Pyramid Power: A Train-the-Trainer Model to Increase Teacher Usage of the ArtsConnectEd On-line Resource

In 2000, two Minnesota art museums began the development of statewide networks for training teachers to integrate internet-based educational tools and resources into their classrooms and teaching techniques. This paper examines the design and implementation of a train-the-trainer program designed to promote the use of www.artsconnected.org (a Web site developed jointly by The Minneapolis Institute of Arts and Walker Art Center) in classrooms across the state of Minnesota. The goals of the program: 1) create a collaborative laboratory for exploring meaningful classroom applications of on-line teacher resources; 2) create a community that will sustain the use of on-line teacher resources throughout Minnesota; 3) build bridges between the cultures of the classroom and the art museum; 4) increase the sophistication of teachers' use of on-line teacher resources; and 5) expand teachers' use of technology in general. Personal anecdotes and valuable lessons learned through formal evaluation of this program illuminate global issues of interest to all museum educators.