A qualitative analysis of the digital literacy of arts education teachers in Chinese junior high and high schools

Abstract

Information communication technologies and media have challenged traditional education and changed teachers’ thinking. These technologies present unique opportunities for supporting creativity, which is the key aim of learning in arts education. Despite the direct and close link between them and arts education, how to integrate these technologies into traditional education has long challenged government and educational experts. Teachers’ digital literacy has been regarded as an important part of information communication technologies-enabled education. Because an arts education uses more equipment than other types of education, it is more dependent on digital media. Thus, arts teachers’ digital literacy has directly affected their teaching, and has played an increasingly important role in education. This paper, having investigated eight Chinese arts teachers’ digital concepts and utilities in their teaching, explores digital literacy in arts teaching in China from different perspectives. It also offers recommendations for research into arts teachers’ digital literacy and arts education research in China for the future. Overall, this study designs a framework of factors for Chinese arts teachers’ digital literacy.

Keywords

Arts education China digital literacy junior high and high school teacher education

Introduction

Information technologies (ICTs) have greatly affected all areas of people’s lives, but their use in education has been much discussed and researched, in particular. The former US Secretary of Education, Rod Paige, stated that ‘Education is the only business still debating the usefulness of technology’. Information technology has been regarded as serving an important role in arts education because it promotes multi-literacy, aesthetic sensitivity and a critical faculty for the future. However, information literacy in education is lacking practical research. Case (2012) stated that information behaviour research has been criticized for its poor quality and lack of practical and scholarly implication. This article researched Chinese arts teachers’ digital literacy in practice to try to address these deficiences.

The Chinese Government and educational scholars have recognized that electronic media and ICTs are important for arts education. Since 2010, the Chinese Government has been restructuring its education system, and the informatization of education serves an important role in such restructuring. In 2010, the Chinese Ministry of Education issued the Outline of China’s National Plan for Medium and Long-term Education Reform and Development, accelerating the informatization of education. This plan focuses on speeding up information infrastructure construction and the development of more quality education resources. Xiaofan Zhao (2006) from the Department of IT Application Promotion State Council Informatization Office of the People’s Republic of China defined informatization as process, progress and duration all the way from the industrial society to the information society; using all means to accelerate the process from the industrial society to the information society. Zheng (2011) stated that in arts education, media could enrich teaching methods, providing a lively atmosphere, and supporting teachers’ and students’ interactive and collaborative teaching and learning. Sui (2013) pointed out that ICTs and other media could add attractiveness to music teaching because of their responsive interactivity and convenient operation.

This article investigates eight arts teachers’ digital literacy in several junior high or high schools in China. The article employs semi-structured interviews to collect data, and content analysis to code the data. Finally, based on the data table and discussion, this paper also proposes a modelling of arts teachers’ conceptions and effectiveness with digital technology and media.

Terminology

With the emergence of media technologies in the 21st century, traditional digital literacy is no longer sufficient for an individual to competently survive in the new media ecology. More and more educators and informatics researchers have been investigating the essence of digital literacy in education now.

In the digital age, some scholars argue that teachers’ digital literacy is shown by way of their critical thinking skills in support of young people’s use of digital technology (Hague and Payton, 2010). Others believe that the Internet and the possibilities of ICT are more about providing proof of learning, keeping teaching accessible, and extending and embedding key skills and concepts both in and out of students’ school lives (E-safety Support, 2013). It is found that a teacher’s digital literacy means more than helping students with the use of digital technology. Digital literacy also means that students absorb teaching and learning skills concepts. In addition, teachers also need digital literacy to support life-long learning skills. Julien and Genuis (2011) regard digital literacy as the basis for academic success, effective participation in digital society, and effective workplace information seeking and use.

In China, junior high school usually includes the seventh, eighth and ninth grades. High school includes the tenth, eleventh and twelfth grades, before students go on to study at college and in universities.

Teachers’ digital literacy in arts education

Digital literacy skills are those which characterize the ability to localize, organize, evaluate and analyse information using digital technology. The Internet phenomenon promotes web-based multimedia tools for teaching, and these tools include images, video and audio files, as well as text. A person who is digitally literate is regarded as a socially responsible user of the Internet and social media.

Moreover, digital literacy has become an important part in teacher training around the world. In the UK, Michael Gove (2012) stated that the Government was ‘looking at initial teacher training courses carefully in the coming year so that teachers get the skills and experience they need to use technology confidently’. Duncum (2004) found a growing concern that arts teachers and educators need to re-conceptualize arts education as a visual-culture art education. Susan Brooks-Young (2013), however, was concerned about the lack of effective technology integration in education. Moreover, she attributes this to the lack of a coherent vision for systemic reform. Arts education, an important part of education, has its own characteristic traits with regard to the use of technology. Marner (2013) argues that digital media in the arts save time, promote aesthetic aspects and will put an end to the process of traditional education. The use of information technology for teaching and learning could facilitate a faster and better comprehension and appreciation of the subject matter (Idowu, 2001).The main reason for using digital media in arts education is that ICTs in arts education could help teachers and students understand and appreciate the arts in the information society regardless of place and time. In considering the characteristic use of media in arts education, it is valuable to investigate the arts teachers’ digital literacy as this paper set out to do. There are several sub-categories of arts education. In this paper, the sub-categories, music and visual art education, are the main research fields. As discussed above, digital, visual-culture art education has been a trend in arts education development. Peppler (2013) argued that new technologies, regardless of the cost, are designed to expand audience participation and appreciation of prior traditions. Arts Council England (2003) stated that the values of ICTs in arts education are an expansion of the tools used in art and design; a (multiple) mode of communication; ‘professional’ quality outcomes; a means for change in pedagogy and the curriculum and a vocational role in the ‘digital world’.

There are many directions in digital literacy: ICT skills, civic skills, learning to learn skills and the participation of adults in lifelong learning. Gruszczynaska et al. (2013) found that the two related sub-systems indicated by the labelling of digital literacy are ICT skills and digital practices. Hague and Payton from the FutureLab in the UK (2010) analysed the components of digital literacy based on its definition – the skills, knowledge and understanding that enables critical, creative, discerning and safe practices when engaging with digital technologies in all areas of life. The components consist of creativity, critical thinking and evaluation, cultural and social understanding, collaboration, the ability to find and select information, effective communication, e-safety and functional skills. Furthermore, these relationships are shown in the following diagram:

Figure 1.

The components of digital literacy.

Hague and Payton (2010) stated these components of digital literacy for teachers are:

Functional skills – teachers should improve their capabilities and confidence in using technology;

Creativity – creating a product or output, thinking creatively and imaginatively and creating knowledge or knowledge production; and digital technologies present many more opportunities to be creative in the classroom;

Collaboration – digital technologies support a shared and social spaces, but this does not mean that it is automatically easy to collaborate using digital technologies. Teachers can facilitate effective group work by supporting students to develop strategies for making collaboration easier;

Communication – communicating effectively in a world in which much communication is mediated by digital technology. Teachers can support students to consider the implications of whether or not their output will be made publicly available online;

The ability to find and select information – teachers can give students information about how to construct their web search so that students are more likely to find relevant information;

Critical thinking and evaluation – involves transforming, analysing or processing given information, data or ideas. Fostering critical thinking requires teachers to slow the pace of classroom down a little to allow the space for thought and questioning;

Cultural and social understanding – teachers have the opportunity to make links between school learning and popular culture;

E-Safety – to support young people to become competent, discerning users of technology is about helping them to develop the skills that allow them to critically question their own and others’ technology use.

Overall, the discussion above suggests that an understanding of digital literacy should not begin with technology or other digital tools. From functional skills to e-safety, teachers should consider their use of any tool and how it is used to participate effectively in any kind of culture.

The research on which this paper is based designed an interview schedule based on Hague and Payton’s (2010) conception of digital literacy and analysed eight Chinese arts teachers’ digital literacy using the eight components listed. The components constitute the main abilities that arts teachers should have and use in their digital and media teaching environment. It has been found that these components are not regarded as totally independent. They interact with each other, and together they support arts teachers’ digital literacy development.

Digital media in music and visual arts teaching

ICTs have long been regarded as important tools in music teaching. However, all ICT devices should be integrated with and support other already established ideas and practices of teaching music. In this paper, the interviews of the two Chinese music teachers take three main aspects into consideration: their music teaching ideas, their practices and ICT devices.

ICT devices are important in music teaching internationally. In New South Wales, for example, teachers are encouraged to use a full range of technologies that are available to them, both in the classroom and in the wider school context.

Nedelcut et al. (2008) stated that the basic requirements for appropriate and effective music technology must include:

multimedia computer (with a sound card and a CD-ROM drive);

appropriate education software including both ‘open’ and ‘closed’ software;

[‘Open’ software means interactive applications where the user (teacher or student) can manipulate and personalize the information. This software includes music editors, sequencers, sound editors and multimedia platforms. On ‘closed’ software, on the other hand, the user cannot alter the information nor can it be involved in generating activities. These programs include tutorials, entertainment programs and multimedia applications.]

MIDI keyboard or sound modules.

Many researchers and educators have been investigating ways to use ICTs in music teaching in the last decades. Savage (2007) found that in his observation-based study, most music teachers have been slow to adopt new uses of music technologies, and typical uses of music technology lean towards underpinning traditional approaches to music education rather than revolutionizing them. He also pointed out that music teachers should develop a clear understanding of what constitutes effective music teaching with ICT. Therefore, it is valuable to investigate the effective level for using ICTs in music teaching.

The creative potential of new ICTs has been valued in visual art education over the last 30 years. As early as 1988, Crowe commented that ICT could assist with exploring design problems, enhance artistic decision making and provide new opportunities for learning. In the report Keys to Imagination ICT in Art Education, the Arts Council England (2003) stated that as new technologies can encompass all subjects, disciplines and specialisms; all types of audio-visual, text-based, sensory and kinetic media; all phases, stages and ages; and all abilities, capabilities and special needs, there is a great potential to immigrate ICTs into visual art education. Ashford (2001) stated that drawing and painting software, digital still and video cameras, electronic portfolios, scanners, colour laser printers, samplers and sound mixers, image manipulation, video editing, 3D animation, Internet and web page construction, can all play a role in supporting students’ artistic expression.

Technology also enables the establishment of communities of practice and cooperative learning. This kind of communication does not happen only between students and teachers, but between students and teachers from different schools, countries or cultures, and with practising artists around the world. Loveless (2003) concluded that the World Wide Web provides a virtual international gallery for students’ work. Even though ICTs have been promoted in visual art education, some findings show some of the difficulties faced by visual art teachers: lack of resources, poor training opportunities, lack of support, lack of time, and teachers’ perceptions and beliefs as inhibitors in the use of ICTs for teaching.

Beeharry-Konglar (2013) designed a three-part framework for using ICTs in the teaching of visual arts: teachers, schools and policy makers. A teacher’s digital literacy can be effectively expressed using ICTs in teaching visual arts.

In Figure 2, ICT in teaching of visual arts is affected by policies and frameworks from policy makers, infrastructure and support from schools and beliefs, attitudes and perceptions from teachers. Those three parts interact with each other. Policies and frameworks, and infrastructure and support affect resources opportunities for professional development. Infrastructure and support, and beliefs, attitudes and perceptions affect school culture, teaching community, etc. Policies and frameworks and beliefs, attitudes and perceptions have an influence on understanding teachers concerns. It is found that these four parts are the content of teachers’ digital literacy. Therefore, policies and frameworks and infrastrucutre and support are the key elements influencing visual arts teachers’ digital literacy.

Figure 2.

Teachers, schools and policy makers in ICT in the teaching of visual arts.

This paper investigates the digital literacy of eight Chinese visual arts teachers primarily to understand the situation of arts teachers’ digital literacy in their arts teaching in China. The content of our interview includes: supports, policies and teachers’ beliefs and attitudes.

Teachers’ digital literacy assessment

In 2011 Reijo Kupiainen examined Finnish young people’s digital and media practices and literacy in school spaces. In Kupiainen’s field study he interviewed young people in secondary schools to investigate their digital literacy. Observations and interviews are direct ways to understand people’s digital literacy. As ICT skills are an important part of digital literacy, teachers’ ICT skills and competences also affect students’ digital literacy. UNESCO (2004) concluded that there are three main approaches to ICTs taken by teachers, and they are:

an integrated approach: planning the use of ICT with the subject to enhance concepts and skills and improve students’ attainment;

an enhancement approach: planning the use of an ICT resource which will enhance the existing topic through some aspect of the lessons and tasks;

a complementary approach: using an ICT resource to empower the pupils’ learning.

As our research aim is to investigate teachers’ digital literacy, teachers are interviewed about their evaluation of their own practices and skills and their digital teaching environment.

Information behaviour and information literacy

In the past decade, researchers and scholars in the field of education with ICTs have studied information practices including channel use, and encountering, seeking and ascribing meaning to information. Those studies cover information skills, information literacy, media literacy, digital literacy, information behaviours, etc. However, these terms should not be considered as synonymous.

Hepworth and Walton (2009) defined information literacy as a matter of an individual completing a task in a given context, involving an interplay of behavioural, cognitive, metacognitive and effective states. They also pointed out that this is not only an important set of skills to enable information to be gathered and used but also essential for effective participation in the ‘information society’. In 2012, Donald Case published his research and work result on information behaviours. Case (2012) found Dervin’s work and use sense-making approach to be the most ambitious attempt to explain the origins of information needs. He pointed out that information needs, information and context are all fundamental aspects of understanding information behaviour.

When people use ICTs in the information society, there is an interplay between information literacy and digital literacy. Cordell (2013) suggests that they are different. Information literacy focuses on evaluating the results of a search, how to use the information found effectively and ethically; digital literacy focuses on how to get to a search page or find the advanced search page, how to find the help files, how to save or export the citations and full text, how to set up an account in a social media site, how to upload files. They are closely linked as well: information literacy requires digital literacy to access appropriate online research sources, and information literacy gives further context to the evaluation skills developed by digital literacy. From Case’s definition, information behaviour is the information needs, information and context. Digital literacy is defined by Erstad (2005) as skills, knowledge and attitudes in using digital media to be able to master challenges in the learning society. Digital literacy needs information behaviour, but not just information behaviour. It is affected by other factors, like knowledge and attitude. Martin (2006) pointed out that digital literacy is the awareness, attitude and ability of individuals to appropriately use digital tools and facilities to identify, access, manage, integrate, evaluate, analyse and synthesize digital resources, construct new knowledge, create media expressions, and communicate with others, in the context of specific life situations, in order to enable constructive social action; and to reflect upon this process. Koltay (2011) stated that the term ‘digital literacy’ is often used in a restricted meaning, denoting the effective use of ICT exclusively. Therefore, awareness, attitude and ability of people using digital tools are important in digital literacy research.

Methodology

Methods and analysis

The approach of this multiple case study was qualitative. Qualitative research is a term with varying meanings in educational research. Borg and Gall (1989), for example, suggest that the term is often used interchangeably with terms such as naturalistic, ethnographic, subjective and postpositivistic. After the literature review and theoretical framework, a semi-structured interview, based on previous studies, was designed. Polit and Beck (2006) defined the interview as a method of data collection in which one person asks questions of another person: interviews are conducted either face-to-face or by telephone. Based on the degree of structuring, interviews can be divided into three categories: structured, semi-structured and unstructured interviews (Fontana and Frey, 2005). Semi-structured interviews, a kind of in-depth qualitative data collection, have been widely used in educational research. The reasons why the semi-structured interview is employed in educational research are:

semi-structured interviews are well suited to educational research, especially case studies;

semi-structured interviews enable the deep exploration of experiences.

(Drever, 1995)

The research questions in this study are the following:

What kinds of digital media do arts teachers use in classes to support their arts teaching?

What kinds of digital media do they use after classes?

Why do they use information communication technology in arts teaching?

In what way do they use information communication technology in arts teaching?

What are the requirements of media from the perspective of the schools’ guidebook (every Chinese school has its own curriculum), and what hardware and software does the school have to support these?

Data collection

From December 2013 to March 2015, eight arts teachers in junior high and high school in China participated in interviews. For data analysis, the content analysis method is employed. On average, each interview lasted 40 minutes. All interviews were semi-structured and focused on the four topics designed beforehand.

Results

Teacher 1 is a music teacher who has more than 10 years’ teaching experience. She is also the leader of arts education in the Yunyang High School. Teacher 1 also takes responsibility for teaching drama. In her class, the main media she uses include CD/DVDs to play music and PowerPoints to show coursework. After class, she also likes to support students’ music learning and practice. They use QQ (video chatting software) to send and receive music demos, which are made by students. Teacher 1 replies with comments and discusses the demos in-depth with her students. Besides individual communication online, Yunyang High School also offers students one piano and 10 guitars to play. Teacher 1 takes responsibility for helping to support students in using them.

Teacher 1 prefers to use media (PowerPoints and CD/DVDs) to show music. With PowerPoint slides, she mainly introduces the composer’s background for brief personal knowledge about him or her. The high quality CD/DVDs guarantees that students can fully enjoy the music. As a quality music teacher in a high school, Teacher 1 has a Bachelor’s Degree in Arts Education. She has a high level of skill on the piano and guitar and teaches her students the basic skills of these two instruments. Students can compose by themselves. She also advises students in the use of apps on the computer or tablet for composing, if they have access to such devices.

Teacher 2, the music teacher at Yunyang High School, uses fewer media than her colleague, Teacher 1. She also uses CD/DVDs and PowerPoints to enliven her classes. She also teaches her students the basics of piano and guitar. However, she prefers to use social media to contact parents to advise them on how to support students’ learning at home.

The first interview was with Teacher 4 on 14 March 2014. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Chinese Language Education. However, as she is talented in music and music teaching, she has served as the acting music teacher at that school for more than 10 years. Teacher 4 told us that the main media she uses most often in her music class are PowerPoint slides and CD/DVDs, nothing more. She said that the school was just a normal junior high school, which did not invest enough in ICTs. Even though the hardware was lacking, Teacher 4 still tries her best to use ICTs in her music teaching. For example, she advises her students to listen to music online and searches for information about the songs before or after classes at home. She would like to help her students understand songs deeply. In this school there were information literacy courses for both students and teachers. In Teacher 4’s opinion, she and her students had sufficient ICT/computer skills.

The second interview was with Teacher 3, who is the visual arts teacher at DongFeng No. 2 Junior High School, and who has taught drawing and art at the school since 2001. She has an Associate’s Degree in Art and Art Education. She really likes to use media in her class. For example, when she guides students in analysing and appreciating Chinese or foreign paintings, she prefers to use videos or pictures she finds online to explain the background. And these videos and pictures are also shown in the slides. Teacher 3 explained that the school leaders encourage them to use media in classes, and computers are provided in every classroom.

According to Teacher 4’s and Teacher 3’s interviews, it is found that in a normal junior high school in China, teachers have the basic ICTs/computers at hand. However, that just barely meets the basic requirements of teaching with ICTs. Teacher 4 and Teacher 3 do their best to use this equipment to provide more information to students, teaching students what they need to know in order to use such devices.

When Teacher 5 and Teacher 6 in DongFeng 51 Junior High School were interviewed, they almost declined to be interviewed, because they said they were both more than 50 years old; they had just learned how to use PowerPoint to show coursework.

Teacher 5 said that, as a visual art teacher at the Dong Feng 51 Junior High School, he preferred to use the traditional drawing practices. But he could not deny that information technology could help them show the exhibitions in an online gallery or other learning resource online. But it is very hard for him to learn new skills and knowledge. Thus, his basic digital literacy and skill encompass the school requirement that every arts teacher should use PowerPoint to show their coursework. Teacher 6 is in a similar situation with her music teaching. But, she stated that now there are many apps on mobile phones and on tablets that could support arts in self-learning. The one she likes to use is SoundBrush via an iPad. Normally, besides PowerPoint to show the course slides, she also advises students on how to use apps, like SoundBrush, to compose if they want, because it is really convenient and helpful.

Teacher 7 is a famous visual arts and drawing teacher in DongFeng No. 6 High School. He has more than 15 years of teaching experience in the visual arts and drawing. He is interested in using ICT in classes, because he finds that it enriches the content of classes, and improves students’ interest and learning on a daily basis. Teacher 7 always uses PPT to explain the content of classes and zooms in on the masterpiece being shown. The most useful digital media in his class are Microsoft Office PowerPoint and an electronic whiteboard. As for students’ and teachers’ digital and media skills, Teacher 7 stated that the training for teachers is not sufficient; they need to know about newer technologies for the arts, not just PowerPoint and whiteboard for an average education. He found that students are enthusiastic about new media and digital technology in arts, and that their parents support them to learn it outside school.

Later, Teacher 8 was interviewed, and she works in DongFeng 50 Junior High School, as a music and drawing teacher. Besides improving students’ interests and combining teachers’ teaching and online resources, Teacher 8 stated that using digital media could improve teaching effectiveness. For example, inserting audio media into PowerPoint makes the teaching process smoother without the need to open any audio players. Teacher 8 has a clear idea about how to use ICTs and why she uses media in teaching. She told us that she just uses digital media as a tool to support her teaching ideas. She likes to use websites to search for famous painter’s masterpieces (like Picasso, Kandinsky and Mondrian) and likes to share information with students. She asks students to draw and then, finally, to put all the students’ works online, in order to discuss altogether and share ideas with others. Even though she has her own ideas for using digital media in teaching, the hardware and software are not up to date enough to realize her own requirements. As for training, she said that students have computer classes, but not the teachers.

Findings

The four subcategories shown in Figure 3 independently indicate the digital literacy of the arts teachers in arts teaching, and these interact with each other. For example, teachers’ ideas about using media in arts teaching and the requirements of media use by the school affect how they choose different media.

Figure 3.

Arts teachers’ digital literacy modelling.

Arts teachers’ digital media utility and ideas in their teaching are the two principal aspects of their digital literacy. National and the local schools’ requirements and support directly affect digital media utility, and the examples given of digital media use reflects this kind of utility. In addition, teachers’ ideas about digital media affect their practices in teaching.

Using these four subcategories, we can illustrate the findings of this study as in Table 1.

Table 1.

Arts teachers’ data analysis.

	Media and digital software used in and after classes	The reason for using digital media in arts teaching	Example of use of media in arts teaching	School’s requirements and supports in using media in arts teaching
Teacher 1 (Music teacher)	Slides (PowerPoint) to show the coursework; QQ (instant messages to communicate with students after classes); DVD/CD, video and movie.	Media improves students’ self-learning skills, learning interests and creativity. Garage band and iPad are used to compose by students.	Advised students to watch the movie ‘Black Swan’ before class on ‘Swan Lake’.	Showing slides in courses; and showing media in music. Computers, and music rooms, which cover modern acoustics and multimedia, like one piano and 10 guitars.
Teacher 2 (Visual art teacher)	Slides (PowerPoint).	Shows the images of masterpieces; integration of animation and music in visual arts education make classes more lively and interesting.	Played the video ‘The trackers of Volga River’ in the art class focusing on ‘The trackers of Volga River’.	Slides in coursework showing computers, and drawing rooms, which has a lot of drawing tools, but not too many digital tools.
Teacher 4 (Music teacher)	Slides (PowerPoint) to show her coursework. And DVD/CD players.	Improve students’ interest in assessing music.		Slides in coursework showingcomputers, music players, and video players.
Teacher 3 (Visual art teacher)	Slides (PowerPoint) to show the courses; video players to show the relevant information about the masterpiece.	Improve students’ interests and capabilities of assessing art.	Played the video ‘Qingming Shanghe Tu’ in the art class on ‘Qingming Shanghe Tu’.	Slides in coursework showingcomputers, music players, and video players.
Teacher 5 (Visual art teacher)	Slides (Powerpoint) to show the coursework.	The goal of National Outline of Computers in Teaching.		Slides showing coursework.Basic hardware (computers) and software (MS Office).Music players and pianos.
Teacher 6 (Music teacher)	Slides (Powerpoint) to show the coursework.	The goal of National Outline of Computers in Teaching.	Advised students to use app on iPad to compose a song, and share it in class.	Slides showing coursework.Basic hardware (computers) and software (MS Office).Music players and pianos.
Teacher 7 (Visual art teacher)	Slides (PowerPoints) with multi-media.	Improve students’ interests.		Slides sharing coursework,computer and digital whiteboard.
Teacher 8 (Music and drawing teacher)	Slides (PowerPoints) with multi-media.	Improve students’ interest and teaching effectiveness.	Used websites to search for famous painters’ masterpieces (like Picasso, Kandinsky, and Mondrian) and share information with students, then ask students to draw, finally, put all students’ work online, discuss together and share ideas with others.	Slides sharing coursework,computer and digital whiteboard.

To summarize, it is found that all art teachers, who participated in this study, use Powerpoints to show multi-media teaching resources to students, and some music teachers employ DVDs and CDs to display the songs and melodies. The reasons given are that such techniques improve students’ learning interests; using digital media is the requirements of the National Outline of Computers in Teaching; and they make the class more lively. In addition, one music teacher (Teacher 1) uses instant messaging to communicate with their students. The Chinese Government and the schools also have their requirements on arts teaching in digital media. The requirements are similar – slides in coursework showing computers, music players and video players. Some schools have more advanced digital media, therefore they ask their teachers to use guitars and pianos. There are some specific examples of teaching with digital media from those teachers. They could be divided into two groups: music teachers and visual art teachers. Most music teachers prefer to use apps on the iPad to compose, and most visual art teachers would like students to explain masterpieces with videos.

Discussion

All arts teachers who participated in our research use digital media in teaching. This study interviewed these teachers about their ICT skills and digital literacy, and their beliefs, attitudes and behaviours on using digital media in teaching, to assess their digital literacy skills and use. As the government policies and local schools’ infrastructures and requirements also affect their digital literacies, the interview covered these as well.

Teachers in different schools have different levels of digital literacy; the majority of them just follow the requirements of the Chinese Government and the local schools to use PowerPoint in showing their coursework. In this, they have a comparatively low level of digital literacy in their arts teaching. It was found that age is an important factor affecting arts teachers’ digital literacy.

Table 1 shows that the digital literacy of arts teachers in high schools is a little higher than those in junior high schools. All arts teachers who participated in this survey use Microsoft Office, video players and music players. However, Teacher 1 and Teacher 2 also use other equipment, like instant messaging software (QQ), arts apps, and modern acoustics and multimedia. As for Teacher 3 and Teacher 4 from the junior high school, they only used PowerPoint, video players and music players to show their coursework. The reason they use those media is to increase students’ interests in arts. And Teacher 5 and Teacher 6 from the junior high school also just use PowerPoint and some music players to show the coursework.

It is easy to find that Yunyang High School pays more attention and invests more in arts teaching and learning with ICTs than does DongFeng No. 2 Junior High School, DongFeng 51 Junior High School, and DongFeng 50 Junior High School. It is possible that arts teachers in Yunyang High School have a higher level of digital literacy than those in the junior high schools. According to the Music Teaching and Art Teaching Syllabuses for Chinese junior high schools and high schools, use of PowerPoint slides, music players and video players is required in arts teaching. Therefore, all Chinese junior high schools and high schools should meet this requirement.

Among these eight arts teachers, the reasons Teacher 2, Teacher 3 and Teacher 4 gave for the use of ICTs in their arts teaching was to enrich the classes and inspire their students to enjoy the classes. Teacher 5 and Teacher 6 want to meet the school requirements on digital media utility in teaching. However, Teacher 1 also regards the ICTs as an important tool and environment for students’ active learning and self-learning when composing music with apps and communicating online.

According to our results, only Teacher 1 and Teacher 8 would personally aspire to using digital and media tools in arts teaching. Teacher 1 enjoys the convenience of digital media in communication and information sharing. However, Teacher 8 found that digital tools and media can improve arts teaching’s effectiveness, and regarded them as important tools in her arts teaching process.

Teacher 1 likes to use more digital and media to communicate with her students, and helps them in composing music. She and her students use QQ to talk with each other, and they use apps on tablets and smartphones to compose music. In her opinion, it is the most attractive and convenient way for students to learn and play music. As the leader of arts teachers in Yunyang High School, Teacher 1 appreciates using media to teach music. She firmly believes that digital media, and other new ICTs, could guide music teachers like her in applying modern ICT strategies to enhance or to confer special attention on teaching in a multidirectional approach. Digital media support her active learning idea, and provide her students with a learning environment which offers a meaningful context. Active learning is the ability to connect new knowledge with prior understanding. Teacher 1 not only teaches her students music knowledge, like diction, meaning, rhythm and rhyme, but also communicates to them and nourishes their ability to learn new knowledge within the ICT environment.

Teacher 8 has a comparatively clear idea of effectively inserting media into her arts teaching process. She gave us an example: before students begin drawing, she uses websites to search for information about artists and their drawing techniques. With this information, she helps her students understand this artist and asks students to draw. After drawing, Teacher 8 puts all work online and asks students to discuss together, so all the students could share their ideas and finally understand this artist. However, lacking new hardware and software, Teacher 8 has more ideas for using digital media than she has opportunities to realize them.

Only two teachers in this interview sought out digital and media tools in arts teaching on their own initiative. Their willingness is due to their understanding of those media tools and their own requirements for teaching. They can choose what kind of media they have on hand to meet their teaching needs. It was found that they have their own digital literacy in arts teaching, which is limited by the hardware and software in schools.

These eight arts teachers’ digital literacies are affected by the Chinese education policies and the local schools’ infrastructure and support. However, teachers’ beliefs, attitudes and perceptions also influence their own digital literacy.

Conclusion

In this article, eight Chinese arts teachers’ digital literacy, based on data from our interviews, is explored. From the literature review and data analysis, a model of arts teachers’ digital literacy development, along with other impacts, is proposed. It was found that the environment, especially the support and requirements of both governments and the local schools, constitute the external drivers of art teachers’ digital literacy. Additionally, those teachers’ personal understanding and skills in media affect the utility of media in their arts teaching. Most of them use media or other digital tools in classes to support their teaching, and the common tools are Microsoft PowerPoint, audio-players or video-players. Just one teacher uses instant messaging to communicate and guide their students after classes, and advises their students to use some apps to practise composing. The reasons why these arts teachers use digital media are the requirements of the Chinese Government and the school; and that digital media improve the learning interests and effectiveness of their students. They explained their methods of using digital media in their teaching with examples, which are a song with a movie or a painting with a video. The Chinese Government and the local schools ask them to use multi-and digital media during teaching, especially Powerpoint coursework slides.

Arts teachers at different levels – junior high school and high school – have different levels of digital literacy. Furthermore, there is a clear difference in digital literacy between music teachers and visual arts teachers. Audio and music players are widely used in daily coursework, therefore music teachers use more media than visual arts teachers. Basically, the teachers just meet the requirements of the national curriculum. In addition, ICT devices are supported and could be integrated into their established teaching ideas and practices. However, there are two teachers, Teacher 1 and Teacher 8, with a high level of digital literacy. Teacher 1 regards ICTs as a good way of encouraging students’ active learning and she prefers to use instant messaging software to exchange ideas and communicate with her students, and tablet apps to compose music. Teacher 8 effectively and flexibly inserts media into her arts teaching. Besides personality, it is found that age is another important factor in arts teachers’ digital literacy.

The use of ICTs in arts teaching for these eight teachers is based on their teaching ideas and the National Syllabus requirements. It is recognized that most of these eight arts teachers have a low level of digital literacy, where only Teacher 1 and Teacher 8 use ICTs on their own initiative, not only to engage students’ interests and passions, but also to help students develop knowledge, competencies and skills.

Our research results provide the starting point for an analysis of Chinese arts teachers’ digital literacy and have led to the following recommendations:

Arts teachers should merge and use digital media during their classes as much as possible, based on their own digital literacy, and their own arts teaching requirements.

Arts teachers should share their digital literacy and skills to help arts teachers who lack digital literacy.

Governments and schools need to improve the requirements of arts teachers’ digital literacy on the basis of arts education features.

Governments and local schools need to spend more on hardware for arts education.

Arts teachers, especially visual arts teachers, could use online platforms which display high-resolution images of artworks, for example Google Art Project.

Research in the future

According to the report Reflections on Education and Technological Development in China 2013 Deloitte (2013), current trends in IT technology and education in China are being impacted by the changed IT environment: the cloud and big data. In future, students and teachers’ literacy in the ICT environment will be a key research area. As there are differences in digital literacy between music and visual arts teachers, their digital literacy should be investigated. Finally, a focus should be on older arts teachers’ digital literacy development.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Author biographies

Pei Zhao is a doctoral student at the Media Education Research Group, Department of Teacher Education, University of Helsinki. Her research interests are media education, digital and media literacy, arts education, educational technology.

Heikki Kynäslahti is an adjunct professor at the Department of Teacher Education, University of Helsinki. He is also the director of the Media Education Research Group. His research interests are media education, education with ICTs, pedagogical and educational behaviours in education with ICTs. He hosts and participates in several media education research projects in Europe and Finland.

Sara Sintonen is an adjunct professor at the Department of Teacher Education, University of Helsinki. Her research interests are media education, media literacy, music education and digital literacy.

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