What, you need a reason to put up a web site? Really!?! OK, here it goes:
Because it (the Internet) is there.
Hmmm... let's try that again:
Teaching (and Learning)
No extravagant claims here about the healing power of the Internet as a remedy for education's ills. There's more than enough of those. Nonetheless, it is true that there are many different ways that individual learners approach new information, and the Internet fits in as an effective way to deliver information to some learners.
A basic insight that most teachers soon stumble upon is that learning in the classroom runs both ways. These Internet postings thus become a bait to attract even more of the knowledge that lurks out there.
Fitting into the Web
As a node in the World-Wide Web, SaneDraw finds justification in the connections to and from its pages.
Others will want to link to this site when a practical explanation of the digital art process is in order. If an argument lacks substance without a hands-on example, segue into one of our tutorials. If a theoretical assessment needs some grounding, link to one of our samples.
SaneDraw, in turn, plans to discuss primarily the tools that are available on the Internet (whether demos of commercial products, or shareware/freeware packages). We also point to background information resources available at other sites.
This is the place for thinking out loud about possible developments (as if the site weren't littered with enough construction barricades...)
Multilingual upgrade
Additional page versions in languages other than English. This feature may be delayed due to the difficulty of obtaining localized versions of each program demonstrated. If implemented, the tutorials may have to cover the software as it ships in the US.
Gallery
A (possibly redundant) companion to the Samples department. The subtle difference is that Gallery works would attempt to demonstrate an artistic point rather than a technical one.
Story hour
Yes, it would probably have a different name. It would be about narrative in the nonlinear, multi-authored framework of the web. It might even be entertaining.
An inordinate amount of time went into making this a low-maintainance site--apparently one has to waste time to save time. Programming always takes longer than anticipated, and automating this site was no different.
After a couple of false starts and as many redesigns in midstream, it appears that we have a working--if rough--system in place. This will ease the generation of the variants for each page.
One intriguing characteristic of Internet delivery is its
asynchronous nature. This means that the writer and the reader do not have to agree on a time (and place) to meet. Not unlike good-old-fashioned books, I hear you say. The difference, though, is that books do not assume a 'return path' that fosters interaction.
If you think of web sites and books as messages set afloat in bottles, then the latter are dropped in the ocean, the former in the duck pond at the park. The author's hope for establishing contact may be the same in both cases, but the realistic expectations of an actual reply are somewhat different.
The students' contribution ranges from proof-reading (pointing out all those boneheaded mistakes that slipped into the lecture notes late at night) to independent exploration and discovery (usually because they will do 'the darndest things', pushing an envelope they didn't even know was there).
the teachers' role, besides setting the learning process in motion, is to receive and preserve the accumulated knowledge coming from all sides.
Especially in our accelerating times, especially in the short-cycle techology fields, accumulated knowledge is always on the verge of evaporating. Especially in our contradictory times, it is often the knowledge we forgot that could have provided the best answers.
The primary value of the teaching profession to society may well be as curators and interpreters of peripheral ideas--the ones swept aside by the impetus of the mainstream. There is no shortage of mass venues for raging new trends. Teachers protect the quiet tidal pools of independent thinking from drying up.
