Art History.cc

Art History.cc

      Art History.cc is a website that is dedicated to Art history and though it does not appear to have been updated in over a decade it provides a wealth of information and is easily navigated.  There are 185 artists briefly profiled on the site with examples of their work.  The Timeline tool provides information on artistic movements and periods with artist examples to further student understanding.

     This website will be used in the classroom to provide students with an additional resources when completing their art time period and/or artist research assignment.  The student can easily navigate the site and find examples of work that characterize their chosen movement/period or artist.  Each topic is explained in clear and easy to understand langue that makes the information accessible to wide range of readers.

Art History Timeline Video

Art History Timeline

     This is an eight minute video created for an assignment by a student.  It covers 400 years of art history beginning with the Baroque style and spanning until Modern Art movements.  Each movement provides dates, examples of work and concise explanations of the movement's principals.  The chronological progression of the movements discusses how the movements relate to each other.  There is a massive amount of information about each movement delivered in a concise engaging and, most importantly, easy to understand format.

     This video would be best implemented in the art history unit as a class showing with reading guides to highlight important information about the artistic movements.  As students view the film they will complete a teacher provided guide.  The information comes very quickly so it is unlikely that every student will complete each question.  To make up for this the video will be shown twice and then a class wide discussion of the reading guide should make sure that each student has all parts of the guide complete.  The various periods and examples of work can then be discussed and critiqued by the class, pausing the film for examples of art form each period.

Web 2.0 Tools and the Classroom Video

Web 2.0 Tools and the Classroom

     This is a YouTube video authored by Michael Weldon the explains exactly what the title stats "Web 2.0 Tools for the Classroom".  The video first explains what Web 2.0 is is all about.  The video focuses on Blogs, Podcasts and Wikis as tools, Then explains the applications to the classroom.  This is a fairly basic overview of Web 2.0 and how it can be implemented in the classroom, though it does offer some clever suggestions of Web 2.0 uses in the classroom.

     Student blogs, teacher blogs, class wikis, class subject wiki's and teacher podcasts are just a few of the ways Weldon explains that web 2.0 can be used in the classroom.  This video is a wonderful introduction to Web 2.0 in the classroom and provides a platform for educators to spring from using their own creativity and strengths.

Logo Creator for Web 2.0

How can an educator customize their web 2.0 site to make it visually interesting?

     Once an educator has started implementing various web 2.0 tools and resources to aid their students learning it is important to make those sites visually interesting.  A captivating site will draw student attention, make it look better, and add a great deal personality to, what could be an otherwise uninteresting and boring tool for students.
     A simple logo design will fulfill the need for design.  "Logo Creator Beta" is a Web 2.0 tool that allows the user to create a personalized logo for their sites.  There are 5 different presets to start from, after a starting point is selected the user can choose from various fonts, colors, backgrounds and badges.  After every setting has been chosen a logo is created for the user to save and add to their sites.  This useful tool is far easier to use than an expensive graphics program and is only in its beta phase, meaning that it should improve over time.
Logo Creator

ArtHistory.net

Art History

     Art History.net is a very cleverly designed website, instead of naming dates and giving movements, artists and examples the author takes a different approach.  There is a whole section devoted to "Art Styles and Periods" this has a wide variety of movements or styles.  Each style has a easy to understand, read and most importantly concise definition of the movement and its historical significance.  Artworks, artists and dates are mentioned but the movement and its qualities are the focus of each description.  There is also a section of famous artists, with descriptions of each and a section on mediums.
     The "Art Styles and Periods" section will be very helpful in describing he art history unit.  Each week a style or period can be introduced to students using this website as the basis for the introduction.  Students can be given printouts of the periods and read together as a class about the style or period.

Art History Resources

Art History Resources

     The Art History Resources website is authored by Dr. Christopher L.C.E. Witcombe an art historian and professor at Sweet Briar College in Virginia.  His website chronicles and links to resources from the  prehistoric era to the present day art movements.  There are extensive links to meaningful works of art in every part of the history of art.  In my exploration of this impressive collection of artworks and artists I found a few links that were no longer active, this shortcoming is easily overshadowed by the sheer volume of information.  It would take an unreasonable amount of time to explore every time period, artist and meaningful work of art, the website is so in depth and detailed. 

     This site would serve as a primary resource in Art History Unit research project.  Each student would be assigned a specific period in art history.  The students would then use the Art History Resources website to research their assigned time period, identifying meaningful works and influential artists that characterize the time period in art history.

EDU 551 Web 2.0 Group member topics

Brendan Coleman - Designing a Digital Classroom
Christina Delgado - Negative Effects of Web 2.0 in an Educational Setting
Jon Cortney - Educational Applications of Social Networking
Eileen Clements - Everything Wiki