We did it! It’s always a great feeling to launch a new product. The new Art in Action online program has been a very interesting project, not only allowing me to try out different technologies like Symfony, but for the interesting management challenges the project has posed. In particular, using our team of high school interns (all girls) was quite the challenge. It turned out great and they were both smart and productive, and a lot of fun to work with. But it required a lot of preparation on my part to create appropriate tools so that they could be productive.
It’s also kind of a unique system. Although Art in Action exists to teach students art, this project is not about directly having students go online, rather it’s focus is on teaching the parents and teachers who deliver the curriculum how to teach art themselves. It’s also an interesting mixture of art history and art application. The common hierarchy of concepts in terms of which all the art works are explained is actually a fairly interesting concept from a theory-of-art perspective. It provides a common, reusable framework in terms of which a broad range of works from many different times and cultures can be examined.
Of course, like all 1.0 releases, we have a long list of stuff we didn’t get into the first version, but that’s the fun of software projects. We’ll fill more of this in coming months, and we do have a lot of very interesting ideas.
I’ve been navigating around the new Art in Action website for the past week or so. I’m new to Art in Action, but participated in a similar program in the East Bay over the past 10 yrs or so. That program didn’t have the wonderful resources that AiA has, and the new website really showcases nicely these resources. I can’t believe you did this with high school interns! Wow! It is truly a work of art. Congratulations on the 1.0 launch. Have a beer and pat yourself on the back!