A Snapshot View of how Senior Visual Arts Students Encounter and Engage with Technology in Their Arts Practice

This chapter reports the findings of a pilot research project that investigated how senior visual arts students engage with and utilise technology in the creation of art works during their program of study. During the course of a year, six students from two schools were interviewed and their work was visually documented to ascertain whether technology played a predominant part in their practice. Analysis of the interview data was framed within a social constructivist perspective and drew on notions of skills and expertise, support, access, awareness and inspiration. The findings revealed that the senior visual arts students regularly used technology as part of their process but often reverted to using traditional media with some technological aspects in the creation of their final work.