Interactive Museum Tours

The Virtual Museum

A history teacher wants her students to view museum exhibits in a distant city through interactive tours. Additionally, the students need to interact with museum staff and participate during group discussions of individual artwork. Several software applications are available for creating interactive tours; however, the cost of creating and maintaining these learning resources would be cost prohibitive. Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek (2012) emphasize the importance of balance between realistic experience and resource cost. A more cost effective approach would be to conduct virtual field trips utilizing two-way interactive video conferencing technology. Many museums already cater to schools with customizable virtual field trips complete with lesson plans and downloadable resources (Zaino, 2009). 

For example, The Cleveland Museum of Art offers a variety of virtual field trips for K-12 schools that are customizable to meet specific curriculum needs (The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012). Virtual field trips utilizing interactive video conferencing provides a cost effective method for visiting distant attractions without leaving the classroom. Still, the technology can be expensive, you are limited to the providers schedule and services, and not all facilities provide this service. Another option for virtual museum exhibits is too leverage the Google Art Project, which consists of over 30,000 pieces of art from 150 institutions throughout 40 countries (Google Art Project, n.d.). The Google art Project supports creating custom galleries and slide shows that are sharable with students. When using the Google Art Project, an additional technology is required for student interaction with museum curators. Skype is an inexpensive option for a two-way interactive video communications between a classroom and a distant resource. The Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center uses Skype to interact with students at a distance (Connecticut league of History Organizations, 2012).

A classic and proven application for student interactions such as group critiques is the discussion forum.    Beldarrain (2006) concludes, “The versatility of social software and other collaboration tools available today support constructivist environments that seek to motivate, cultivate, and meet the needs of the 21st-century learner” (p. 140).  Walden University’s program in Instructional Design and Technology is a good example of the successful use of discussion forums in both the instructional and assessment contexts. Andresen (2009) writes, “Making a successful asynchronous discussion is probably the most important aspect for an instructor to consider” (p. 250). For the group critique of individual artwork, the instructor has the capability of providing the right amount of guidance necessary for optimal student performance. 

While my personal experience with virtual field trips in K-12 education has been positive, Zanetis (2010) warns that student believe actual live field trips are better than virtual field trips and students that have experienced the same field trip both virtually and in person overwhelmingly prefer the actual experience. The preference of real over virtual is no surprise but when real is not an option or is cost prohibitive, a virtual field trip is still a viable option; whether using interactive video conferencing technology or web based tools like the Google Art Project.

References

Andresen, M. A. (2009). Asynchronous discussion forums: success factors, outcomes, assessments, and limitations. Journal Of Educational Technology & Society, 12(1), 249-257.

Beldarrain, Y. (2006). Distance Education Trends: Integrating new technologies to foster student interaction and collaboration.Distance Education, 27(2), 139-153. doi:10.1080/01587910600789498

Connecticut league of History Organizations. (2012). Skype used for museum education in Connecticut . Retrieved July 14, 2012 from http://clho.org/skype-used-for-museum-education-in-connecticut/

Google Art Project. (n.d.). FAQs – Google Art Project. Retrieved July 14, 2012 from http://www.googleartproject.com/faqs/

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.

The Cleveland Museum of Art. (2012). Retrieved July 13, 2012 from http://www.clevelandart.org/learn/distance%20learning.aspx

Zaino, J. (2009). Field-Tripping Goes Virtual. Instructor, 119(2), 34-36.

Zanetis, J. (2010). The Beginner's Guide to Interactive Virtual Field Trips. Learning & Leading With Technology, 37(6), 20-23.