1. Website: NGA Classroom
2. Website Address: http://www.nga.gov/education/classroom/
3. Copyright date and/or Last Update: ©2010
4. Author/Organization Credentials: “Written and produced by the Education Division and Web Team at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. Developed and designed by Second Story Interactive Studios, Portland, Oregon. Additional programming by Ric Foster, National Gallery of Art.”
In 1937 the United States of America created the National Gallery of Art from the resources that Andrew W. Mellon gave to Congress. Mellon’s personal collection of art that he had intended to form a gallery of art with in Washington, became the launching point for the gallery, when he died in 1937. The A. W. Mellon Education and Charitable Trust later donated funds to build the West Building to house the collections.
5. Web Site Design and Ease of Navigation: This web site is extremely user friendly, the homepage can be used to navigate to anyplace on the site without any difficulty. The homepage is divided into five different subject areas, Featured Resources, Resource Finder, Super Learner Interactions, NGA Link and a Mailing List. Four windows are highly visible where you can find the alphabetized list of resources that include: Featured Resources, Curriculum, Topics and Artists. An alphabetized sliding bar makes the window user friendly allowing for quick selection and movement throughout the site.
Below the three windows is a section for kids that have several games to make learning about art fun.
Of particular interest to teachers is the NGA Link where teachers can borrow free-loan teaching materials. After clicking on the NGA Link you are taken to another page that is similar to the homepage, containing a list of information on how to use the loan program and again the same three windows that include Curriculum, Topics and Artists, where the teacher can select teaching packets, slides, image CDs, DVDS, CD-ROMs and Videos from the given lists of resources. When you click on the material you want you can easily add it to your cart, making it as simple as shopping online.
The next item on the home page is the Mailing List, where you can enter to receive e-mails about education resources and national teacher programs, as well as on-site school and teacher programs.
At the very bottom of the homepage is an overview of all the information that can be found on the site, each subject can be clicked on to go directly to the same information.
The design of the web site is very colorful and very well arranged to make it easy to see and to access numerous materials on art information. The four windows that have a scrolling bar listed in alphabetical order is probably the feature that I think makes the site so user friendly.
6. Response and Recommendation for Use: Most notable about this site is the fact that it is a government sponsored web site, making it one of the better sites for dependable, accurate information and resources for the teacher, student, or anyone who wants to learn more about art. I like the highly visible windows that make finding resources a snap, but what I think is the greatest feature of the web site is the excellent resources that are available for loan. Teachers will find this site one of the most useful sites due to this great loan program; making teaching art across the curriculum a good deal easier for non-art majors.
Students will find this site useful for art research papers, examples for reproduction assignments, and to learn art history. The games in the interactive section are great resources for the younger children to start acquiring knowledge in a fun, friendly and safe environment.
I personally like this web site because I can always find information on art quickly, without having to serf the web endlessly. I think that teachers and students alike will all agree that this is an excellent site to use for art research. I would highly recommend this site to everyone, because it is user friendly, reliable and of course safe for students to use.
