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Abstract: Over the past decade the online learning options have increased, they became more accessible and popular, thus determining higher education institutions to adapt their curriculum to incorporate the new educational paradigm. Blended education either made the transition between the traditional learning practices and the online learning or emphasized the need to balance the two opposites: face-to-face (in classroom) and online education. It shifted the perspective on a more complex student-centered education, acknowledging the differences in needs, environments and learning spaces required. In the case of artistic education, due to the vocational and hands-on component, the reform has been received with reluctance and skepticism. Artistic education core principles value the interaction between the maestro-teacher and the student as a fundamental stage in developing the artistic personality. Furthermore, the various techniques can be mastered by the student only through a trial-and-error phase constantly supervised by the teacher. The present paper emphasizes the blended-learning process and end-results of a 5 years artistic educational project: "Time Maps. Real Communities-Virtual Worlds-Experimented Pasts", carried out by a team of artists and professors from the National University of Arts of Bucharest. The novelty of our approach consisted in creating an interactive European network of "communities of practice" through in situ and online classes. The challenge and contrast consisted in revitalizing the technological patrimony, ancient techniques and art practices by using state of the art technologies in education. The educational results and overall impact of the project will be detailed separately for each community with which we collaborated because of their different cultural contexts. The successful implementation of blended learning practices was a breakthrough for our team, contributing not only to a novel learning experience for communities and students but also to a higher degree of continuous professional improvement of our team.
Keywords: Artistic education; Time Maps; educational project; blended education.
I. TEACHING AND LEARNING 2020
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