Picture this:
A student visits an art museum. She’s interested in art, and she’s
thinking of taking art classes at the college. As she is about to leave
the museum (after an hour of looking at the art and reading the
descriptive labels with them) she stops at the museum shop.
As she’s browsing, she notices what looks like a DVD Movie in the
books section. “Stamps ‘N Stories,” the cover says. The back
describes the contents:
Stamps ‘N Stories is a game that teaches
you something about this region’s artists—what they did (or are
still doing) and why. You’ll see how they did things, too, if you’re
interested in artists’ techniques. How you play the game is simple:
Put the CD in your PC and follow the story. As you click on the
electronic stamps (e-stamps) or highlighted words, phrases or hidden
objects, you’ll be taken into the artist’s world through his or her
stories.
This game is for
artists—conceived and created by the artists whose work is featured in
the package. This game is also for art students, art collectors, art
museum people and art teachers. Inside you'll get real stamps—not the
kind you can use for mail—called cinderella. In philately
cinderella means stamps for collecting and trading.
You can, of course, cut
and paste them on your correspondence if you also use a real stamp. Inside
the package you'll get 10 postcards from the the artist's imaginary place,
this one called Emeralda, the setting for this artist's game, Stamps
‘N Stories.
But be warned! You may
be in for a surprise or two as you learn what, how and why artists do what
they’ve done in the works represented here. Also, your mind may be
stretched by what you experience in this game. It’s a learning game,
after all. But don’t worry—you aren't going to be tested!
Even if you were this
game provides you with the cheats and other kinds of help you need to
reach your goal. Most of the artists whose work you’ll see have Web
sites, so that they can be your virtual teachers, sometimes.
Could this story ( which I made up to go with my game) actually be
taking place in a museum near you? I think it could, and I think it
will happen right around where I am living (Seattle) because I’m working
on that package I described above. I’m creating it with an imaginary
museum store and an imaginary student in mind—or an imaginary collector
or a teacher—anyone who has an interest in art and artists in the
region.
Every day I work on the game, Stamps ‘N Stories, I’m
actually playing it as I invent it. Today the idea came to me that art
teachers who want to help students go beyond the past art—in all its
glory—who want to experience the excitement of creating something truly
new, can do so if they "cheat" a little. I use that word cheat
carefully, having found there’s a good kind of cheating besides
the bad kind.
Anyone who plays computer games knows what cheats are. In the
days before computer games a cheat meant something else, or some person
with a bad reputation. Computer games have changed the meaning of the word
cheat. Gamers sometimes go to the Game Masters for cheats, which
are hidden or complicated maneuvers that will help the player to get
through the game and win. Hints is a polite name for them, I think.
Cheating in school is, of course, another kind of cheating. As for the
“Master” in school, he or she has been the teacher and the support
person from time immemorial. Not only in school, but also in athletics
(the coach), remedial education (the tutor or mentor), the trades (the
master) and professional music (the maestro), they are those who help
students, . They don’t teach cheating or how to beat the education game.
They don’t recommend shortcuts; usually the very opposite.
As I look back over 40 years in the arts—that includes 19 years’
teaching—I think the nature of cheating may be positive today instead of
negative if it means helping people get what they want. Games on
computers, with their support system of Game Masters on-line, have hinted
at this.
(From my personal experience I think there’s some cheating at the faculty and administration
level that is not recognized for what it is. I'd like to see this stop
before my granddaughter is college age.)
I’m thinking about, for example, the tenure system that cheats students
out of contact with new, young and energetic teachers. The teachers who
have seniority and tenure in schools and colleges are not the
best, in every case, as they could be. Of course, there are
old teachers and professors who are proving every day they are the best in their fields and everyone
knows it.
Nevertheless, when it’s time to reduce faculty, the younger ones are
the first to go. The old ones—often who are close to retirement but
whose minds retired in their positions long ago—stay on. Generations of
students are cheated when this happens because of tenure or seniority.
This might be more important during a time like now, when technology has
taken campus legions by surprise.
There’s also a kind of white-collar crime that is committed in
issues such as promotion and curriculum decisions. Again, this was only my
experience, so I write with this bias. There are, however, other faculty who have endured unfairness
at the hands of the administration or their colleagues—and sometimes
from students. Injustice is too common in schools and colleges to ignore
in my opinion.
There may be an upside to my experience, though. My time with faculty and administrators who cheat made me decide to
resign early from my college teaching career on campus. I took away with
me almost a generation of teaching know-how, technology know-how, and
general knowledge. By leaving what was, I believe, a corrupt system, I was
able to keep safe my attitude for teaching, research, practice and
community service that my good college teachers taught me. Now, on the
threshold of a new experience that is opening up because of distance
learning and new ideas like video games for education.
I took with me the cumulated value of years of salary, grants and two
sabbatical leaves and all that I was rewarded for these. I think its
value, although intangible, would take a half-million dollars to replace.
I own what it is that a college might like to have if the faculty,
administration and students truly wanted the kind of education students in
my field (art) need and want today.
There is a way now, a new opening, thanks to digital reproduction and
the Internet. Computer games are having a decisive effect in society—as
all kinds of other computer technologies are affecting us. Education was
not the leading adopter of new technologies (partly due to the academic
cheating and other problems I mentioned above) and so the use of cheats,
as a core value in art education that’s going on-line, will be opposed
with great energy.
But it’s the only way I think those of us who want to can do a good
job as teachers. We need to design learning games and we need to be the
Game Masters. And we need to know how to cheat. Finally, I need to know
how to put that package in our region’s museums and, maybe, on-line as
art education!
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The
author's self portrait stamp, based on the USPS 23 cent George Washington
postage stamp. Any similarity beyond the posture is a matter of
conjecture.
Bill H. Ritchie, Jr. is an Itinerate Professor based in Seattle. He taught
college (UW) and after promotion to full professor of printmaking and
media arts, he resigned at 43. He then launched several teaching, research
and practice companies. In 1992 he discovered Emeralda, a fantasy region
accessible only by computer. He invented the rules-of-play and created an
operating system for online interactivity for himself.
He writes for the benefit of discipline, using a PDA when he's wandering around and a desktop PC to organize his essays. He has a thousand or more saved and they are currently sampled on his blog.
For further
information contact Bill H Ritchie via e-mail at ritchie@seanet.com.
His professional Web site is at www.seanet.com/~ritchie . The company name is Emeralda Works, 500 Aloha, Seattle, WA 98109. He can be reached by telephone at (206) 285-0658. Statistics: 1285 Words. 6072 Characters. 3 Pages. ipp30617
Professors Who Cheat. ©2003 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.
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