Internet Tools for Studying International Art

Thanks to technology, international art is reaching out to new audiences of teachers and students who are limited only by their imaginations as they explore a treasure of art from around the world on sites like . . .

· Japan: Resources for a Visual Arts Theme Unit is a site featuring a teaching unit on the study of Japanese art, including crafts that focus on the topics of Japanese shrines, castles, theater, calligraphy, and temples.

· Art India a comprehensive collection of visual and performing art forms

· The Islamic Art Collection at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

· Surrounded by Beauty Arts of Native America

· Latin American and Caribbean Art An excellent resource directory compiles by Gerhard Haupt & Pat Binder that serves as a directory to a wide variety of quality sites related to Latin American and Caribbean Art & Pat Binder.

· Egypt Fun Guide from Bush Gardens—Tampa, FL a site that features interactive activities like crossword puzzles, a mummy maze, making a cartouche, and Hieroglyphics.

· Asian Art.com a series of links to Asian art exhibitions from museums, galleries, and universities featuring fine Asian art both current and past.

· ARTcapades provides free activities for young students, including monolingual Spanish speakers

· The Art Teacher's Guide to the Internet is a site featuring ideas, tools, and resources for teaching art and design in a digital age.

· Art Journey is a site where students can create and post their artwork in a public gallery

· The Blog Wee Made is a user-generated showcase for sharing artwork and creativity of kids.

According to the 2007 results of The 2nd Annual Internet Survey for Art Teachers (a follow-up survey to an on-line 2005 Survey, created by Craig Roland, University of Florida) the new capabilities of the Web have not yet been fully explored and adopted by art teachers in their classrooms.

While the use of e-mail communication, listservers, instant messaging, blogging, personal research, online shopping and professional development—like enrolling in online courses—is prevalent, according to the results of the survey (collected from approx. two hundred K-12 teachers), the use of the Internet and various digital technologies and devices like . . .

· Computers

· Interactive education resources

· Still and video cameras

· Cell phones

· CD and or DVD burners/players

· Scanners

· iPods

· PDA’s (personal data assistants)

· Smart boards

· Color printers

· Video projectors

. . . are being unrealized in the 21^st Century art classroom as innovative learning tools for helping students publish their work online, design their own Web sites and collaborate on art projects with students in other schools or countries.

And while the survey results do also offer some encouraging signs that the Internet has found a place in many art classrooms today, the full benefits of the Internet as a creative teaching and learning tool in 21^st Century art classrooms has not been fully realized.

Undoubtedly, the underutilization and disadvantages with technology in the K-12 classrooms is partly due to a limited access to enough updated computers, software, and hardware, as well as restrictive school policies regarding Internet use. However, it is also likely that the underutilization of classroom technology within art curriculums is due to many teachers having a limited knowledge of how to integrate the Internet into an art curriculum, and or limited amount of time available in school and at home to research appropriate Internet resources for classroom use.

However, as art teachers begin using technology in the classroom in the same way their students have already figured out and use on a daily basis—outside of school—they will find inspiring new ways to move beyond thinking of the Internet merely as an information repository and to begin exploring the Web's capacity to empower students to take a more active role in their own education.

Related articles include . . .

• Using the Internet As A Teaching Tool In Art Education which provides a sampling of internet tools for teaching art history and generating a broad range of art learning experiences.

• Internet Tools For Creating K-12 Art Education Lessons which provides a sampling of internet tools for creating K-12 technology lesson plans and curriculum ideas, studying the core elements used to create works of art.