Cai Zhang - You Got Mail
Channel: The New Art School
Date: 06/11/2020

A video summary of a small-scale action research project exploring the possibilities of teaching practice-based postgraduate art and design course via email. Mail, a technology so ubiquitous and easy-to-use that it is often overlooked as a platform for relationship building and qualifying learning outcomes. Chickering and Gamson (1987) remind us that "learning is not a spectator sport". Oliver and Trigwell (2005) criticised that current views of blended learning rarely position themselves from the perspective of the learner. Herrington, Reeves and Oliver (2010) explain that 'for authentic learning to occur, learners must be engaged in an inventive and realistic task that provides opportunities to complex collaborative opportunities.'
This presentation is a summary of a small scale research project looking at sentiments over and the possibility of using email in postgraduate study of practice-based art and design courses.
The project finds that conservatively spam emails, including both unwanted and unnecessary emails, cost academia worldwide $1.1 billion and releases 659,393g of carbon dioxide a year. It also discovered students and staff do not find emails as a good point of interaction at their place of work and study. Most studio-base professionals have to communicate through emails to obtain, produce and deliver their work. I see email as a teaching space to provide simulation, grow relationships and test skills. Currently, the use of email at Arts postgraduate courses is both under-utilised and unimaginative.
However, email, just as any technology introduced in learning, can be exclusive and obstructive in teaching and learning. There is no formal emphasis on email etiquettes and best practices within course teams and beyond. There are calls for eliminating emails all together and opt for chat messenger format instead.
It is evident than email is a vital and exciting opportunity for innovations and attention. I am hoping this presentation would give the attendee a fertile ground for exploring email as a site of learning in their unique context after.

Cai Zhang (She/Her) (FHEA)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/caizhang/

-~-~~-~~~-~~-~-
Please watch: "Design Education Talks Ep. 80 - Tony Pritchard" 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or1xo5ew0yg
-~-~~-~~~-~~-~-