If you haven’t seen David Lee’s VIRTUAL MUSEUM TEMPLATE, it’s an exciting addition to the virtual learning resources out there! My brain has been pondering its many uses ever since I discovered it.
Consider what students usually do when they visit a museum on a field trip. They push buttons to view interactive displays. They take notes. Sometimes they complete scavenger hunts the teacher has prepared in advance. What if these interactive features could be used for content delivery in place of the typical slide presentation? What if students were invited to explore content, as they do in any museum, and then do some follow-up activities?
TEACHER-CREATED VIRTUAL MUSEUMS
The template was created for students to use, but it can be a novel way to present content virtually. I was inspired by the new PLANET WORD museum in Washington, D.C. to create a virtual WORLD OF WORDS MUSEUM. It’s ready to share with students (grades 3-6), and this TEACHER GUIDE includes preview questions, a scavenger hunt, and follow-up suggestions.
STUDENT-CREATED VIRTUAL MUSEUMS
Although the possibilities are endless, here are TWO WAYS students could use the template.
(1) INDEPENDENT STUDY PROJECT: The museum project would be an engaging end product, a culmination of independent research and study. David Lee explains more about this HERE.
(2) TEACHING MUSEUM: Older students could create virtual museums for specific audiences (e.g. younger students) that teach about a topic and explain concepts and ideas through photos, videos, and small bits of content, just as found in ‘real” museums. It’s not hard to see that this requires a great deal of thinking and researching and students work hard when they know they have an authentic audience that will be very engaged and look at everything they’ve prepared.
I will add any additional virtual museums I create to the lists of resources on the site. If you’d like to be updated, be sure to subscribe! Also, please comment below if you use any of these ideas!
Post Script: The most exciting project I’ve ever done with students -a three-room DOSEUM for our school- took seven months, but we incorporated SO much thinking, design, and research! If you’d like to read about it, see Big Idea: A Student-Created DoSeum.