Example 2: Interactive Tours
A high school history teacher, located on the west coast of the United States, wants to showcase to her students new exhibits being held at two prominent New York City museums. The teacher wants her students to take a "tour" of the museums and be able to interact with the museum curators, as well as see the artwork on display. Afterward, the teacher would like to choose two pieces of artwork from each exhibit and have the students participate in a group critique of the individual work of art. As a novice of distance learning and distance learning technologies, the teacher turned to the school district’s instructional designer for assistance. In the role of the instructional designer, what distance learning technologies would you suggest the teacher use to provide the best learning experience for her students?
A high school history teacher, located on the west coast of the United States, wants to showcase to her students new exhibits being held at two prominent New York City museums. The teacher wants her students to take a "tour" of the museums and be able to interact with the museum curators, as well as see the artwork on display. Afterward, the teacher would like to choose two pieces of artwork from each exhibit and have the students participate in a group critique of the individual work of art. As a novice of distance learning and distance learning technologies, the teacher turned to the school district’s instructional designer for assistance. In the role of the instructional designer, what distance learning technologies would you suggest the teacher use to provide the best learning experience for her students?
While I find the project inspiring and really
interesting, the teacher seems to have a very wide idea of what she wants but
it does not seem tied to standards for a history class as museums often exhibit
modern artists which may not fit into any of her standards in history. As a
former world history teacher in Arizona, I had standards that addressed artists
in certain eras like the Renaissance or northern Renaissance. However, there were not standards that
addressed art appreciation.
The undertaking of an
interactive online tour of museums in New York City requires a lot of research
as well as a lot of help from the curators at those museums who may not find
the value in it for the museum. First,
as an ID helping this teacher I would visit the websites of the two museums and
see if they already offer tours. Some
museums do while some only offer tours of one of the exhibits at their
museums. Second, as an ID I would need
the objectives from the teacher. If she
is only trying to show them artwork in order for her students to learn how to critique
art there maybe alternatives like creating a flash presentation of many
different artists from specific times in history that she would be
covering. An analysis could then happen
that aligns with her time period. For
example artwork created during the Reformation in Europe would be very
different than artwork created during Czar Nicholas Romanv’s reign in
Russia. Thirdly, if she wants to
interact with the curators a conference would have to occur between the
curator, teacher and ID to understand what she is hoping to get from their
interaction with the museum.
The other aspect to consider is the student’s
perspective. The student needs to see a
direct correlation between their history course and this interactive online
tour. Without a direct correlation they may
be doing something that is cool but it is not enhancing their understanding of
the standards (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2012). Therefore, again alternatives to the original
idea may need to be considered.
Once the objectives are set there are few
technologies that could be utilized if the project was to go on. A Flash animation of the pieces could be
created with the help of the museums that show each piece of art with the
placard that hangs next to the artwork in the museum to provide the students
with additional information. Once the
flash animation is created each student could create a blog that they must post
to so many times in a semester that is a live journal of the pieces the student
has viewed and their critiques of those pieces.
The curators from the museums could reply to those blogs with feedback,
thoughtful questions and additional information for the students to
consider. Another way to approach the
interaction with the curator is to find out if the curator has a blog or could
create a blog for the students to post to and learn from.
Resources to help create a Flash Interactive
Video
Resources for alternative museums that already have interactive websites:
References:
Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M.,
& Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of
distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.
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