Digital Directory of Selected Contemporary Ghanaian Artists
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Date
August, 2010
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Abstract
This study adopted the experimental research method to design a digital directory of
selected contemporary Ghanaian artists as a means of promoting quality teaching and
learning of art within the context of general education in Ghana and also make
Ghanaian art and artists accessible to students, researchers and interested others. The
approach involved direct interviews with five professional Ghanaian artists and art
educators and documenting their works and creative achievements on Compact Disc
to facilitate self-tutoring, research and effective teaching and learning of Painting,
Packaging Design, Sculpture, Ceramics and Art Education. This study is based on the
fact that Computerization is today the fastest spreading phenomenon sweeping across
various fields of human endeavours and also proving to be indispensable in academic
pursuits. The fact also remains that accurate as well as wrong and unauthenticated
information can be downloaded from the internet by those who use this medium due
to their inability to gain access to current books and other appropriate study materials.
Besides, books on Ghanaian art and artists are simply unavailable. This interactive
audio-visual medium has been produced to support application of computer
technology to effectively promote knowledge sharing between practising professional
artists and student artists in Ghanaian educational institutions. This medium can
supplement fieldtrips which constitute the alternative means by which staff and
students in High Schools and tertiary art institutions in Ghana source first-hand
information on Ghanaian art. Making professional art educators and artists such as
Ablade Glover, Ato Delaquis, Kofi Broni and Kwame Amoah, for example, who are
world-renowned artists but whose lives and works feature cursorily in the General
Knowledge in Art textbook that Visual Arts teachers in Senior High Schools totally
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depend on to satisfy the theoretical and some practical requirements of the very
programme that prepares Visual Arts students for tertiary art education in Ghana. This
handy CD makes it possible for Visual Arts and Art Education students and
researchers to access accurate information on Ghanaian artists or referred to a web
page or CD that has this sort of information for their study. This brings into focus the
essence of adopting Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as a tool or
means for teaching and learning of art rather than having ICT taught in isolation in
Ghanaian schools, in colleges, polytechnics and universities. The outcome of the
study revealed that ICT can be used for the teaching of visual art as a mode of
teaching and learning than mere teaching ICT in isolation to champion the
introduction of ICT in the Ghanaian educational reform. Again the study brought to
the fore that Visual Arts students and instructors accept the new paradigm teaching
and learning is taking but have no requisite skill and knowledge to take up this
challenge. Upon the outcome of the research, the researcher recommends that The
Ministry of Education and Ghana Education Service should train teachers and ICT
instructors to be conversant with software development, programmers and users need
to be sought for specific purposes. For example building interactive compact discs on
the various topics they teach, thereby encouraging students to use the computer in
their learning process.
Description
A Thesis submitted to the School of Graduate Studies,
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi
in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of
MASTER OF PHILOSOPHY
(Art Education)