Choice of tool: Web Page/Web Site
Content: Acrylic Painting Online Class and Blog Circle
Audience: A range of ages, from middle school to high school, to college age and adults. The audience will include those persons who want to part of an online learning community AND want to learn acrylic painting.
I am thinking that my audience can include some school age children, but also those younger adults who are in college or adults who are out of school and would like to expand their range of interests. I want to create an online classroom with the resources I have available. I am currently taking a beginners level painting class at the Corcoran, and I find that my classroom experience is just enough instruction to form a foundation to get me started on this path to becoming a better painter, and that most of my learning comes from practice outside of the classroom and by asking questions to my teacher, classmates, and other artists.
Some of my paintings (most) are not so good, and I am not particularly inclined to show them off, but I really like the idea of sharing them with a group of other learners for feedback. I am envisioning for my final project a web site that contains some lessons (in video, photo, and mp3 format) and also has a place for collaboration (such as a blogging or forum area) where members can post photos of their paintings and have questions answered.
I am excited to get this project up and running to see if it increases my successes in learning. I want to see if an online classroom can enhance traditional learning by providing more guidance and attention than my once per week class can give me. I am also interested in finding out how successful a completely online visual arts classroom model can be. I’m not sure if it is possible to provide all-around great instruction/criticism/and technique in a stand-alone online format.
I am planning on beginning the web site with 3 posted lessons, 1 beginning, 1 intermediate, and one more advanced. These three lessons will of course not cover the entire semester’s worth of learning. They will undoubtedly contain holes as they are not meant to recreate an entire semester of traditional classroom learning, but a sampling of selected lessons that will benefit from the additional online learning. Each lesson will include some form of digital instruction, preferably in video format. Following each lesson, I am hoping “students” will sign on to post comments and share their assignments. I will begin the discussion by posting my own work and asking for feedback. I am thinking that my painting teacher may be willing to join the online classroom and answer some questions.
I am not an expert web builder, so I may need Selila to let me know if I am being too far fetched with some of these ideas. I would like to include a way for users to create their artist/student blogs on my site. This will involve me having to learn how much server space I will need for my site, and how to install/use the WordPress software (does this sound ridiculous?)
In order to evaluate whether or not my online classroom has enhanced the participants learning experience, I will need to get this project underway immediately and so that I can get participation from others ASAP. I am thinking that I can probably get my classmates to participate in the online classroom. In order to ensure that it is up soon, I may need to only involve one lesson. What do you guys think? Is my project way too meaty and overzealous?
I am very enthusiastic about the idea of online learning extending into the visual arts. I am only aware of one school in California that provides a higher ed degree in the visual arts that is completely online. A friend of mine enrolled in it, and apparently it was such a bad experience that she dropped out after one semester. Maybe some subjects just don’t lend themselves well to online learning, but my hope is that this experiment will prove that this newer format can augment traditional classroom instruction for the visual arts.
