bernard robin, ph.d. associate professor of instructional technology university of houston - college...

Bernard Robin, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Instructional Technology University of Houston - College of Education

Community-Based, Educational Web Projects for the Arts: The Continuing Challenge of Meeting the Needs of

Students, Clients, Subjects and Web Visitors

Community-Based, Educational Web Projects for the Arts

University of Houston/Community Partnerships

Urban, Multicultural, Focus on Education

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Texas Southern University Art

Department

Blaffer Art Gallery


Educational Partnerships

1997: Bayou Bend Web Site Discussion Begins

MFAH: Seeking Innovative Uses of New Technology that Enhance Public Access to the Arts

UH: Seeking Meaningful Web Design Projects for Instructional Technology Graduate Students

Result: A Graduate-Level, Collaborative, Project-Based Web Design Course

In the Beginning…


• Increased richness of students’ learning through increased relevance and greater motivation -March

• Students become empowered when they work on actual projects with actual clients; and

• Classroom becomes a testing ground for managing group dynamics and interpersonal skills -March & Puma

of Other Educational Web Projects

Theoretical Framework

• Students learn to work in teams, enhance their communication skills, and gain experience in project management and planning -M-DCPS

• Specific roles for each of the stakeholders based on their expertise, level of commitment, and ability to participate in the creation of digital resources -Frost


• proficient use of productivity, authoring, multimedia, graphic, and web tools

• proficiency in planning, facilitating, and assessing learner-centered instruction

• understanding instructional design and development theories, models, and processes

• creation of effective electronic learning materials to address such facets as design, layout, navigation, text, and multimedia

Theoretical Framework

• the ability to use technology to communicate with broad audiences for and to locate necessary information through multiple sources

• the ability to effectively work, problem-solve, and research through social interactions in diverse team environments

• fluency with technology planning and policy making, project and information management


Integrating Community Content: A Real-World Curriculum

1. Real-World Projects to Solve Authentic Problems

2. Investigations and Data Collection by Students

3. Cross-Disciplinary, Multicultural Collaborative Teams

4. Creative Approaches to Presenting Information Online and though Emerging Technologies

5. Community Partners as Content Experts and Course Facilitators


Demonstration of the Web Projects


The Challenges

1Projects Cover Successive Semesters

2 Extensive Amounts of Multi-Layered Content

3 University: Limited Understanding of Organization’s Policies; Organizations: Limited Experience Developing Technology-Based Materials

4 Changing Expectations of the Clients

5 Different Expectations of the Students


The Project Stakeholders

The Subjects of the web projects or their caretakers…

Graduate Students who design and create the web projects…

Web Visitors to the sites...

The Clients for whom the projects are created…

Other Content Providers such as teachers & students…


The Graduate Students

Unsure how to deal with assertive client

Biggest Challenges

Effectively managing group process & meeting deadlines

Worried about working in a team

Creating an identity for the web site

Learning to use FrontPage

Unclear client expectations

Frustrating by client's numerous design change suggestions

Balancing contradictory demands of accessibility for users and developing dynamic visual imagery

Copyright issues, especially for images



Able to create a very professional looking website client was happy with

Greatest Accomplishments

Effectively managing group process & meeting deadlines

Website was true to the subject’s vision, and was cohesive & informative

Zeroing in on an identity and pleasing design

Client was excited about the depth of content

Creation of an educational site that can be the focus of my dissertation research

Completing the project by working together as a team

Ending the semester with several usable components and ideas for where to go next

A site that reaches a broad audience with multiple points of entry



Not being able to complete the project

Biggest Disappointments

Not enough time to experiment, would like to have learned more JavaScript

Too much miscommunication and lost time between team members

Not enough time to work with so much content

That we didn't do even more with the project

Lack of ownership by other students, who later became involved in the project

It took so long that it was difficult for students that came in the 2nd semester to understand the value of what had been done in the 1st semester and build on it rather than tossing it all out and starting over



How to work for a real client & focus on their vision for the website

Most Significant Things Learned

What it takes to design something that people will actually want to use

How to use FrontPage & not to be intimidated by the skills of others

How to distribute responsibility in a team

First time for me to work on a “real” project

I have worked in many group projects but never really was the leader of a project. I learned more about working in a project and managing it than anything else

Goals should be agreed upon early and as specific as possible. Miscommunication could be lessened if team members submitted several ideas for each component, read and reviewed each other’s ideas and had the opportunity to discuss the ideas and come up with a collective decision


The Graduate Students Would not recommend the course to students with minimal technical skills

Other Comments

Enjoyed this course because it required students to truly integrate technology into a learning situation

Project was unusual and challenging, but a wonderful learning experience

I think the focus of the course should be on project management and teamwork, not new skills development

Was the closest thing I had experienced to working on an actual consulting job with a design team

The client had very strong responses to graphical imagery. She wanted something strong and moving. It was interesting that the distortion of the art works wasn’t an issue, although we almost dismissed the idea because of that aspect.



It would have been good if our group had shared our answers to some of the questions asked in our earlier assignments about project goals and personal goals

Other CommentsI was very impressed with the relationship that formed between the team & the client. They were truly professional and punctual in communicating with us and really made this project a priority.

Each student should have a designated role, which is assigned by a project manager based on their skills and interests

It might be helpful to make questions for the clients before the first meeting that will more specifically reveal the scope of the project

Open-ended directives are not as desirable as one may envision


The Clients

…how extremely happy we all are about the results of our collaboration on the Chuck Close web site. It is really wonderful.

…museum education staff served as both client and teacher-sometimes found themselves in a conflicting role as they attempted to teach students but also wanted a professional, polished website

…the strength of the partnership, its educational focus, was also its major drawback: pace of progress was often slow and frustrating


The SubjectsLast week I had the opportunity to sit with Chuck (Close) himself and go through the site. He loved it!

…museum education staff served as both client and teacher-sometimes found themselves in a conflicting role as they attempted to teach students but also wanted a professional, polished website

…the strength of the partnership, its educational focus, was also its major drawback: pace of progress was often slow and frustrating

…realized that even the best intentions are not always enough to overcome long standing political, cultural feuds and ensuing distrust


The Web VisitorsUsing LiveStats (from DeepMetrix, Inc)


K-12 Teachers and Students

Add student movie reviews for the Screening America website.

Test educational materials with participating teachers and students Have students

create videos using themes from Screening America


What We Have Learned

1. Course assignments should more closely match topics covered in class

2. Integrate hands-on assignments to more closely align with development work for clients

3. Allow current students to have access to previous students’ assignments

4. Continuously survey students to learn what works and what does not

5. Allow students to have group work time as part of each class meeting


Next Steps

1. Discuss the expectations and requirements of the students earlier in the semester

2. Have students discuss personal and professional goals earlier in the semester

3. Develop questions for the clients that will reveal more specifically the scope of the project

4. Have each student choose a designated role based on their skills and interests – this differs slightly from the recommendation that the project manager should choose a designated role for each team member and gives students some voice in the role they will play within the team


Next Steps

5. Designate, or have each team designate a project manager for each collaborative group and spend more time on project management and teamwork issues instead of just new skills development

6. Have more specific assignments with less “open-ended directives” for students

7. Work more with public school teachers and students in the design, development and evaluation of educational resources


Next Steps

9. Add more multimedia clips (such as those demonstrated on the Screening America site) to the projects and work on resolving copyright images

9. Increase the use of data-gathering software on current and future web projects

10.Add communication resources to the sites


Not The End…Bernard Robin

[email protected]


Recommendations• Be prepared to educate students about the museum's mission, organization, and

functions; • Designate a staff member with knowledge of the subject matter to work with university

faculty and students throughout the project as the primary liaison; • Authorize and encourage other museum departments to cooperate, especially:

a. Curatorial;b. Education;c. Publications;d. Registrare. Library;f. Slide or image library;g. Rights and Reproductions;h. Museum photographer;i. Public Affairsj. Information Technology and Webmaster.

• Provide tours and special access to the relevant collections for the students; • Provide facilities for class meetings in the museum; • Give students memberships or free admission; • Become familiar with relevant web sites; • Review the students' work frequently and provide constructive criticism; • Host the final presentations to acknowledge the students' work.


Recommendations1. Focus on your permanent collection and on those works of art which have

been published, have been the focus of research, for which you have images and curatorial expertise. The great challenge of working with temporary exhibitions is that text and images are often not ready far enough in advance for students to have enough time to develop the site.

2. Begin with projects that do not have definite time restrictions. An exhibition Web site has to be ready to launch a month or so before an exhibition opens. A component of the museum Web site focusing on an aspect of the permanent collection often has greater flexibility and the museum can respond to the needs of students developing the site.

3. Be realistic in the scope of your initial projects. The Bayou Bend Web site was developed from three existing brochures focusing on Bayou Bend’s collection, founder, and gardens and architecture. Students had access to abundant research and images. The Grandeur of Viceregal Mexico project had little advance scholarship accessible in English; few texts on the specific objects; few images until well into the project.


Recommendations4. Be prepared to spend a significant amount of time working with faculty and

students. MFAH project director and education director, Beth Schneider, attended the weekly 3-hour meeting of the Web design class; facilitated the student group working on the exhibition introduction; and was the conduit for all content information, images, and text approvals. The project also required frequent meetings with faculty and curators.

5. Be aware that some projects are not appropriate for students. The online catalogue was first assigned to a graduate student who was just learning Cold Fusion with less than hoped for results. The most efficient solution to this problem was for the museum to pay a UH staff member expert in Cold Fusion and a graduate student who were able to complete the project on time and with significantly greater expertise.

6. In a classroom setting, the museum is not a traditional client and university faculty and students are not traditional contractors. Student learning is the focus of the classes. Learning to work with actual clients is a part of that process, but not the most important part. The museum staff members involved in the project need to balance the educational needs and goals of the students and faculty and the needs of the museum in creating a final project. This can be a very delicate and sensitive process.

bernard robin, ph.d. associate professor of instructional technology university of houston - college...

Documents

meaningful web design

realworld projects

actual projects

web visitors

arts educational partnerships

community content

web tools proficiency

arts demonstration