The WAIT© is Over: Launching the Web-based Art Interactive Tool

Increasingly art museums are having a difficult time attracting school groups as teachers in public schools are forced to spend their instructional time concentrating oil specific, non-arts based, core content curriculum in order to meet the demands of state and federal legislation. While No Child Left Behind attempts to In an academic sense leave no child behind, the arts have clearly been left behind. This is most disturbing as the value of art education is extremely important in a global economy, especially as art education develops the thinking skills students will need to effectively compete in a world market. In order to help teachers expose their students to the arts and to help develop aesthetic thinking skills, the Taubman Museum of Art has created the Web-based Art Interactive Tool (WAIT). WAIT, a reflection of Web 2.0, supports all interdisciplinary approach to learning and directly supports the development of higher level thinking and writing skills. This article describes why such a tool is needed. describes a scaffolding interpretive model developed by the museum, and describes WAIT and how it serves as an interpretive tutorial. Also included is a preliminary assessment of data related to Student use of WAIT.