Digital Networking as a Creative Resource and Platform

In light of the fact that our visual world is rapidly changing, the author considers four topics. First, he briefly reviews the work of art educators who have written on social networking for art education classrooms. Second, he notes that many youths—children and adolescents—are using social networking not only to consume and exchange material—textual and visual—but also to produce their own. Third, the author argues that much of the unsolicited production youths create online is instructive for art education and should be encouraged. He summarizes some of his own attempts at engagement. And fourth, two dilemmas are raised for art educators in approaching social networking sites as part of classroom activities: the use of youths as the unpaid labor of big business, and privacy on the net.