Presentation by Erika Sanger of Albany Institute of History & Art given during THV's 2011 summer institute

1. Digital Renaissance

2. Convention n.
(4) An arbitrary but consistently observed usage
Conventional adj.
Depending on or deriving from convention,
customary, sanctioned by usage

3. Harriet Bryant, 1940
Bemidji, Minnesota

5. Dr. William C. Little, North
Carolina Baptist Hospital, first
recipient of a cordless phone.

6. Crandall 1881
Hammond 1884
Blickensderfer, 1893

7. 1878 Typewriter Patent Drawing
Prototype typewriter invented by
Christopher Latham Sholes, Carlos
Glidden and Samuel W. Soule
between 1868 -1873, manufactured
by Remington & Sons Co., Ilion, New
York, USA, beginning 1874.
Cost: $125 ($2,400 in 2009 dollars)

9. www.albanyinstitute.org

10. You guys are a great museum with real
programs and a highly qualified, professional
staff. It was truly jarring to visit your website --
it just doesn't convey the great qualities that are
the essence of your institution. This survey is
good and needed research and it's brave of you
to open it up to the 'outside.' good luck!
It’s pretty bad.... I love the Albany institute and
find it both beautiful, sophisticated and art
historically rigorous. the website, however does
not convey those qualities. It is downright ugly,
busy and confusing. The colors, layout and user
interface need to be streamlined to better serve
the website visitors and encourage them to
attend and support the museum.”
Patricia Search, Professor, Department of Language,
Literature and Communication, RPI
Natt Phenjati, RPI Class of 2010
Harvard University Class of 2013

11. Do you usually visit a museum’s website before visiting the museum?
Response Percent
No
12%
Yes
88%
Do you usually visit a museum’s website after you visit the museum?
Response Percent
Yes
Educators: 23% 38%
Arts/Non Profit/Education No
Administrators: 17% 62%

12. How important to you are these museum website features?
Rating Average
Interactive Media 2.10
Directions and Hours 3.54
Education 2.80
Exhibitions 3.61
Collections 3.20
Calendar 3.46
News 2.89
Shop 2.13
1 2 3 4

13. When we
did the
survey, the
box did not
have the
word
“Search”
inside
Please visit the
Detroit Art
Institute website.
Try to find the title
of a painting by
“Frederic Edwin
Church.” How hard
is it to find?
I entered his name into the search box. The
only problem is that it is not labeled as a
search box. That is a real problem, I guess. If
you read it quickly it looks more like some sort
of login box.

14. ?
Please visit the Hudson River Mill Project “It seemed you had to
website. Try to find information about “The 1910 read carefully and
Strike.” How hard is it? think about what each
link might contain. I
prefer a search option
on websites.”

15. Response Count
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Very Hard Hard Average Easy Very Easy
hudsonrivermillproject.org dia.org

16. Please visit and explore
the Chicago History
Museum website and the
Peabody Essex Museum
website. Then rate the
quality of each website.

17. Chicagohs.org's Response Count
200
180
www.chicagohs.org
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Unacceptable Poor Average Good Excellent
Ease of Use Appearance Content Overall Experience PEM.org's Response Count
200
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
www.pem.org 40
20
0
Unacceptable Poor Average Good Excellent
Ease of Use Appearance Content Overall Experience

18. Please rank the homepages of these websites
according to how visually appealing they are.

20. Response Count
1st
60
40
20
cca.qc.ca
clarkart.edu
4th 0 2nd
guggenheim.org
mainehistory.org
3rd

21. August 2010 Focus Group for Educators
Albany Institute Teacher Resources
Can We Go Digital?
20 teachers
8 school districts
3 private schools
6 NY counties
40% elementary school
15% middle school
35% high school
10% community college
24% ages 21-30
29% ages 31-40
Highest ratings went to website pages
18% ages 41-50
that incorporated text, images and maps.
29% ages 51–60
Make explicit the cross curricular connections materials produced for teachers to
quickly see how the museum based lessons and activities are inherently cross
curricular and support simultaneous learning in multiple subjects.

22. Teachers in our region are very familiar with
the internet as a classroom resource.
94% use resources found on museum websites
76% use resources found on library websites
88% visit a museum’s website before bringing their class
to a museum
65% visit a museum’s website after bringing their class to
a museum
65% had digital projectors in their classrooms or they
could request that one be brought in for their use
40% had interactive whiteboards mounted to their
classroom walls
25% use overhead projectors with transparencies as a
teaching tool

23. National Geographic and PBS websites were most frequently used 65-70%
www.education.nationalgeographic.com/education
www.pbs.org/teachers
Resources meant to be used in a
connected, on line environment

24. The Library of Congress, The Smithsonian Institution, The Metropolitan
Museum of Art and The New York State Archives were used by 40-55%
of the focus group.
www.loc.gov/teachers

25. www.metmuseum.org/toah

26. www.archives.nysed.gov/education/showcase

27. americanart.si.edu/education/resources/guides www.si.edu
• Compare and contrast these portraits of
George Washington.
• What do these representations say about
Washington’s impact on the US
Government?
• How do they compare to the way you are
used to seeing him represented?
• What classical references do you see?
George Washington refused to accept the extraordinary power Congress
offered to him after his victory over the British, declaring "as the sword was
the last resort for the preservation of our liberties, so it ought to be the first
thing laid aside, when those liberties are firmly established." He resigned his
military commission and became an ordinary citizen because he believed that
only monarchies needed standing armies, chiefly to keep the people
subdued. Citizen militias, organized at moments of crisis and quickly
disbanded, represented the true nature of a democracy. Pettrich created this
work at a time when political power in the United States was being
consolidated around the federal government. He may have felt that this
historic moment in Washington's life would remind a new generation of the
nation’s founding ideals, and of the dangers of too much power given to too
few.

28. Visually appealing The British Museum
Easy to navigate
87% applicable to the curriculum
100% would use the activities with their students
100% could be used by social studies and visual art
teachers equally
50% the teachers thought the lessons were applicable to
Science and Technology
Appreciated the large number of images
Links to other resources
Detailed instructions for activities
Cut and paste images and text to incorporate into classroom
work

29. National Geographic In the past month National
Geographic has updated the
teacher section of it’s website !
Go online to comment.
70% teachers indicated that they used this resource in the first part of
the assessment, in the qualitative assessment, strong biases were
revealed.
Did not like the advertisements on the National Geographic pages
Activities needed context for teachers
Would be best for younger children.
Did not see connections to the Visual Arts, English Language or
Technology, only science and social studies.
They would not use the activities if they were available in print form.

30. The Seattle Art Museum
½ found it easy to navigate, ½ found it difficult
½ thought it would be easier to use the resource in print form
All found clear curriculum connections in Visual Art, English and
Social Studies
None found connections to Science, Math or Technology
One thought that she would use the scripts that provided the
appropriate questions for teachers to ask.
Too much text.
I can’t even bring myself to read it.

31. Fun, but perhaps not age appropriate for elementary students
Best way to use: do game together on the interactive white board and then
individually in the computer lab
The gap in available technology in our region revealed again in that 35% of the
teachers that indicated they wouldn’t use it because it was too difficult to get all their
students on a computer at the same time
Several wanted information about the artifacts pictured in the game.
Only 20% of the teachers found curriculum connections to the game.
oi.uchicago.edu/OI/MUS/ED/mummy.html
Embalm Your Own Mummy, Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago

32. Awarded a Museums for America grant from
Institute of Museum and Library Services
project start date
August 1, 2010
Contracted with
Slate Roof Studio
December 2010 as
website designers
after a 3 month
search and proposal
process

33. Hannah Dym, RPI, Class of 2010
Patricia Search, Professor, LLC, RPI
Given budget and time restraints, what website features and
design components will be most important in ensuring a
satisfying experience for the primary users of AIHA’s new
website?

34. The Teacher Survey had a total of 25 questions 48 teachers responded

44. www.artic.edu/aic

45. www.nrm.org

46. www.googleartproject.com

47. www.denverartmuseum.org
I love the idea of the lesson plan and the background
information because that is what a classroom teacher
probably does not know and does not have time to
find out. In the fast pace of the elementary day, I
don’t think that a classroom teacher would spend 45
minutes unless it was really integral to what was
being studied. Kids doing internet research is often
prohibited by school policies. I would have rather
had websites listed for the teacher to look at and
choose how to get that information to the students.

48. ABCTeach
BrainPop
Culturegrams
Discovery Education
EdHelper
Enchanted Learning
History Channel
History.org
Museum of Modern Art
NASA
National Council of Teachers of English
New York State History Association – Farmers
Museum
NOAA
ReadingAtoZ
Stageforlearning.com
TIME for kids
Wikipedia, Wikimedia
Youtube

49. Convention n.
(4) An arbitrary but consistently observed usage
Conventional adj.
Depending on or deriving from convention,
customary, sanctioned by usage