for new teachers like myself.

I have several willing volunteers; experienced teachers and newly qualified teachers from main stream education, along with dance and performing arts teachers. I believe it will be interesting to have opinions, ideas, strategies from all teachers and I am already curious to see if there are correlations between subjects and strategies.

My artefact is in it's infancy and I am currently exploring some of the different approaches I could use to shaping the piece. I am considering interviewing my teachers, then editing and extracting relevant information and designing a montage using clips from the video interviews.  

I envisage my artefact to be a piece of art that will work alongside and be a compliment to my inquiry.

I have lots of research, planning and interviews ahead and I am extremely excited to develop my inquiry further!

Please feel free to comment, I am interested to see what my fellow BAPPers think about my artefact proposal:)

Betty x




2 comments:

  1. What a great way to think about the professional artifact - by taking it back to it's literal definition.
    In our case, 'a tool' to provide others with useful information in it's most concentrated form, or 'a work of art' that represents insight and discovery. And like a work of art, it will also be something that some people agree on, whilst others dismiss, discount or deride it.

    Video clips are something that I've been deliberating about too. They can be much more inviting than still images or text, but at the same time I am concerned that something may be lost in the translation from words to images. I know they say 'a picture paints a thousand words' (Chinese proverb, ????; Gates, 1971) but can it not also be (mis)interpreted in as many ways? Definitely something to consider over the coming weeks...
    S

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  2. Thanks so much for your comment Sarah,it really does help to get other opinions. I agree that information may be lost in translation from words to images and this is something I have to work on. I do want it to be factual and 'true' to my inquiry and am hoping that I won't have to edit to much and that I can deliver most of it in it's natural, raw uncut state, but until I start interviewing I'm not sure if I'm being naive and I'm also not sure if as an interviewer I have the skills to gain the confidence of my interviewees. What are your thoughts with regard to your own artifact? Betty x

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