ARTS EDUCATION RESOURCES WEBSITE
Caroline Jane Firman
B.A., University of California, Davis, 2006
PROJECT
Submitted in partial satisfaction of
the requirements for the degree of
MASTER OF ARTS
in
EDUCATION
(Curriculum and Instruction)
at
CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, SACRAMENTO
SPRING
2010
ARTS EDUCATION RESOURCES WEBSITE
A Project
by
Caroline Jane Firman
Approved by:
__________________________________, Committee Chair
Karen D. Benson, Ph.D.
____________________________
Date
ii
Student: Caroline Jane Firman
I certify that this student has met the requirements for format contained in the University format
manual, and that this project is suitable for shelving in the Library and credit is to be awarded for
the Project.
__________________________, Associate Chair
Rita M. Johnson, Ed. D.
Department of Teacher Education
iii
________________
Date
Abstract
of
ARTS EDUCATION RESOURCES WEBSITE
by
Caroline Jane Firman
This project is an Alternative Culminating Experience for a Master of Arts in Education:
Curriculum and Instruction with an Elective Emphasis on Arts in Education. It follows Pathway
V: Art Educator as Advocate and Leader Promoting Arts Confident Teachers through
Professional Development.
This project aimed to provide Sacramento area teachers with a Web site to gather resources
about arts education and to network with other teachers in order to encourage and aid them in
incorporating the arts into their classroom teaching.
The author created a resource and social networking website for Sacramento area
teachers interested in gathering resources for arts education and for learning more about how to
integrate the arts into their classroom teaching. The resource portion of the site provides teachers
with resources for arts education such as relevant articles, a listing of applicable grants, different
arts education programs, useful links, and other related information such as blogs and other useful
websites. The social networking portion provides a place to post lesson plans, photos and videos,
to discuss issues and questions in a forum and to be able to blog about arts education related
topics such as the achievements they are making in the classroom in regards to arts education.
After the creation of the site, the author conducted significant marketing in order to broadcast the
site to pertinent individuals.
iv
While the initial outcome did not result in a widespread or large audience for the site, it
connected the author with important individuals in arts in education and shows promise for a
greater following and use if more time is spent marketing and maintaining the website in the
months and years to come.
_______________________, Committee Chair
Karen D. Benson, Ph.D.
_______________________
Date
v
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to acknowledge Karen Benson, my advisor, for all her guidance and effort in helping
me to complete the writing of this project and for pushing me to the limits to finish it ahead of
schedule. I would also like to thank Crystal Olson and Lorie Hammond for providing me with
the education necessary to undertake this project and to the three of them for acknowledging that
the arts are important and for providing such a program for those who wish to advocate for arts in
education. My thanks go to Chia-Jung Chung for reviewing my project and website with detail. In
addition, I would like to thank all those who have made the Arts Education Resources website a
success by distributing it and by using it. Finally, I would like to thank my husband, Arek, and
my parents for supporting and aiding me in the creation and writing of this project and for
understanding my passion for arts education.
vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Acknowledgments........................................................................................................................... vi
Chapter
1. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 1
2. REVIEW OF RELEVANT LITERATURE .............................................................................. 7
3. THE PROCESS ....................................................................................................................... 27
4. REFLECTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS .................................................................... 37
Appendix A. [Website Screenshots] ............................................................................................ 45
Appendix B. [Community Screenshots] ...................................................................................... 58
Appendix C. [Marketing E-mails] ............................................................................................... 60
Appendix D. [e-Newsletters] ....................................................................................................... 62
Appendix E. [Flyer] ..................................................................................................................... 64
Appendix F. [Feedback]............................................................................................................... 65
Appendix G. [Web Analytics] ..................................................................................................... 66
Appendix H. [Survey Instrument]................................................................................................ 68
References ...................................................................................................................................... 70
vii
1
Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
Purpose of the Study
This project is an Alternative Culminating Experience for a Master of Arts in Education:
Curriculum and Instruction with an Elective Emphasis on Arts in Education. It follows Pathway
V: Art Educator as Advocate and Leader Promoting Arts Confident Teachers through
Professional Development. This project involved the creation of both a resource website and
social networking site for Sacramento area teachers who are interested in gathering resources for
arts education and for learning more about how to integrate the arts into their classroom teaching.
This website provides teachers with both resources for arts education and with a place for them to
post lesson plans, photos and videos, to discuss issues and questions in a forum, and the ability to
blog about arts education related topics, such as achievements made in the classroom in regard to
arts education. The resource portion of the site has categories for recent articles in arts education,
a listing of grants that teachers may apply for, a calendar of arts events in the area, a listing of
different arts education programs, useful links, and other arts education related information such
as blogs about arts education and other useful arts education websites.
This website is important because it provides teachers with the resources needed to learn
more about arts education and with the ability to network and learn from other teachers who have
been/are successful in incorporating the arts into their classrooms. Currently a website of this
kind aimed at Sacramento area teachers does not exist. While websites that separately provide
resources or social networking for arts educators are available, there does not appear to be one
that integrates the two into one place. Social Networking is something that has come into being in
the last few years and is becoming more and more popular every day. The researcher provided
arts educators with a place to interact with one another, so that they might in turn learn necessary
2
information and gather valuable resources in order to further the learning of arts in their
classrooms. In addition, many classroom teachers would like to be able to teach the arts in their
classrooms, but they do not know how to do so. This website provided them with ways in which
to teach the arts from teachers that have already been successful.
This website is primarily aimed at Sacramento area teachers, but anyone is welcome to
participate. It is accessible to anyone interested in arts education. This completely web-based
project draws the majority of its materials from other websites.
The researcher began the project by surveying several teachers to find out what types of
information they would find useful for a website and what sorts of things would encourage them
to use it. This survey was e-mailed out in order to keep with the web-based context of the project.
From the results of this survey and from the categories the researcher had already thought about
including, a website was created. To create this website, the researcher had to conduct extensive
research in order to gather the crucial resources and to make her website as informative as
possible. Using primarily the Internet, she gathered information about arts events in the area to
create a calendar, about grants in arts education that teachers could apply for, recent articles
regarding arts education, other websites that may be useful to those that use her website, a listing
of different arts education programs in the area, different photos, videos or sound clips that
pertain to arts education, the California Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) standards, and any
other information that teachers may have asked for as a result of the survey they fill out. Before
making the website live, the researcher spent time making sure that it was informative and once it
was ready to go, she e-mailed those teachers who participated in the survey and encouraged them
to start using the site. The researcher also asked teachers to pass on the information about the
website in hope that it would reach as many Sacramento area teachers as possible. She kept the
website updated as often as time permitted, at least weekly, with new events, news, articles, and
3
important information. The researcher had the website up and running by the beginning of July so
that visitors would have time during the summer to use it and gain the information they need to
begin implementing arts lesson plans in the fall. In mid-October to early November, she sent
another survey via e-mail to find out if the website served as useful, and if any achievements in
regards to arts education were made in teachers’ classrooms. This survey also asked teachers to
comment on any additions or changes they might make to the website to further its development.
After the researcher’s initial research was complete, she continued to run the website and kept it
updated in hope that it might expand statewide. If it proved to be successful such that those who
found it useful would continue to use it, she hoped those teachers would provide their students
with the arts in the classroom.
The first section of the researcher’s literature review centers upon theories and practices in
arts and education. This section includes reading from John Dewey’s book Art as Experience
(1934), The Kind of Schools We Need (1998), by Elliot Eisner, Howard Gardner’s theory of
multiple intelligences (1983) and Philosophy of Education: Learning and Schooling (1967) by
Donald Arnstine. The second section focuses on the definition of social networking and how it is
being currently used in education both for teachers and students. Some articles included in this
section are What You Need to Know About Web 2.0 by Catherine Imperatore, Don’t Be Afraid to
Explore Web 2.0 by John Thompson, Can Web 2.0 Improve our Collaboration? by Rhoades,
Friedel, and Morgan, and Web 2.0: New Tools, New Schools by Solomon and Schrum. The third
and final section discusses how to create successful websites and social networks and includes
literature by experts in the field such as How to Develop a Successful Social Networking Strategy
by T. Barkan and The Official Successful Website Checklist Challenge by Matt Jurmann.
The main focus of the researcher’s research focused upon gathering resources for the
website and documenting them in the culmination of the site. The Internet provided the majority
4
of this information but also information was gathered from newspapers, magazines and other
publications, the teachers themselves (by asking them to submit information such as events going
on in their schools), and any other pieces of information she stumbled upon in her everyday life
such as fliers or books. The other portion of her research involved the surveying of teachers to
understand what they might find useful in the website, and following up at a later date and see if
the website served its purpose and helped teachers to implement the arts in their classrooms.
With optimism, this website will help educators to incorporate the arts into their classrooms
so that children are given the opportunity to experience this form of subject matter. It provides a
place for educators to go to ask advice of other teachers when they need to know how to teach the
arts or are having issues incorporating it into their curriculum. In addition, the website is a place
teachers can visit to stay informed about current events in arts education. Ultimately, the
researcher's goal is to expand this website to a national level (if it proves successful locally) so
that teachers across the United States will have access to the necessary resources in order to use
the arts in their classrooms.
This website informs teachers about arts education, what resources are available, and how
they can use them in their teaching. It is significant because technology and social networking
have become so popular in this day and age and it demonstrates that connecting teachers through
the Internet can be important and effective in developing teaching. More and more younger
teachers are coming into the profession, and the younger generation is typically the one using
social networking; therefore, it aids those younger teachers in developing their careers and
ultimately there might be a stronger presence of arts education in the classroom as a result of this
website.
Significant terms in the development of this project focus primarily on technology. Terms
that need to be defined include:
5
Blog: a website that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and
often hyperlinks provided by the writer (Merriam-Webster).
Content Management System: a computer application used to manage work flow needed
to collaboratively create, edit, review, index, search, publish and archive various kinds of
digital media and electronic text (Wikipedia).
Domain: a common network name under which a collection of network devices are
organized (Wikipedia).
Forum: a medium (as a newspaper or online service) of open discussion or expression of
ideas (Merriam-Webster).
Podcast: a series of digital computer files, usually either digital audio or video, that is
released periodically and made available for download by means of web syndication
(Wikipedia).
Social Network: a social structure made of nodes (which are generally individuals or
organizations) that are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as
values, visions, ideas, financial exchange, friendship, sexual relationships, kinship,
dislike, conflict or trade (Wikipedia).
Web 1.0: refers to the state of the World Wide Web, and any website design style used
before the advent of the Web 2.0 phenomenon (Wikipedia).
Web 2.0: a second generation of the World Wide Web that is focused on the ability for
people to collaborate and share information online (Webopedia).
Web Analytics: the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of Internet data for
purposes of understanding and optimizing web usage (Wikipedia).
Website: a collection of related web pages, images, videos or other digital assets that are
addressed with a common domain name or IP address in an Internet Protocol-based
6
network (Wikipedia)
Wiki: a website that allows visitors to make changes, contributions, or corrections
(Merriam-Webster).
Limitations
The main obstacle that the researcher foresaw in this project was the targeting of the older
generation of teachers who do not utilize the Internet as much or do not know how to use it. In
addition, encouraging all teachers to use this website might be difficult as they may have felt that
they did not have enough time to use it or did not see it as beneficial to them. Finally, finding a
website host to use that allowed the researcher to incorporate the resource portion with the social
networking may have be difficult as there are many websites out there that target solely social
networking, but not many that incorporate this new technology with traditional websites.
7
Chapter 2
REVIEW OF RELEVANT LITERATURE
There are various theories and practices that relate to the arts in education and many of
them share numerous similarities and connections. John Dewey, an American philosopher of
education, provided theories that were expanded upon by philosophers such as Donald Arnstine
and Elliot Eisner. These theories are also evident in teaching practices such as Education Through
Music. This literature review will explore these theories and how they connect with one another
and then will go on to explain how they are evident in current teaching practices of the arts. Next,
a review of literature focusing on the definitions of Web 2.0 and Social Networking will be
discussed, as well as how these tools are being used for the education and professional
development of teachers. Finally, literature spotlighting the importance of creating successful
social networks and websites will be presented.
John Dewey defined a real experience as one that has a beginning, a middle, and an end.
One undergoes a constant process of doing and undergoing in which “the material experienced
runs its course to fulfillment” (Dewey, 1934, p. 36). A real experience can be as significant as “a
quarrel with one who was once an intimate” (Dewey, 1934, p. 37), or as small as “a meal in
Paris” (Dewey, 1934, p.37), but as long as it flows and it is unified, it is, indeed, a real
experience. Real experiences also involve awareness of what one is doing such as how “a painter
must consciously undergo the effect of his every brush stroke” (Dewey, 1934, p.47), a musician
must be aware of every note he or she is playing or singing, and an actor must be aware of every
line he or she is speaking.
These real experiences that Dewey described are also aesthetic experiences, that is, if the
experience is unified and involves one’s past, present and future. When undergoing a true
8
experience, one draws upon values from previous experiences in order to formulate the current
experience, and, in turn, the current experience would draw upon in future experiences. Dewey
(1934) believed that the questions that arise when one is self-reflective about engagement with art
forms are explored by aesthetic theory; therefore, if one is truly reflecting on what he or she is
doing at that present moment in time and allowed to explore what he or she feels personally
drawn to, the experience will be fulfilling and will also be an aesthetic experience.
The notion of aesthetic experiences is also apparent in the ideas of John Berger, an
English art critic, who discussed the relationship between words and images in his book, Ways of
Seeing. For example, Berger discussed the following:
Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak. But
there is also another sense in which seeing comes before words. It is seeing which
established our place in the surrounding world; we explain that world with words, but
words can never undo the fact that we are surrounded by it. The relation between what
we see and what we know is never settled. Each evening we see the sun set. We know
that the earth is turning away from it. Yet the knowledge, the explanation, never quite
fits the sight. (Berger, 1972, p.7)
Connecting Berger’s ideas to Dewey’s, one might say that by really seeing something,
one is experiencing it. Children experience before they can speak, and this makes experiences
central to one’s life as a whole. If children are not able to see and experience as infants, how then
would they learn to speak if they have do not have anything to formulate into language? The
ability to speak does not hold much value if one does not have anything to translate into words.
The words one utters are based on one’s experiences, and, thus, without experience words would
not be meaningful. Therefore, the ability to truly experience will result in the ability to create
meaning out of words. Berger’s notions relate to aesthetic experiences because by seeing
9
something and experiencing the beauty of it without the need to formulate it into words, one is
experiencing through feeling.
It is evident that in the eyes of Dewey and other theorists, many components are
necessary in order to formulate real experiences. For example, the right conditions must also be
present. Donald Arnstine, a professor of education at the University of California, Davis (UC
Davis), agreed with Dewey in this aspect. A correlation that can be seen between Dewey and
Arnstine is that the correct conditions must be in place for a true experience. Dewey (1934)
discussed how different conditions form the basis for how arts are viewed. For example, he
stated that as the conditions for creating art in the past changed, art became more segregated and
put on a pedestal, rather than a focus on its aesthetics (Dewey, 1934, p. 4-7). It became part of
everyday life. Dewey believed that all the necessary parts need to be there in order to create the
right conditions for a true experience. He felt that one cannot have a true experience without
understanding all of its parts (its conditions). He provided an example that in order to understand
how plants grow, one must start with the “soil, air and light out of which things aesthetically
arise” and in turn, these conditions will make “an ordinary experience complete” (Dewey, 1932,
p.11).
This feeds into Arnstine’s ideas that the right conditions must be set for learning, and
learning is an experience: “Without satisfying the prerequisite learning conditions that have been
discussed, it will not matter very much what appears in the curriculum” (Arnstine, 1967, p.35).
Arnstine believed that a huge part of creating a sufficient curriculum is creating the right
conditions for learning. Creating these conditions is very dependent on the teacher. The teacher
must select the curriculum based on what is socially relevant; he or she must organize the
curriculum in a way that promotes learning; and the curriculum should be selected based on the
teacher’s own knowledge and competence and linked to the students he or she is teaching. If all
10
of these factors are taken into account, the correct conditions for learning will be present. The
students will be better able to learn and, therefore, better able to have meaningful learning
experiences.
One can take Arnstine’s views of creating the correct conditions for learning and compare
them to Dewey’s beliefs about creating the appropriate conditions for having a real experience. In
Arnstine’s eyes, learning involves a true experience in the Deweyan sense, for without those
conditions that the teacher must create, learning will not be meaningful. As children acquire the
appropriate dispositions for meaningful learning, if they have access to adequate conditions, they,
in turn, will start having meaningful experiences. This idea is summed up well by Arnstine: “For
as one learns to learn, he acquires knowledge, skills, and attitudes whereby he both wishes to
pursue and is capable of pursuing more detailed and specific problems and topics” (Arnstine,
1967, p.360).
Arnstine’s views on curriculum also extend on the ideas of Dewey. Arnstine stated that
“children come to class with very different kinds and qualities of experiences (Arnstine, 1967,
p.368), and if one is to look at that from the perspective of Dewey, those experiences are
influencing the curriculum. One can take Dewey’s idea that an experience is constant with a
beginning, middle, and an end and apply it to Arnstine’s thoughts. For example, if each child has
a different experience, and teachers must base the curriculum on the needs of children, they then
are in turn presenting conditions for the next experience. A child’s previous experience leads to
the next one and, therefore, is continuous.
Arnstine (1967) also talked about how children cannot really learn through constant drills
and repetitions unless they have already formed the dispositions needed to acquire this skill. This
relates to Dewey’s argument that unless the experience has run its course to fulfillment, it cannot
be true experience. It will be mechanical and “inchoate” (Dewey, 1934, p.36).
11
To truly have a real experience, one also needs to be a well-rounded individual. Elliot
Eisner, a professor of education and art at Stanford University and renowned philosopher of
education, strongly believed:
What we ought to be developing in schools is not simply a narrow array of literacy
skills limited to a restrictive range of meaning systems, but a spectrum of literacies
that will enable students to participate in, enjoy, and find meaning in the major forms
through which meaning has been constituted (Eisner, 1998, p.12).
These multiple forms of literacy that Eisner discussed in his collection of short essays,
The Kind of Schools We Need, include, but are not limited to, language, auditory, visual, gestural,
and patterned sound. If a child is not exposed to all possible forms of literacy, he or she will not
be able to construe meaning from the simplest of things or be able to have meaningful
experiences. For example, a person that has never been exposed to the art of music in his or her
education will not be able to go to a symphony concert and fully experience the various parts and
their contributions. Such an emphasis is put on culture because culture is what tells the next
generations about the current one and what they are doing. If children are not given the
opportunity to explore these multiple forms of representation such as music and art, who will be
able to pass on art to future generations?
As well as these multiple forms of literacy enabling humans to create meaningful
experiences, multiple forms can also help to create well-rounded individuals, and this is
something that must begin in early childhood. In order to create well-educated and well-rounded
humans, children must be exposed to these multiple forms through which meaning is possible.
Thinking is not limited to language.
Finally, while some students are predisposed to be more literate in math and science, some
are predisposed to develop literacy more easily through the arts. Education fails a child if it is not
12
giving him or her the chance to explore these multiple forms and discover what he or she is good
at. If students are limited in their forms of representation, from where will the next Beethoven or
Mozart come?
By exposing students to multiple forms of literacy and allowing them to use different forms
of representation, curriculum is being used as a “mind-altering device” (Eisner, 1998, p. 23) and
is producing different human beings. If education focused solely on the literacies of math,
science and language, the world would not be diverse and would certainly not provide the rich
culture of the arts that so many enjoy.
Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences correlate highly with the idea of multiple forms
of literacy. Gardner said:
I argue that there is persuasive evidence for the existence of several relatively
autonomous human intellectual competences, abbreviated hereafter as ‘human
intelligences’. These are the ‘frames of mind’ of my title. The exact nature and breadth
of each intellectual ‘frame’ has not so far been satisfactorily established, nor has the
precise number of intelligences been fixed. But the conviction that there exist at least
some intelligences, that these are relatively independent of one another, and that they can
be fashioned and combined in a multiplicity of adaptive ways by individuals and cultures,
seems to me to be increasingly difficult to deny. (Gardner, 1983, p. 8)
While they call them different things, Eisner and Gardner basically have the same idea
that there are not just one or two forms of literacy or intelligences, but a whole scope of them.
Each person does not just possess one: “Human beings have evolved to exhibit several
intelligences and not to draw variously on one flexible intelligence” (Gardner, 1983, p. xii). One
person may be more predisposed to one intelligence over another, but all humans possess each
intelligence, even if the disposition is not as strong. Gardner felt that there were seven distinct
13
intelligences: Linguistic intelligence, Logical-mathematical intelligence, Spatial intelligence,
Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence, Musical intelligence, Interpersonal intelligence Intrapersonal
intelligence and Naturalist intelligence. Eisner, on the other hand, never listed all the forms of
literacy. Their ideas were similar, and both felt that too much attention was focused in schools on
math and science, Logical-mathematical intelligence, and reading and writing, Linguistic
intelligence.
The theories and views discussed above can be formulated and seen in a teaching method
called Education Through Music. Education Through Music, or ETM as it is commonly referred
to, “is the study of artful teaching and the process of learning through song and play” (Richards
Institute, 2007). Mary Helen Richards developed ETM in the 1960s basing the curriculum on
principles of Zoltan Kodaly, the Hungarian composer and music educator. In 1969, the Richards
Institute of Education and Research was founded, and research expanded ETM to include
movement, interpersonal interaction, and musicality (Richards Institute, 2007). The goal of the
institute was to “inform understandings about how the human brain functions in learning,
focusing on what conditions are necessary for effective learning and how the brain develops its
memory and those structures which build memory and thus literacy” (Richards Institute, 2007).
Just as Arnstine felt it important to present the right conditions for learning, and Dewey felt it
important to present the right conditions for a meaningful experience, ETM has focused its
research on creating the right conditions for learning.
One might say that Education Through Music is a very repetitious method of learning. If
one were to look at Arnstine’s and Dewey’s views of repetition, the question of how students
learn this way might be asked: Is ETM really effective if all the child is doing is repeating the
song over and over again? In this case, repetition is indeed effective because as Arnstine (1967)
said, if the dispositions have already been formed to acquire the skill at hand, repetition is
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effective. There are five aspects that comprise every song in the curriculum of ETM. These five
components are song, language, movement, inter/intra social interaction, and cognitive, and a
child may acquire a disposition for each of these parts. Depending on the age of the child and
depending on what type of experiences this child has already had, some of these dispositions may
have formed more greatly than others. As with Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences, not every child
needs to have strongly developed each one of these dispositions.
The first component of ETM, song, is perhaps something that not all children will come
to the classroom with knowledge of. Yet it is not uncommon for young children to have been
exposed to lullabies as babies, perhaps aiding them to sleep, or settling them when they are fussy.
In addition, many preschools sing nursery rhymes with children. Based on this assumption,
several children may come to the ETM environment with a developed disposition for song.
The disposition for language, the second component of ETM, will also have more likely
been acquired, beginning in infancy or as a small child with “baby talk,” and then developing
through the years by adding more and more words to the vocabulary. This is a natural progression
of development for all human beings.
The child also comes to the classroom with the disposition for movement, the third
component of ETM. A child starts moving as an infant, first by crawling, then walking, and as he
or she grows older, his or her abilities to make different movements expand.
Inter/intra social interaction is the fourth component of ETM, that is, interaction both with
other people and within oneself. This is also begins early in childhood, if children are given the
opportunity both to play alone and the opportunity to interact with others, not only parents and
siblings, but other children.
15
The fifth and final component of ETM is cognitive. Again, this disposition commonly
forms from the time a child is born. The brain starts developing in infancy and only becomes
more and more developed through the years as a child grows older.
Armed with these five dispositions, ETM only furthers development. The dispositions for
these elements have all been acquired, thus making learning the ETM songs easy and quick
because they combine these elements.
These five components of ETM are not only dispositions, but also multiple forms of
intelligence. Song encompasses the musical intelligence, language is linguistic intelligence,
movement is bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, inter/intra social interaction is both interpersonal and
intrapersonal intelligence, and cognitive embodies naturalistic intelligence. Once again, these are
also multiple forms of literacy.
Education Through Music is also a real experience. For instance, while playing the songs
of ETM, students are engaged in a continuous process of doing and undergoing. The student is
constantly singing and moving, and he or she is reflecting on past experiences, acquired
dispositions, and multiple forms of literacy that involve movement, language and cognition.
Education Through Music shows how the theories of Dewey, Arnstine and Eisner can be
developed in a practical form.
Therefore, Education Through Music embodies the discussed theories. Children have
real experiences, in the Deweyan sense, because children are constantly engaged through doing
and undergoing. The necessary conditions have been presented by creating a safe environment
where children are free to learn through play. Dispositions have been acquired because the five
components of each ETM song begin developing in early childhood. As well, ETM involves
multiple forms of literacy and multiple intelligences because each of these five components
demonstrates a different intelligence or form of literacy.
16
In summary, Dewey, Arnstine, Berger, and Eisner developed important theories central to
the teaching of arts in education. Through real experiences and self reflection, one develops the
aesthetic sense. With the presence of the right conditions and the acquisition of dispositions
necessary for meaningful learning, one is able to develop multiple intelligences and forms of
literacy. By allowing children to develop multiple forms of literacy, and by schooling not just
focusing on the mathematical and linguistic intelligences, students will have opportunities to
formulate real experiences, explore different forms through self-reflection, and be able to express
themselves aesthetically.
In order to expose children to a curriculum that is not centered solely on math and science,
as Arnstine, Dewey & Eisner suggest, it is the responsibility of the school and the teacher to make
available to students a range of subject matter. To do this, teachers need to be given the chance to
develop their own skill sets and knowledge through professional development opportunities.
However teachers have little spare time to do this, for they work throughout the day, in addition
to many of them raising their own families. Furthermore, during this bleak economy, school
districts have trimmed expenses and traditional professional development opportunities, such as
after school and weekend workshops have become less common and impossible for teachers to
attend. However, with the emergence of new technology and internet tools, teachers can be
exposed to professional development opportunities in new and innovative ways. By familiarizing
themselves with the Internet and Web 2.0 tools, teachers may find that they can gain a world of
knowledge in the comfort of their own homes, at their own leisure, and in a free or cost-effective
way.
Web 2.0, New Tools, New Schools examines what Web 2.0 is and how it is being used in
schools and for professional development. In the past few years, increased expectations for
teachers to be more coherent in the use of technology have increased. According to the US
17
Department of Education (2004) “Today’s students, of almost any age, are far ahead of their
teachers in computer literacy” (p. 10), and the majority of these students are mastering technology
at home, not at school. Teachers need to be literate in technology so that they can be well
prepared to respond to what their students already know. Many teachers feel uncomfortable using
technology. With the increasing demand for teachers to integrate technology into the classroom,
one way to solve this problem would be to use Web 2.0 “to enable educators to understand and
become comfortable with the tools and their potential as preparation for using them in their
classrooms” (Solomon, 2007, p.103).
Solomon (2007) suggested that one way to accomplish the goal of enhancing teaching and
learning through technology was “to use the technology to learn how to use the technology”
(p.111). She discussed ways in which schools are trying to encourage the use of technology by
their teachers. For example, some schools require their teachers to teach one observed lesson each
year that focuses on integrating technology into the curriculum; others require their teachers to
attend a certain number of professional development sessions focusing on technology. If
administrators encourage and require the use and learning of technology, teachers should in turn
become more familiar with the world of Web 2.0 and become more versed and on an equal level
with their students. The information that follows discusses Web 2.0 tools that educators should be
familiar with and how these tools can contribute to their professional development.
Web 1.0, which refers to the World Wide Web until approximately 2001, consisted of a
read-only Internet. In his journal article Don’t Be Afraid to Explore Web 2.0, John Thompson
discussed the history of the Internet and how it has evolved over several years. “The Internet's
first era of mass use required users with programming skills to contribute (upload) material to the
Internet” (Thompson, 2008, p.1). On the other hand, “Web 2.0. refers to the next generation of
Internet applications that allow (even encourage) the average Internet user to collaborate and
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share information online” (Thompson, 2008, p.1). Many different Web 2.0 tools can be used
today. These include blogs, wikis, podcasts, document and calendar sharing sites, and social
bookmarking sites. As previously mentioned, when the Internet was in its first phase (Web 1.0)
the information it provided was very much a one-way form of communication in that it provided
information to users and did not provide them with control. Web 2.0 has expanded the Internet
into a device in which people can take control of information, edit it, give their opinions, and
communicate. The Internet has become extremely user-friendly in that many Social Networking
sites provide users with a simple, typically free, way to collaborate and interact. Collaboration is
extremely important in the use of Web 2.0 for professional development. The word
“collaboration” is defined by Schrage (1990) as “the process of shared creation: two or more
individuals with complementary skills interacting to create a shared understanding that none had
previously possessed or could have come to on their own" ( p.40). Collaboration can occur in
person, over the phone, or by mail, and, of course, in the new generation of the Internet, it can
occur via Web 2.0. Educators have historically collaborated through Workshops, Seminars and
other professional development opportunities, but Web 2.0 is a new form of professional
development that has been utilized in the past few years and educators can utilize Web 2.0 to
collaborate, for example, by sharing lesson plans and collaborating on-line, after in-person
workshops and seminars.
Because of its newfound ease, the Internet is now often known as the “read/write or
participatory Web” (Imperatore, 2009, p.2). According to Imperatore (2009), “Educators...are
turning to Web 2.0 to learn more about these educational technology tools and to quickly and
easily share resources with colleagues” (p.2). Many of these tools can be used for teacher
professional development, and collaboration and can be further used in a classroom setting.
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One such tool is a wiki, which is an “easy to edit Web site that users can modify or add
to” (Imperatore, 2009, p.2). Wikis are a great tool for collaboration and can be a useful way for a
teacher to develop professionally and collaborate with other teachers to gain ideas for the
classroom. For example, several free wiki sites exist such as NewLits.org that are being used in
education for professional development purposes. NewLits is dedicated to the professional
development of middle school teachers and exposes them to digital literacies. Organized into six
main sections, including a place to contribute one’s own work, teachers can find commissioned
papers in the field, engage in tutorials about how to use wikis, and find links to other useful
resources in the field of technology. “NewLits.org provides a context for showcasing,
demonstrating, and supporting the acquisition and understanding of digital literacies relevant to
its scope and purpose” (Knobel & Lankshear, 2009, p.2). In addition, wikis are a good tool for
professional development as they can “allow all members of a community to participate in the
creation of a goal, plan or direction” (Solomon, 2007, p.114), thus furthering their own
knowledge of a particular topic or issue in education and their use of Web 2.0 tools.
A tool similar to a wiki, but authored by just one person and that does not allow for
collaboration is a blog. Wikipedia defines a “blog” as “a type of website, usually maintained by
an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as
graphics or video” (Wikipedia, 2009). Many teachers have blogs, and these blogs can vary
dramatically in content and design. For example, some teachers have blogs in which they discuss
activities, often so that parents can keep up-to-date on happenings in the classroom. However,
some blogs are dedicated to providing other teachers with ideas for lesson plans while others
center on educational philosophies and one’s own opinions. Some informational and frequently
updated blogs that appear to be popular among art educators and advocates include Art Paper
Scissors, “a community of parents and teachers gathered to share views, visions and resources for
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the advancement of art education for our children” (Art Paper Scissors, 2009); Dewey 21C, a blog
dedicated to the belief that the arts are part of our genetic code; The Teaching Palette, a
collaborative and resourceful forum for arts educators; and the Art Teacher’s Guide to the
Internet, ideas, tools and resources for teaching art and design in a post-digital age. These blogs
include both practical blogs aimed at providing teachers with lesson plans and blogs dedicated to
current news and opinions about arts education. No matter the goal of the blog, all are examples
of successful Web 2.0 tools that can provide teachers with professional development so they may
know more about how to teach the arts, about current topics in arts education, and about how the
arts are important for a child’s education.
Another Web 2.0 tool that can be useful to teachers and their professional development is
a podcast, which is “a series of digital computer files, usually either digital audio or video, that is
released periodically and made available for download by means of web syndication” (Wikipedia,
2009). Podcasting is a wonderful way for teachers to continue their professional development on
their own time and at their own convenience. They can download the podcast and listen to it on
their way to work, while exercising, or even while cooking dinner. Several podcasts are coming
into play for the professional development of teachers, one of which is Techpod: Podcast for
Teachers. Established in 2006, this podcasting services allows “teachers around the globe [to]
"click into" timely, quality, and helpful professional development sessions on the uses of
technology for teaching and learning” (King, 2006, p.1). This completely free service aims to
encourage teachers to use technology in education. The service has several categories, one of
which includes art education.
Many of the aforementioned Web 2.0 tools can be integrated into a larger tool called a
Social Network. Social Networks “refer to a collection of Internet based applications that enable
peer-to-peer communication and sharing of information” (Barkan, 2008, p.3). Currently,
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hundreds of social networking sites including Facebook, MySpace, You Tube, Wikipedia, Ning,
LinkedIn and Flickr exist. These sites are diverse and focus on a range of different topics. Some
sites center on connecting friends, while others involve sharing pictures. The possibilities are
endless. One thing that all Social Networking sites have in common is the
focus on empowering individuals to: a) connect with friends, colleagues or strangers, b)
create, contribute and publish content, c) comment on, rank or embellish that content, d)
communicate freely and creatively using multiple formats including e-mail, instant
messaging, mobile devices, voice and video (Barkan, 2008, p.3).
An abundance of Social Networking sites and communities are currently being used for
professional development. Classroom 2.0 is a social network for those interested in Web 2.0 and
collaborative technologies, while Art Education 2.0 is a global community of art educators
exploring uses of new technology. Both of these social networks are completely free, allowing
users to make blog posts, add music, pictures and videos, ask questions in a forum, and chat live
with other users. Other social networks for educators focus on a wide range of topics and
interests. State-wide social networks, such as the Alabama Educators Network, focus on using
technology in the classroom, such as Literacy in a Digital Classroom and specialized social
networks such as the National Art Education’s Social Network, Elementary Division, an
interactive tool for elementary art specialists. With the emergence of Web 2.0, more and more
social networks have emerged, encompassing a wide range of topics. A list of current social
networks used in the field of education can be found at www.educationalnetworking.com.
Educators are able to become active participants in these social networks by posting blog
updates, questions in forums, creating wikis for their classrooms, becoming members of
education social networks, and providing information on-line for other educators. According to
David Warlick, a 30-year educator, "It's become more important than ever for teachers to actually
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practice lifelong learning. And one way of doing that is to stay connected to the community of
practitioners, of experts, in order to get the latest information, the latest techniques” (Imperatore,
2009, p.2).
Expansion of the Internet and Web 2.0 can provide educators with excellent professional
development tools so that they might be able to better inform their students based on ideas that
they have gained from social networks and collaborating with other teachers. That the websites
and tools provide opportunities for teachers to navigate and use them easily is essential.
In order to create successful social networks, Web 2.0 tools and websites, a lot of thought
must be put into the design and implementation of these tools and into providing appropriate and
useful content. Social networks and Web 2.0 tools differ from traditional websites in that
“traditional web pages are designed and posted in an arrangement that the designer deems
important” (Solomon, 2007, p. 54), and “Web 2.0 pages offer tools and services” (Solomon,
2007, p.54), therefore, the approach to creating a successful social network differs slightly from
developing a successful traditional webpage. Additionally, if Web 2.0 tools are to be used for the
professional development of teachers, they must be effective at doing so and provide educators
with as informative an experience online as they might receive at a traditional workshop.
The first step of the design process is the creation of the traditional website. There is no
right or wrong way to do this, based on the hundreds of books and articles that give different
suggestions for doing so. One such article provides a six-ingredient model for the process. These
six ingredients are content, information design, performance, compatibility, visual design and
interaction design (Shedroff, 1994). The content of the site should be “high-quality and
interesting” and content should be “prepared fresh daily or weekly-even hourly if appropriate”
(Shedroff, 1994). More content is not always more effective, and the quality is always more
important than quantity.
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The next ingredient, Information design, refers to the organization of the site. The site
should always be easy to navigate, “allowing [the] audience easy access to the breadth and depth
of [the] site” (Shedroff, 1994), which involves steps such as making sure that the visitor can get
around without having to go back to the homepage to find what they are looking for.
“Fast sites are successful sites” (Shedroff, 1994), and the performance of the website is
essential to the visitor’s experience. For example, if there are too many elements on a page, such
as multiple graphics or videos, loading can take longer for those who do not have fast internet
connections; thus they may lose their interest. Therefore, graphics should be made smaller and
sites should be made to be read in text-only modes if at all possible.
Websites also need to be compatible if they are to be successful, and this means that “every
page and element of [the] site should look good on at least Navigator and Explorer” (Shedroff,
1994). Visitors to the website will be viewing it from a variety of different browsers, and the site
needs to be readable on each of these. Sites also need to be compatible with different computer
platforms, i.e., they need to be viewable on Windows, Macintosh, and Linux among other
operating systems.
“Successful sites have high-quality, professional visual design” (Shedroff, 1994) and
should also be aesthetically pleasing but without taking away from the ultimate purpose of the
site. The site should be branded appropriately according to a company’s identity, and if there is
no identity in place, it should at least be kept consistent. For example, elements such as fonts and
colors should be used consistently from page to page.
Shedroff (1994) believes that the final and perhaps most important ingredient of a
successful website is interaction design. This involves the incorporation of elements into the site
such as search functions, communities, corporate information, and product information. This
ingredient also encompasses the notion of collaboration, communication, and creation by users,
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therefore tying into the Web 2.0 portion of the site, if it so exists.
While Shedroff’s recipe provides website developers with an easy to follow model, and his
ideas will likely result in a successful website if followed correctly, he does not cover many
important elements of a successful site that others have mentioned.
For example, Matt Jurmann believed that it was essential that time and thought are put into
choosing a good domain name that is “short sweet and unique; suggestive of your business
category; easy to interpret and pronounce and easy to remember” (2008). In addition, high quality
web hosting should be chosen, and time should be spent researching a host that will provide for
the website all of the elements that it is intended to possess. Jurmann’s suggestions for site
content, compatibility, and design are parallel to those of Shedroff’s, but Jurmann suggests that
the site should be marketed through short and simple press releases, submittals to search engines,
and newsletters. The success of the website should be analyzed through analytics to answer
questions such as “How did visitors find the website? How long did they stay? [and] What pages
did they visit the most?” (Jurmann, 2008).
Building a successful social network differs slightly from the construction of traditional
websites. Barkan (2008) stated that social networks “offer a new and exciting way of
communicating, collaborating and associating for human beings all over the world” (p.5) He
provided an excellent eight step model for creating and implementing a successful social network.
The first step is the profiling of the audience to answer questions such as if they use
technology competently; Step 2 is to define one’s objectives to determine what results one has in
mind for one’s social network and whether these objectives are “soft” (aspirational) or “hard”
(measurable). The third step is to formulate messages and decide whether one wants to inform,
connect, motivate, call to action, educate, guide, or position. The 4th step is to determine which
platform to use: Will one use pre-existing platforms such as integrating the social network into an
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existing website, or use a 3rd party platform? The 5th step is the management of intellectual
property and determining what content can be made public and what should be left private or for
members only. Step 6 involves the recruitment of members for one’s social network and keeping
participants engaged; step 7 involves the support of the social network, how it will be managed,
and how it may impact budget and other resources. Finally, the 8th step is the measurement of the
social network and how to gauge its success and if it has met one’s objectives. This step also
involves keeping the social network up-to-date in order to keep things current. By following the
above steps, it is possible to build a social network “that will ultimately deliver a professional
grade network for your members, volunteers, staff, stakeholders, customers and anyone that
shares an interest in your mission and vision.” (Barkan, 2008, p.5)
While the use of Web 2.0 tools for professional development is becoming increasingly
more popular, “most teachers still feel uncomfortable using technology in their teaching”
(Solomon, 2007, p.103). Support and encouragement needs to be implemented in order to ensure
successful online professional development. Solomon believed that by incorporating communities
of practice into an educator’s daily routine, professional development online would serve to be
more effective and better aid teachers at incorporating technology into their own classrooms.
Communities of practice are defined by Solomon (2007) as “members [who are] engaged in
common activities that often take the form of group collaboration to pursue their professional
goals and interests” (p.104). By participating in a community, teachers may become more
increasingly willing to share information, collaborate, and interact. Taylor (2006) suggested that
to support a successful community of practice, “continued energy to maintain participation and
enthusiasm from members is required” (Solomon, 2003, p.105). In order to do this, Solomon
(2003) suggested the following strategies: Create an environment of trust; eliminate confusion;
create productive dialogue/make learning interactive; have teachers share what they are doing on
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a regular basis; and give constructive feedback and support as a facilitator. (pp. 105-106). It is
essential that teachers receive the support on the Internet that they would receive in traditional
professional development settings.
Armed with the steps and suggestions given by Barkan, Shedroff and Jurmann for
designing successful social networks and websites, it should be possible to create successful
traditional websites and online social networking communities if the ideas and steps are followed
according to their suggestions.
In conclusion, in keeping with the theories put forth by Arnstine, Dewey, and Eisner to
create well-rounded individuals who possess multiple forms of literacy, and to provide
opportunities for children to have true aesthetic experiences and exposure to other subject matter
such as the arts, education must pave the way for doing so. With the absence of the arts in many
traditional classroom settings, teachers must be given the opportunity to learn how to integrate
them into their classrooms. One such way of doing so is by furthering professional development
through the use of Web 2.0 tools and social networks. However, before allowing educators to
experience professional development through the Internet, the tools to which they will be exposed
need to be designed based upon several guidelines. This will ensure that they are successful and
will give teachers the necessary tools and learning experiences so that they might be able to bring
the arts to their classrooms.
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Chapter 3
THE PROCESS
This project is an Alternative Culminating Experience for a Master of Arts in Education:
Curriculum and Instruction with an Elective Emphasis on Arts in Education. It follows Pathway
V: Art Educator as Advocate and Leader Promoting Arts Confident Teachers through
Professional Development. For her project, the researcher designed a website and social network
to provide Sacramento area arts educators with resources for arts in education. The
documentation of this process is conducted in the narrative inquiry approach. According to Heo
(2004), “Narrative inquiry has been considered as an alternative mode of thinking and
learning. Narrative inquiry is a way of understanding, organizing and communicating experience”
(Heo, p. 230). Narrative inquiry is an approach to research in the field of education that has
recently become popular in the research community. Written in the first person, the following
chapter documents the process by which the researcher designed and marketed her website and
social network.
The bulk of this project took place between May and October 2009 and had three main
elements based upon Barkan, Jurmann and Shedroff’s ideas for website and social network design
success: website and social network design, publicizing and marketing, and maintaining content.
(See Chapter Two, Literature Review).
The first step of the project involved researching different web hosts and content
management systems and deciding on the most suitable one to use. This project not only involved
the development of a traditional website, but also needed to have a social networking element to
it. I needed to find a website that would allow me to integrate the two. In addition, cost was an
important factor, as I was working with a very limited budget and could not afford to spend a lot
of money on expensive website design.
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Finally, as Shedroff suggested, a successful website needed to be aesthetically pleasing to
its visitors (Shedroff, 1994). Oftentimes, the creation of a professional looking website involves a
large budget, and as I was constrained here, I needed to find a content management system that
would have easy to use design tools and that did not involve a lot of HTML or other
programming skills because these are not abilities that I possess.
I began the first phase of the project by researching the different website hosts that were
available by spending a lot of time searching the Internet and using sites to compare hosts. I
came across an entirely free website host called Webs.com; however, in looking at sample
websites, it appeared that one catch to the site being free meant that advertisements would be
displayed on the site, which was not something I had not anticipated. I feared that potential
visitors to my site would find such advertisements particularly unattractive or an irritant. I
discovered another host called GoDaddy.com, but it looked extremely complicated. The
information was hard to read, and though the pricing was attractive, according to reviews, it
seemed that it might have a few catches. When looking at some of the top rated webhosting
clients, I noticed that Yahoo! ranked high on the list. Exploring it further, I found that it offered
everything I needed, such as an easy content management system, low cost, and attractive design,
for just $150 a year. By examining other sites designed using Yahoo!, I found that, overall, they
looked very professional, and many small businesses were using the service. Therefore, with this
knowledge in hand, I decided to sign up with Yahoo!
After making the decision to use Yahoo!, I needed to begin designing the website. The first
step in this process was to decide on a domain name. Matt Jurmann’s notion that effort needed to
be put into picking a good domain name was important (Jurmann, 2008), and therefore, I needed
to think through this step carefully. I considered creating a name that was specific to Sacramento,
as this site is primarily aimed at Sacramento area teachers; however, I thought that if it were to be
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a success, I would need a name that was not specific to the area with the idea in mind that I could
expand this website statewide and perhaps even nationwide in the future. Eventually, I decided to
make the domain www.artsedresources.com with the idea that the website was about resources in
arts education. Furthermore, the name was easy to remember, and not terribly long to type into a
browser – all elements that Jurmann stressed as important in his successful website checklist
(Jurmann, 2008). After I went through the process of registering my domain, I then had to decide
which of Yahoo!’s design tools to use. They had a simple tool directly on their hosting website,
which I experimented with for a couple of days, however, it had its limitations so I decided to
download the Yahoo! Site Builder, which gave me a little more control over my site in terms of
being able to choose where I wanted to place my text and graphics. Now, armed with the tools I
needed, it was time to start designing the site.
Having previously decided on the different pages that I wanted to include in the site, I
began designing each page one at a time. Using one of Yahoo’s! many templates, a musical one,
for the base of my page, I added some clipart elements to make the site look a little more stylish.
Then, I decided that a banner would really make the site aesthetically pleasing. I contacted a
graphic designer friend, and she agreed to create a banner using the art files I gave her, along with
the color scheme I had in mind. I then created my own template using the banner, a desired color
and font scheme, and a navigation bar I used from the Site Builder. To decide on the fonts and
colors for the website, I needed to choose something that matched the banner and was relatively
simple because graphic design is not one of my skills. I used Georgia for the font, as it is simple
and easy to read while looking professional. I chose black for the main text and a gold color for
all links and titles, plus a gold-beige color for the background. This kept the scheme consistent
from page to page in an effort to create an identity as suggested by Shedroff (1994).
Once the identity of the site was in place, I could now begin the process of building
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content. The first page I designed was the homepage (See Appendix A). This was a difficult page
to design, as it needed to hold enough information to draw in visitors interested enough to click
on other pages of the site. In addition, the content needed to be kept short and concise in order to
keep the visitor’s attention and not drive them away. I kept the content of this page to a couple of
short paragraphs that described the purpose of the site and asked visitors to send any information
that they thought might be informative and important to the Arts Education Resources e-mail
address.
The next page I designed was the Useful Websites page. To gather content for this page, I
used many sites familiar to me. After visiting some of these sites to get links to others, I
researched extensively on Google to find important sites that focused on the arts in education. On
this page I created three different sections: National sites, statewide sites (California), and local
sites (Sacramento area). I arranged the page in this way with the assumption that it would be
easier to navigate the page if sites were organized geographically rather than alphabetically
hoping the site would receive visitors from Southern California or out-of-state. In this case, they
would easily be able to find a useful site pertaining to them (See Appendix A).
Then, I followed a similar method for building the succeeding pages. The content design of
each page involved using both prior knowledge and extensive Internet research for further content
to ensure a comprehensive website. I signed up for Google Alerts in order to keep up-to-date with
current topics, news and opportunities in Arts in Education. Google Alerts are e-mailed regularly
(I chose to be notified on a daily basis) and provide information that contains specified keywords.
For example, my alerts are “arts education,” “arts advocacy,” “music education,” and “California
arts education.” These alerts have provided valuable information that I have posted on my site
such as news articles and possible grant opportunities. In an effort to stay informed about other
news in the arts in education, I also signed up for e-newsletters from Americans for the Arts,
31
California Alliance for Arts Education, and the California Arts Council. These e-newsletters also
gave me much of the information posted on the site.
The pages that I originally created for my website were Home, Advocacy, Blogs and
Teacher’s Sites, Articles and Reports, Facts, Grants and Foundations, News & Opportunities,
Programs, Resources and Materials, Support the Arts, Useful Websites, and Contact (See
Appendix A).
After the traditional website was designed, the next step was to design the social network
portion of the project – the Arts Education Resources Community. In order to do this, I referred
to some of Barkan's eight step model for building a successful social network (Barkan, 2008).
Beginning with step two and defining my objectives, as previously mentioned in Chapter 1, I
wanted to create a social network that allowed members of the community to post events, ask
advice about teaching the arts in their classroom, and post other valuable information. These
objectives were both aspirational and measurable. Next, I followed the third step of formulating a
message. My goal here was both to inform and connect the participants of the community. By
following the 4th step of Barkan's model, I needed to choose a platform to use for my social
network. I knew about a free and excellent social networking site called Ning (See Appendix B).
It allows members of a community to post pictures, videos, events, music, and to post to a forum.
This community was easy to set up, and I kept the identity of the traditional site as much as
allowed. Because I do not have HTML programming skills, I could only use the templates that
Ning provided. They did not allow me to change some of the elements, but I kept the identity as
best as I could, by keeping the same colors and fonts as used in the main website. I found some
informative and interesting videos on YouTube that focused on the arts in education, I posted
these to the site, along with a long list of upcoming events in the Sacramento area (See Appendix
B).
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In order to protect the community, as Barkan suggested in his 5th step (Barkan, 2008), I
chose to make it visible to anybody, but only allowed people who had signed up for the
community and had been approved by me to be able to post content. The signup page requests a
few basic answers to questions such as name and profession (See Appendix B).
Once the community was created, it was important to integrate it into the main website so
that visitors could click on a link and be taken directly there as if they had never left the main
website. I found that while I could map my domain name to the Ning community by paying $4.95
a month and setting up the URL up as "community.artsedresources.com." There was no way to
create an item on the website’s navigation bar that would go to the community directly.
Therefore, I had to post a link on the homepage where visitors could click to visit the community.
While this is perhaps not the most effective way to direct visitors to the community, it was the
only possibility (See Appendix A).
Once the website and community were created, I asked family and friends to look at the site
and give me constructive criticism in order to make it more user-friendly. One suggestion I
received was to add a page about groups and venues in the Sacramento area to the website. I
added this new page and then linked to pages that had music groups, dance groups, performing
arts venues, and art galleries.
After this initial review from family and friends and after receiving positive feedback, it
was time to follow Barkan's 6th step to recruit members to the community and to broadcast the
website (Barkan, 2008). The first step was to send out an e-mail on June 1, 2009 to my cohort,
members of the California State University, Sacramento (CSUS) Masters in Education,
Curriculum & Instruction, with an elective emphasis in Arts in Education, to family and friends,
and to other contacts in the field of K-12 education. This e-mail invited them to visit the website,
join the community, and then forward the site to other teachers and parents that they thought
33
might be interested and would find the site useful (See Appendix C). I received five e-mails of
positive feedback, and a couple of people sent me some more information to post on the site,
which in turn I did. The day that I sent out the e-mail broadcast, I received 100 hits to my site. In
the few days following that, the site received about 20 hits per day, and then between June 5 and
July 28th, 2009, I only received about 10 hits at most per day (See Appendix G). I sent another email reminding people of the site in mid-July, but it did not seem to have much impact on page
hits, and I did not receive any e-mail replies this time around.
Besides broadcasting the site through e-mail messaging, it was also important to market the
site to search engines through keywords. The Yahoo! Site Builder allowed me to add keywords to
each page of my website in order to boost results in search engines. For example, for the
Programs page of the site, I put in the keywords "Sacramento arts programs," "Sacramento K-12
arts programs," "Sacramento dance programs," "Sacramento visual arts programs," "Sacramento
music programs," and so on. In addition to adding keywords to the pages themselves, I also
submitted my site to search engines. This involved adding keywords in order to boost search
results. By entering in the keywords "Sacramento arts education," "Arts education resources,"
"Arts education," and similar tags, the site showed up in the top eight results in Yahoo! and MSN
search engines.
I decided to broadcast my e-mail to other mediums of messaging and sent an e-mail to the
California Alliance for Arts Education (CAAE) in hope that they might be able to broadcast word
of my site in their bi-monthly e-newsletter. They wrote a quick blurb about the website in their
July 28, 2009 e-newsletter, and in the two days after that, page hits reached over 200 each day
(See Appendix D). In addition, in response to this e-mail, I received e-mails from about 10
interested parties, some of them Sacramento area teachers and some arts educators in other parts
of the country. They stated that they were pleased this site was available, asked me to post their
34
information on the site, and a few of them joined the Arts Education Resources Community.
Due to the response that I received from the CAAE’s broadcast, I decided that perhaps a
more effective way of broadcasting my site would be to send out an e-newsletter once or twice a
month, because people may be more inclined to read a short e-mail than to go to the website to
hunt around for things. I signed up with Constant Contact, an e-marketing website that offered a
free 60-day trial, and I sent my first e-newsletter on July 31, 2009 (See Appendix D). I kept it
simple and just added one event, one news article, and one funding opportunity, in hope that the
simplicity would grab more attention. I also tried to keep the identity of my website and,
therefore, kept the design of the e-newsletter as close to the identity of the website as I could, by
using the same fonts and colors and placing the banner at the top. When examining the statistics
one week after this e-newsletter went out, 28% of the 69 recipients read the e-mail, and four
people clicked on the links. The 69 recipients were the Master’s cohort, my parents, and the
people who had expressed interest after the CAAE e-newsletter went out.
After the seeming success of the first Arts Education Resources e-newsletter, I decided to
send one out on a regular basis and decided to implement it bi-monthly. I decided to change the
design of the e-newsletter, as the first template I chose was set up in vertical columns meaning
that the content had to be the same length each time in order to maintain the same appearance. By
changing the layout to use horizontal columns, the length of each article did not have to be
consistent and the e-newsletter became easier to read (See Appendix D). The first template was
harder to read, and therefore, I assumed that fewer people read it. I attended a free Constant
Contact e-marketing workshop on August 25, 2009 that armed me with useful information about
creating aesthetically pleasing e-newsletters, how often to send them, and other information about
content and statistics. The information I learned in this workshop has proved invaluable to me in
the e-newsletter portion of my project. For example, I learned that sending e-newsletters more
35
frequently with less content is more important than spending lots of time creating them, and enewsletters should be sent at the minimum on a monthly basis. Therefore, by sending the enewsletter bi-monthly containing just three articles each time, more of an impact may be made
than sending it out less frequently with too much information as subscribers may not have the
attention span to read the entire thing. Another useful piece of information learned at this
workshop was the suggestion that each e-newsletter should have at least three weblinks and
clearly identified contact information.
In addition, this workshop informed me about the CAN-SPAM Act, which in summary
does not allow one to send e-mails to a person unless a previous relationship has been established
or permission has been given. Because of this, I have built the contact list for the e-newsletter by
using family, friends, and colleagues in the cohort and in my professional life. There is also a
signup button on the main website that several people have used in order to be added to the
contact list.
My final e-mail marketing ploy for the website took place on September 24, 2009. I sent a
short e-mail, using the text from the homepage of the website, to arts organizations and arts
educators in Sacramento (See Appendix C). I asked them to post my site on their sites, if they felt
it appropriate, and to forward the site to parties that may be interested. The result of this e-mail
was highly successful. It must have been forwarded to many people because Web Analytics
showed over 150 page hits for each of the following three days. In addition, four more people
joined the community, and twelve people signed up for the e-newsletter.
While sending e-mails out about the website seemed like the most effective way of
marketing it, I also decided that perhaps creating a flyer might draw more visitors to the site,
should they not have been reached by e-mails due to spam filters, not reading the e-mails, or not
receiving them. I asked a friend to design a simple flyer for me (See Appendix E), keeping the
36
identity of the website in mind, and I posted this flyer in areas that potential visitors to the
website might frequent. With the aid of my parents and sister, we distributed the flyer to
elementary schools in Davis and Sacramento, the UC Davis and CSUS campuses, and to other
places it might be significant such as music stores and libraries.
In order to gather information about how the website had served as useful to its visitors, I
signed up for a free survey trial through Constant Contact, and distributed a survey to members of
the Masters Cohort on September 30, 2009 (See Appendix F). However, as of October 13, 2009,
only three people responded, and the success of the website could not be measured through this
survey.
In addition to the creation and design of the website, social network, and e-newsletter, the
maintenance of these components (Barkan's 8th step) was also essential to the success of this
project. In order to keep the website as current as possible, it had to be updated at least on a
weekly basis. Throughout the week, I would gather important information to post from Google
Alerts, e-newsletters, and information sent by third parties, and then on the weekends, I added
and updated content to the website. If there were important news alerts or issues that needed
immediate attention, I would post these to the website as soon as I was aware of them.
The design, creation and implementation of the Arts Education Resources website and
social network involved a broad thought process and extensive research and experimentation with
content, design, and marketing techniques. While the actual design of the website and social
network took less than a month to create, the maintenance and marketing of the project lasted five
months and will continue to be an ongoing process in order to ensure that the website becomes
more successful and aids teachers in the integration of arts into the classroom.
37
Chapter 4
REFLECTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The elements involved in the undertaking of this project permitted me to develop
knowledge and several skills that will allow for me to be a successful advocate for the arts. In
order to provide content for the website, I conducted extensive research, and this allowed me to
learn more about awards, foundations, and programs that I didn't know existed. I read about
current news and reports about arts education and gained more insight into the current state of arts
education in the country and Sacramento area. Without a thorough understanding of the state of
arts education and the resources and tools available to arts educators and advocates, one is unable
to fully devote the efforts necessary for advocating for the arts.
In addition, the marketing aspect of this project allowed me the ability to network
professionally and form relationships with people and groups who are interested in or who
already are advocating for the arts. Because of the Arts Education Resources Website, I have
been invited to join the arts education committee for Mayor Kevin Johnson’s “For Art’s Sake”
initiative. Advocating for arts education is not a small undertaking, and the greater the support
that can rally together, the more successful the efforts will be.
I began this project with the assumption that it would be difficult to get the older generation
to use the website, but, ultimately, I found that getting anyone to utilize it at all proved tricky. To
add to this, while trying to evaluate my peers to see if and how they had used the site. I received
little response; and, therefore, it was even more difficult to determine who was using the site and
for what purposes. Still, the following statistics provide some insight into those who have utilized
the site and its accompanying components.
As of November 10, 2009, the website received an average of less than ten hits or views per
38
day. On occasion, the site has received as many as 100 views a day, but these statistics are based
upon days that involved extensive marketing, and it is likely that these views were a result of that.
According to Yahoo's web statistics, the site has been viewed a total of 2215 times as of
November 10, 2009 and 76% of these views are from new visitors. 55% of visitors come to the
site directly from a link, 40% visit the site from a referring site, and 5% found the site through a
search engine. Visitors to the site come from three countries (The Netherlands, United Kingdom
and the United States) and ten different states. The majority of visitors come from California
(75%) with 75% of these visitors from Sacramento and the rest coming from mostly surrounding
cities such as Davis and Folsom. The majority of views have been to the Arts Blogs page, which
has been viewed 174 times. The grants page has been viewed 127 times, the Resources page 107
times, Support the Arts 88 times, Contact 74 times, and Venues a total of 56 times. The rest of the
pages have been viewed very few times if at all. Disappointingly, the Programs page of the site
has rarely been visited. The K-12 programs (music, visual arts, dance and drama) have never been
viewed, but there have been 12 visits to the Professional Development and Adult programs page.
This suggests that visitors to the site are more interested in their own professional development
over the availability of programs for K-12 students. This, however, may be significant because it
implies that teachers are trying to further their knowledge of the arts through the conferences and
adult workshops focusing on arts education that are posted on the website.
As of November 10, 2009, the e-newsletter has 92 subscribers. I added 68 of these
manually based upon existing relationships, and obtained the remaining 24 either through
requests to signup via e-mail (due to marketing efforts), or from those who signed up using the
button on the main website. It appears that, on average, 30 people open each e-newsletter giving
it an open rate of about 33%. It is unknown at this time if all subscribers are receiving the enewsletter or if it is somehow redirected by spam filters. Only three people responded to a survey
39
sent out to determine the use of the site, community, and e-newsletter, so I am not able to
determine accurately if the e-newsletter is being received and read.
As of November 10, 2009, the Arts Education Resources Community has 31 members fewer than I had originally hoped for. In addition, only a few people are actually using the
community and posting events. While it may take more participation on my end to research
upcoming events and keep the social network current, the goal for the community was for other
people to participate and interact. An issue that I faced when creating the community was
integrating it with my site to make it appear as if it was a component of the website. Yahoo! Site
Builder did not allow me to manipulate it as I wanted to, and I had to post a link to the
community. I feel that if I would have been able to make it so that when a person clicked on the
"Community" tab on the navigation bar it would have directed them to the community, more
people may have signed up. This is perhaps an element to look into, and if not too complicated
and expensive, I will try to find a way to make this possible.
It is possible that perhaps people are not using the community because they do not wish to
take the time to sign up for it, or they may not feel comfortable using the Web 2.0 tools that it
involves. While Web 2.0 is becoming more and more common, teachers may feel more
comfortable interacting through traditional means (phone calls, in-person, flyers etc.), and this
community may be something that they are not quite ready for yet. In an attempt to keep the
community alive and to try and encourage more participation, I will make it a point to spend at
least two hours a week adding new events and content and not exhaust all efforts to make it more
successful at this point.
While it is not possible to deduce the demographics of those visiting the site, reading the
newsletter and utilizing the community, based upon who is opening the newsletter (as it can be
tracked), it appears that the majority of readers are educators, which is important as the purpose
40
of the project is to target educators in the Sacramento area.
Despite the fact statistics show that the site is only visited less than ten times per day on
average and the community has not been a great success, the feedback that I have received has
been very positive. I have received several e-mails from various people including K-12 teachers,
members and staff of arts organizations, and other arts enthusiasts and advocates that have been
positive, encouraging, and grateful for my efforts. (See Appendix F). A project of this scope is
not a small undertaking, and while for now it may not have reached a wide audience, it is still in
the early stages and one cannot expect that the whole world will visit the website after it has been
up and running for just five months. It will take more time to broadcast the site to other parties,
and this will require those who are already using the website to continue distributing it to others
and more marketing on my end.
In addition, I would like to think that the existence of the site itself is a success. No one site
aimed at the Sacramento area compiles all the resources in one place. This site is comprehensive
and contains information of many varieties, allowing the visitor to find resources for arts
education that he or she may find of interest.
The response to a survey I e-mailed to the mailing list for the e-newsletter did not gather
significant results; however, those that did respond provided useful information and suggestions.
(See Appendix G).
Before the undertaking of the Arts Education Resources website, I had some experience in
web design and social networking, in my personal life and through my work as executive
assistant for the Association of California Symphony Orchestras, but the process of this project
allowed me to expand upon my abilities in website development and social networking.
After the website had been up and running for a little over four months, I received an email from Ruth Rosenberg, Professional Development Coordinator for Arts Education at the
41
Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center in Davis. Ms. Rosenberg had received word of my website
from Sharon Gerber, the Mayor of Sacramento's liaison of the "For Art's Sake" initiative, and she
invited me to join the arts education committee for this initiative. I attended my first meeting on
October 20, 2009 to learn that our committee is looking for gaps in arts education in Sacramento,
at all age levels. Over the next several months, we will identify these gaps and try to implement a
plan of action for strengthening arts education in Sacramento. At this meeting, I met several more
advocates for arts education and discovered that we may be able to assist one another in our
interests. One such member of the committee complained that there is not one central resource for
all of the arts events and resources in Sacramento. I feel that this provides potential for me to
expand my website to include as many arts related activities in the Sacramento area, even if they
do not just focus on K-12 education and professional development for teachers. While I originally
planned to expand the website to a statewide and later national level, my thoughts now are that it
might serve better to stay focused on the Sacramento region and expand the resources rather than
the population it serves.
Similarly, perhaps by being involved in “For Art’s Sake,” I will make connections with
people who might be able to help me to further my career in arts education and, ultimately, give
me the chance to work as an advocate for the arts in a more professional setting.
The overall outcome of this project was not what I expected. Initially, I expected that
teachers would tell me how they integrated the arts into their classrooms from using information
from the website. However, I have since learned that I cannot obtain that information in such
short time, but I will continue the work I have been doing and hope that over the next five years
or so, the website will be the “go-to” place for teachers in Sacramento. Perhaps with the Any
Given Child and For Art's Sake initiatives, the website will find its place in the arts community in
Sacramento and will be propelled by the development of this initiative.
42
Ultimately, while I did not reach as great an audience as I had hoped for, it seems that those
who visit the website regularly find it to be useful. Through the responses I have received from
those who it has reached, it is of interest and a great resource. Once it reaches more people and is
more widely used, it should be a greater success.
The creation of a website is not a small task, and for those who plan to do so, I would make
a few recommendations. It is essential to conduct extensive research in regards to the Content
Management System (CMS) that will be used for the design of the website. Depending on the
creator’s strengths and weaknesses, the appropriate CMS will differ from person to person. For
example, if one’s strength is not graphic design, the creator will need to use a CMS that provides
several templates and images to make the design process easier.
While the choice of CMS is essential, I would recommend that even more consideration be
put into the content of the website itself. Content needs to be concise and get the essential points
across, however, it should not be too lengthy so as to disinterest the visitor. The promise of more
interesting content should be alluded to and links should be provided so that the visitor can find
more information. In addition, relevant information should be easy to find and the site should be
organized to make this possible.
While I have still not concluded the best method of marketing for Arts Education
Resources, marketing is an element of website creation and broadcast that strongly needs to be
considered. The designer should know initially that it may not always be easy; it is time
consuming; and one should allow plenty of time to get the website off the ground and marketed to
the appropriate audience.
Website upkeep is also a huge necessity, for if one does not regularly update the site, it will
become irrelevant, out-of-date, and frequent visitors may stop coming because the information is
becoming old. It is essential to add content and remove irrelevant content at least once a week.
43
I would also recommend that, depending on the nature and target group of the website,
sending an e-newsletter periodically is an excellent way to keep visitors up-to-date on relevant
information and to let them know that you exist and draw them to your website should it have
slipped their mind. Many people would rather keep in touch through an e-mail than have to hunt
around for the information they need on the site.
Finally, I would recommend that if creating a social network or community, interaction and
upkeep by the creator should be made frequently, perhaps even daily, and the target audience of
the website may not always find a community particularly helpful. It may be time to cut losses on
that one if participation does not grow after a few months or so. In all, when deciding to create a
website, one must have a lot of patience and realize that such things can take months, if not years
to get off the ground and reach the relevant people.
44
APPENDICES
45
APPENDIX A
Website Screenshots
Home Page
46
Advocacy
47
Articles & Reports
48
Arts Blogs
49
Community
50
Facts
51
Grants/Foundations
52
News & Opportunities
53
Programs
54
Resources & Materials
55
Support the Arts
56
Useful Websites
57
Contact Us
58
APPENDIX B
Community Screenshots
Arts Education Resources Community Homepage
59
Community Signup Page
60
APPENDIX C
Marketing E-mails
1) E-mail sent to all arts educators, advocates, and organizations that I knew of in
the Sacramento Area
Good Afternoon,
I am not sure of the demographics of this listserv and apologize if this information is not
relevant to you.
I am currently pursuing my Masters at CSU Sacramento in Arts Education (after
graduating from UCD in 2006 with my B.A. in music) and for my thesis project I have
created a website and social network aimed at providing resources to arts educators,
advocates and parents in the Sacramento area. Much of the content will be useful to any
part of the country but there are sections tailored specifically to the area.
The website URL is www.artsedresources.com.
As a leader in the field of arts and/or arts education, I am sending this e-mail to you in
hope that you might be able to pass the link to the website on to anyone you feel might
find it useful. In addition, I am sending out a bi-monthly e-Newsletter with information
about upcoming events, opportunities and news about arts education that can be signed
up for on the homepage.
If you have anything you would like me to post on the site, you are more than welcome
to send it to me. It is my endeavor to raise awareness for arts education in Sacramento
and I am trying every avenue possible to get word of the website out to people!
Thank you for your help,
Caroline Firman
www.artsedresources.com
(916) 903-7691
2) E-mail sent to members of the For Art's Sake Arts Education Committee
From: Caroline Firman <cjbamforth@gmail.com>
To: cjbamforth@gmail.com
Sent: Tue, Oct 20, 2009 12:57 pm
Subject: For Art's Sake Arts Education Committee: Arts Education Resources Website
61
Dear Arts Education Committee:
I hope that you don't mind me contacting you all like this but I was hoping to spread the
word!
Some of you may have already received this e-mail from myself or someone else, but I
wanted to let you know about a website I have created for my Master's Thesis Project
that provides the Sacramento area with resources for arts education.
I created the website in June and it is still a work in progress. I am always looking for
more information to add to it in order for it to be a comprehensive resource. In addition to
the website, I have been sending a bi-monthly e-newsletter and there is also a social
network tied to the website where people can post events, blogs, videos, photos, and
other information. This is a very low budget project, so it's not the most fancy looking of
websites, but I try to keep it is organized and informative as I can!
The URL for the site is: www.artsedresources.com
Social Network: community.artsedresources.com
I am hoping to get word of my site out to every individual that might be interested in the
site and find it useful. My marketing efforts so far have not been that successful and I am
hoping that some of you may be able to help with that by passing it on. In addition, the
social network is not being utilized as much as I would have liked it to have been.
Also, please send me anything and everything that you feel could be essential to the
website. I can always add new categories of information if you feel it necessary. At
today's meeting, it sounded like there were many more organizations and programs that
I haven't heard of, so please make sure you send me information about your
organization to include.
I would appreciate any input and feedback and if you could pass information on to
anyone that you feel this could be of use to. I have tried to get it out to the schools, but
so far, that hasn't been very successful. I have also attached a flyer that I have made if
you wish to distribute it in any way.
Thank you,
Caroline Firman
62
APPENDIX D
E-Newsletters
First e-Newsletter sent July 30, 2009
63
2nd Design of e-Newsletter, ongoing since August 26, 2009
64
APPENDIX E
Flyer
65
APPENDIX F
Feedback
E-mails received
1) Re: News from Arts Education Resources - October 15, 2009
Caroline: This informational service was exciting to receive this morning. Well done!!! Crystal
2) RE: News from Arts Education Resources - October 15, 2009
Thanks Caroline. This is great stuff, I will share it with the Board and staff.
Vicki
Vicki Schaevitz
Sacramento Youth Symphony
Office Manager
3443 Ramona Ave., Suite 22
Sacramento, CA 95826
vickisys@sbcglobal.net
3) Thank you
Caroline,
Your website is amazing. I've shared it with student teachers and colleagues at UCD. Thanks for starting
such a great resource. Does Sacramento Mayor, Kevin Johnson, know about the site? I ask because of his
work with the community to support the arts in Sacramento.
Anna
Anna Kato, Ed.D.
School of Education
University of California
One Shields Avenue
Academic Surge, #2063
Davis CA 95616
Phone: (530) 752-3401
Fax: (530) 752-5411
http://education.ucdavis.edu
66
APPENDIX G
Web Analytics
Samples of how Web Analytics pages read
67
68
APPENDIX H
Survey Instrument
Survey Instrument
I would appreciate a few moments of your time to fill out a quick
survey about the Arts Education Resources Website.
1) Please enter the information indicated below:
By entering my personal information, I consent to receive email communications from
the survey author's organization based on the information collected.
First Name:
Last Name:
Job Title:
Company Name:
Email Address:
City:
Postal Code:
2) How often did you visit the Arts Education Resources Website?
(www.artsedresources.com - NOT the Community)
Once a day
Once or twice a week
Once or twice a month
Never
3) Have you informed anybody else about the Arts Education
Resources Website? If so, who and how?
Yes
No
Comment:
4) What useful information have you gained from the website?
News about Arts Education
Information about Programs and Classes in the Area
Useful Websites
Grants and Funding Opportunities
Lesson Plans and Curriculum
Other____________________
69
5) Do you find the website easy to navigate? If not, please explain.
Yes
No
Comment:
6) What content would you like to see represented on the website that
is not already there?
Comment:
The Arts Education eNewsletter is sent bi-monthly and includes
important up-to-date news and events in Arts Education, specifically
in the Sacramento area. I will need to start paying for the newsletter
service so I need to know if this is a useful piece of information. If it is
not being read or utilized, I will not continue to send it.
7) Have you read the Arts Education Resources e-Newsletter?
Yes
No
8) If you have read it, do you find it informative?
Yes
No
Comment:
9) How frequently would you like to receive the e-Newsletter?
Once a week
Bi-monthly
Once a month
Never
10) Please make suggestions for content in future e-Newsletters:
Comment:
11) Comments:
70
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