Thread:Collaborating on a course in the history of art and architecture around the world (1)

Welcome all, I feel that the history of art and architecture is important to every one and that it seldom considered important by many in the k-12 curriculum. I feel that there should be online and in one place a great resource of the images of art integrated into a course in the History of Art and Architecture (AHAA). I feel that the course will have a great deal more depth if it is created by a group of passionate individuals.

It seems to me that when an English teacher assigns a book like A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens that the students will have a much deeper experience of the world in which the characters live if they can see the great paintings done during that time. Of equal importance from my point of view, is that the students here the great music of the time.

English teachers, do you agree with this idea?

I would like to bring some history teachers onboard as well. Many of the paintings of the world are informed by the history in front of them. In the prehistoric world there are amazing paintings on rocks that show us some of the animals that were around during that time, i.e San Paintings from Africa, The Caves of France Lascaux, being the best know. Early 20th C German art tells of the hate and pain just before world war ! in a way that is hard to describe in words, in king lists, in battles with dates.

History teachers, what do you think of these ideas. If we build the site would you and your students come?

From my point of view I feel that we need great courses, online and free. Given that I am passionate about this idea, I have taken a bold step and started such a site. At this point the site is roughed out and has content as well as lots of images. I have divided units into what I am calling Micro Lessons. Each micro lesson deals with one country in one time period. Each micro lesson has articles about the subject which I copy and paste in a section titled Articles written by others. I add the url. I am doing this because so often if I go to a url I get "NOT FOUND" and get frustrated and I assume that students get just as frustrated.

I see this site as a stand alone course because I ask questions for the students and their teacher or parent to answer.The questions encourage critical thinking, teaches the minds eye to see, and provides a way for students to compare one culture to another. In this way the site has a teacher all of the time. Teachers and parents need not feel that they do not know enough. They can learn as they go along with the children. As part of that stand alone quality of the course I want students to do something with the information they have just seen and read. It is in the doing that creates a space for remembering. If the music is added then every time a student hears the music of the period they will recall what they have learned. And if you are in the best of all possible positions this would be the time to teach the students to play simple music, learn to write their creation on music composition paper. With that done each student should be able to play the composition made by one of their classmates.

You can find what has been done so far at ahaafoundation.org or on Google The Applied History of Art and Architecture.

I look forward to a spirited conversation as we start an active collaboration.

Katherine Bolman