As the new school term kicks off the UK’s leading art website, Tate Online, sponsored by BT, launches a dedicated area for school teachers and their students at www.tate.org.uk/learning. Schools Online offers a range of resources for teachers to help them plan stimulating classroom activities and productive and exciting visits to the galleries.
Key Works Online looks at key groups of works from the Tate Collection. The initial group to go online is Portraits and Identity and includes works ranging from the early seventeenth century to the 1980s. The themes discussed relate to National Curriculum topics. International Modern Art (IMA) helps teachers plan visits to the International Modern Art Display at Tate Liverpool. IMA encourages students to interact with works and share ideas in exercises related to specific keystages and curriculums.
The flagship project of Schools Online is Out of Hours, a programme of activities based on current displays at Tate Modern. The online teaching plans allow students to explore a range of artists’ work, develop new confidence in discussing art and create their own works inspired by the in-gallery experience. Out of Hours is flexible: teachers can use the sessions at Tate or adapt them for use at a local museum or gallery.
In addition, with the launch of Tate Tools, Tate will be the first UK museum or gallery to offer a subscription-based e-learning service for online classes. Specifically developed for Key Stages 2 and 3 in Art and Design, and again designed to complement the National Curriculum, Tate Tools can be used with an interactive whiteboard or PC. The modules feature video conversations with curators and pupils, interactive activities, Tate Collection images, printable worksheets and teachers’ notes and lesson plans.
The first module, Looking At and Thinking About Art, will be available for subscribers by 23 September at www.tate.org.uk/tatetools and can be paid for with Electronic Learning Credits. For just £90 plus VAT a year (£60 if registered before Christmas 2004), subscribers can have free access to a growing library of teaching resources for pupils. These include video clips, interviews with arts professionals, ready-made teaching modules and interactive PowerPoint slide shows. All materials were developed by Tate educators with the help of educational multimedia experts EBC Ltd. Tate Tools is the only online learning resource offering such high quality learning to support the art curriculum.