ABSTRACT
In an 'Information Society', meanings are communicated in a wide range of media - from the presentation of the weather forecast, to the packaging of a breakfast cereal or the conventions of the animated cartoon. Visual literacy plays a key role in our ability to decode and encode meanings, both to establish communication and to express our ideas to others. In helping children to develop literacies appropriate to our modern society, we need to provide them with informed choices about the media they select to explore and express their visual ideas. What might ICT contribute to the development of a visual literacy which is creative and collaborative? How might children's creative experiences in the visual arts be extended by the use of ICT? What role might teachers and schools play in children's learning and creativity, which will build upon the wider culture of children's creative use of ICT? This chapter will focus on two projects in which contemporary artists have worked with children and teachers using digital technology in the visual arts. Each project presents some of the challenging possibilities that can arise from the interaction between the use of ICT in the visual arts in the primary curriculum and the learners, teachers and artists involved in the creative process.
