One of the recommendations from the research was the inauguration of a site on the Internet for shared conference areas, discussion forums, collaborative creative workshops and online arts festivals. The site will also act as a Digital Arts Education Resource to catch teachers enthusiasm, celebrate work they have already undertaken and begin to create a body of material which can act as a catalyst for other teachers, artists and educators working in the arts. There are also plans for an online arts newsletter, Arts Digest 2000, which will aim to promote and document the arts across the borough.

Development of the site commenced in April 2000 but was suspended in early June of that year as it became clear that many teachers in Dudley were not sufficiently confident with the technology to make effective use of the site as currently envisaged. The development work that has been committed to the site has been repurposed for the Success For All website which aims at a wider clientele. And the MagnetSites Project is a direct outcome from this work. These new sites support the New Opportunities Funded 'Study Support' programme of out of school hours activities in Dudley and in Walsall and the city of Nottingham.

The partly developed Arts Education Forum site can be seen at www.artsforum.org.uk where the plans and ideas are described more fully. However, ArtsMag.net which is being developed as a resource to complement the Out Of School Hours support that we do is more likely to cover many of the original aims of the Arts Edcation Forum. ArtsMag.net is part of the MagnetSites project and will be published in April 2002.

For more about our work in Dudley see the Learning Express page.