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1) The Electronic Art Museum in the Classroom
The Smithsonian Institution,
the Getty Museum,
the Joslyn Museum,
the Sheldon Museum
and the Museum of Nebraska Art are making more than 750 art images available to schools through the Internet, along with curriculum and contextual information for use by educators and students.
Museum educators are providing educational outreach programs that use technologies such as the Internet, kiosks, and interactive multi-media.
2) Computer-Based Educational Strategies
In collaboration with private companies, educators of disadvantaged
and underrepresented students are evaluating educational software for applicability to classroom settings and instructional objectives.
In addition, a technology mentor cadre of 13 educators is producing a comprehensive Internet guide to arts and technology resources available in print, and through ARTnet, an electronic communications network managed by the Nebraska Department of Education and Prairie Visions: The Nebraska Consortium for Discipline-Based Art Education.
These mentors conduct workshops to promote project activities, provide technical assistance via the Internet or telephone, and provide guidance in the selection of computer hardware and software.
3) Professional Development and Support for Educators
Through this program, educators of rural and urban disadvantaged
students participate in two-week museum-based institutes to enable
them to design curricula that use technology to integrate art and other core subjects. Students use electronic portfolios to record progress, and evaluators review the portfolios to provide guidance in improving art curricula. Participants access curriculum modules, digitized images and other museum resources through ARTnet. Through these activities, teachers gain valuable experience in reviewing, analyzing and integrating resources via the Internet. The program includes a comprehensive mentoring system, in which each teacher is assigned a technology mentor to assist with hardware, software and networking, and a curriculum integration mentor to assist with curriculum development and implementation.
4) Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Strategies
A minimum of 632 curriculum modules are being developed and
implemented, with a target of 90% teacher participation. The modules incorporate Internet digitized images and museum resources, multi-media projects, electronic portfolios, and other computer applications.
Target student goals include improved attendance rates, improved student attitudes, and higher student performance. Students from up to 100 Nebraska districts will experience art modules developed through project activities.
5) Nationwide Community for art and Technology Integration
The program is stimulating cross-state partnerships with the goal of replicating project activities throughout the country. The project issupporting four learning communities of educators and students.
Each community is engaged in educational activities which integrate the arts and technology with other core subjects to enable students to achieve high academic standards.
The communities are: 1) Nine Nebraska school districts serving isolated and disadvantaged students;
2) The nearly 100 school districts, nine colleges and universities, and four museums and art centers that comprise Prairie Visions;
3) Teams of arts
education leaders in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana and Kansas;
and 4) Regional institute grantees sponsored by The Getty Center for Education in the Arts at universities in California, Florida, Texas, Ohio, and Tennessee. A comprehensive evaluation of the entire project has been arranged through the Far West Laboratory in San Francisco.
The Westside Community School District has organized an effective consortium of museums, educational institutions and private industries that is using modern technology to bring some of the world's finest art into classrooms throughout the country.
[Manchester School District]