As you all know, this is how I spent last week. The prompt for the long essay was "What is the impact of new technologies in art?". They had to draw from two written sources and an audio source to write the essay. Essays varied greatly in quality. However, I found some gems, and also got quite depressed for certain assertions that appeared quite often. Here is a sample of statements that was obviously the student's personal opinion, and that seemed shared by a majority:
- With all the technology, there is no need to go to a museum and walk throughout it, since you can see and enjoy all the art at home, on your computer.
- There is no need to open a book for a school project anymore, since I can find everything on Google.
- Technology has made things easier for all of us, since we don't need to travel to foreign countries to see what's there. We can look it up online.
- I don't understand how my parents went through college if there was no Wikipedia during their time (I swear, I read this at least 3 times a day).
To cheer you up a little bit, here is an example of random gems I found throughout the essays, that had me smiling:
- Before the 1970s, everything you wrote had to be handwritten (I guess this student never heard of typewriters)
-In order to avoid going to museums, Spaniards decided to create a social networking website called Facebook, so they could share Spanish culture with the rest of the world
- Computers are a tool invented by human beings that has been powerful for centuries.
- Art has existed for millions of years, since there were human beings on Earth. In fact, before human beings populated the Earth, animals were already doing art.
And with that, I'll leave you to catch up with everything.
Sigh. This has got to be a lot of fun for you. :-/
ReplyDeleteYou know, I have to admit that I didn't think it would be a big deal to see the Mona Lisa in person because I'd seen it so many times in books, advertisements, magazines, etc. But when I actually did get to see it in person, I was surprised. It was darker than I thought, and much smaller than I thought. And there was just something about it. Breathtaking. I don't know. I assume that young, naive people who have never really been out of their hometown don't understand the difference between simulation and the real thing. I didn't. But I learned not to take that stuff for granted eventually. So there's hope, I guess. :)
With the Mona Lisa, the opposite happened to me. Maybe because it was so crowded around it, that it made it impossible to appreciate it. Jorge Semprun, a Spanish novelist and political activist, who became Spain Minister of Culture in the 80s, wrote in his memoirs that one of the things he liked best about that job was that he had had the opportunity to have El Prado opened at night, all to himself. I understand.
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