Week 3 assignment-Distance Learning Technologies

A high school history teacher on the west coast wants to showcase her students new exhibits being held in New York.  Are there distance learning technologies available to provide her students a quality learning experience?

The advancements in technology allow students the opportunity to experience things without leaving their classrooms.  This has evolved and changed.  At one time a teacher may have prepared a slide show and that has progressed to using video.  While informative, options like these are not truly hands on.  Today, technology can allow students to virtually tour facilities in a way that is much more interactive than video or still shots.  

An example of a virtual tour can be found here http://www.tenement.org/.  The Tenement Museum of New York City provides a virtual tour that incorporates audio and visuals.  Another example is from the Guggenheim,  http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/interact/watch.  The options here have a number of videos related to content in the collection.  For younger learners, most major museums have a page similar to this http://www.amnh.org/ology/, which have activities and lessons on general subjects the museum focuses on.  The scenario described mentioned works of art and most major museums provide visuals of some of their major pieces in their collection, like the Metropolitan Museum of Art provides here http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/browse-highlights. 

These options would give a teacher a variety of options in the classroom.  Benefits of working through museum web sites include learners can work on at their own pace in a medium that is relatively easy to use, web activities are available across multiple platforms, and available to anyone with web access.  (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, Zvacek, 2009)  This can be a bonus for teachers that need to deal with students who miss the virtual field trip and need to access the content outside of class.  Museum sites also provide support for teachers to use their resources effectively.  Still, they are still mostly images and audio and do not fully substitute being able to walk through and view content in a free flowing manner.  I was initially surprised I could not find a free form, virtual walk-through at any of the sites in New York, but all the museums provide a wealth of information that could be used in a lesson.

There are a number of ways to dress up the presentation as well using resources not found on museum web sites.  A teacher could use Google maps set to street view and virtually walk to the door of the museum.  This is a technique I used preparing students traveling to London.  We “walked” our route virtually before we left from our train station to our hotel and we also viewed our routes staring at Tube stations to area certain attractions.  A final option would be to search YouTube for videos that might provide some insight into what the museum looks like to walk through.

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education.  Boston, MA: Prentice Hall.