A Glimpse into the Top 10 Museum Websites

While working on the analysis of the two sites that I was assigned to facilitate in class, I chance upon an interesting online art magazine that presents an article on the top 10 museum web sites, exploring what might make online design the next starchitecture:

http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/804985/artinfo-ranks-the-top-10-best-museum-web-sites-from-the

After a quick scan through the list of top 10 websites, I realized it is not easy to decipher the characteristics of a good website as the design and functionality for each site varies. The styles are diverse. The one common feature across all sites is the Web 2.0 functionality, a basic in today's website.
One comment in the article struck me as we had some brief discussion about this in one of our class discussion earlier:

 Just because a museum is famous doesn't mean its Web site is great — the Museum of Modern Art is one such negative example.

Understandably, while maintaining a 'cool' site is probably a necessary part of museum branding, it may not be the priority of all museums.   But  I wonder why is the Museum of Modern Art quoted as a negative example.

Flipping the Class without Flipping Out

Chanced upon this article on the flipped classroom model  which seemed to have created quite a stir in the education scene in the last two years.  

http://arthistoryteachingresources.org/2013/06/10/flipping-the-class-without-flipping-out/

The flipped classroom model is known to be a response to traditional one-size fits all classroom model of education. In a flipped classroom,  students learn new content online by watching video lectures, usually at home, and what used to be homework (assigned problems) is now done in class with teacher offering more personalized guidance and interaction with students, instead of lecturing. 

What first caught my attention was the 'upside down' image that seemingly depicts  the idea of 'flipped classroom'. ( thou I question if this is represented accurately) The author started by sharing the motivation behind her flipped approach - a student who fell asleep in her class. Typically, we would expect a teacher to react to an 'unacceptable' behavior but this teacher capitalized on this opportunity to generate a discussion with students, which then led to her revised instruction in class. This, in my opinion, is an evident of a progressive classroom where teacher and students are shareholders of learning. 

The author went on to share what she did to flip her class. Unlike how many educators tends to lose sight of educational purposes in the light of the allure of the novelty of approaches and initiatives,  there was no rush in implementing the flipping approach but the faculty agreed that only one class day per semester in the core first year courses. This enabled time and space for teachers to engage in their own experimentation and to hone their knowledge and skills in the use of approach to enhance instruction. And, the thing that stood out clearly here was how technology is harnessed to play a complementary role in supporting the 'flipping' efforts in order to achieve the educational goals and not allowing technology to determine the instructions. 

I like that the adoption of flipped approach also rippled off some other positive outcomes such as fostering greater collaboration of teachers in sharing resources so that 'no one needs to reinvent the wheel' .