Middle school art and the Internet

This graduate project focuses on the efforts of one middle school art teacher to integrate the Internet into the middle school art curriculum at one middle school in Iowa. Classrooms with Internet access increased to 63 percent in 2000 (National Center for Education Statistics, 2000) with similar numbers of school age children ( 65 percent) having Internet access in their homes (U.S. Census Bureau, 2001). Art teachers have been reluctant to embrace this technology (Matthews, 1997) even though many art education resources exist on the Internet. The Internet can provide a vast resource of artwork from web sites published by museums and galleries around the world as well as providing a means to publish artwork with the potential of worldwide exposure. Through careful orchestration, art instructors can bring engaging and valuable Internet experiences to middle school students. This project describes the author\u27s attempt to integrate Internet experiences into the middle school art curriculum. The project encompassed: (a) setting up an Internet computer lab in the art classroom; (b) identifying valuable and useful web sites; ( c) designing lessons; (d) creating an art classroom web site; and (e) establishing teacher-to-teacher and student-to-student Internet connections. Results of this project indicated the integration into the art curriculum of the Internet (with supporting technologies) can result in: (a) positive and motivating effects on student learning; (b) valuable resources for a studio-based program; ( c) the creation of artistic opportunities not available through other means; ( d) and student construction of learning in new and meaningful ways