Art History - Museum Distance Learning Solutions for a Classroom

Scenario - 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 art work 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?

Introduction

Since this teacher is a novice to distance learning and the potential technologies available for distance learning, it will be important to look at technologies that require some basic knowledge or knowledge that can be easily learned or supported.  This way the technologies are not the focal point of the course and the instructor will feel comfortable using them in the classroom. Secondly, it will be important to identify the outcomes that are critical for the lesson and the students.  The scenario does not specifically address the outcomes for learning.  It does share some specifics like touring the museum, interacting with the curator, seeing the artwork on display and critiquing artwork.  As an instructional designer, I would make sure the learning outcomes are understood before moving forward (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, Zvacek, 2012.) Using details from the scenario, I will proceed with some recommendations regarding distance-learning opportunities available to this novice teacher.

The “Tour”

In order to take a tour of the museum, hopefully there is some sort of tour available for students to access, or perhaps the teacher will need to contact the curator about options for this in the classroom.  An interactive tour like the one that is available from the National Gallery of Art would allow for students to get a feel for what an art exhibit in a gallery is like as well as how the artwork is arranged.  Maybe the use of a 360-degree view of the gallery at various points would provide students with a feel of the museum.  The American Museum of Natural History provides examples of this approach to sharing exhibits.

If no tour is available, then hopefully the curator will be able to give a tour of the museum using videoconferencing, create a short video or provide a presentation that would share how the exhibits are displayed.  If none of these are options, then the teacher will need to access the websites and show the artwork available at the museum in the various exhibits (an example from the National Gallery of Art is provided here http://www.nga.gov/collection/)

Interaction with the Curator

If possible, it may be good for students to talk specifically with the curator in order to have their questions answered, as well as get some personal comments directly from the curator.  A videoconference through a program like Skype would provide this opportunity.  Stephenson (2009) describes an example of using Skype to interact with a curator.  There was a lot of interaction in this project between the students and the curator because these students already had a lot of information they created and posted in a blog.  The curator was able to view the student work and discuss this work with the students.  This suggests that perhaps the critique of the artwork should happen first and then get feedback from the curator on their critiques.  The video interaction may also provide unexpected facts and observations that expose students and allow for understanding (Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, n.d.).  A micro blog using Today’s Meet (http://todaysmeet.com/) could be set up for students to comment and ask questions during the videoconference.  The curator or teacher could view the comments and questions.  The curator and teacher could then answer the questions.  The micro blog could even be shown on the screen at the same time as the curator.

In typical secondary classrooms, teachers tend to teach more than one section of a course. This means that there is a possibility that the curator will not be available to speak with each section. The instructor will want to plan for this contingency in one of two ways.  The first way would be to arrange for all students to be present for the videoconference.  The second option would be to use a camcorder to make a video of the conference to share with the other sections

If the curator is not available for a videoconference, the instructor could ask for participation through a blog in which students can post questions and the curator would then be able to answer them.  Students could comment on the responses and answer the questions from the curator on the blog.  This would require the instructor to create a presentation on the art, or use the museum website to access the art.


A third option would have the teacher make a presentation with the art of the museum itself.  The teacher would make a blog created to interact with the curator where students can provide questions for the curator and then the curator can reply to the questions or comments made.  This option would not be real time, but would provide some interaction with the curator. If the curator is able to create a podcast or vodcast of their answers, that would be another option.

Student Involvement

As described earlier, during the discussion students could micro blog with the curator to share questions and comments.  This would provide opportunities for students that are uncomfortable asking questions live to the curator.

Students could create a wiki or blog to post their critiques of the artwork, with a link to the actual artwork on the blog for others to see.  Students or the teacher could easily create these pages for collaboration.  (An example of students critiquing their own work with photos of the work is found at http://www.vivacritique.com/Student+Wikis.)  The teacher could provide some thought provoking questions for the critique or a template for students to follow.  Completing this portion of the project first would allow for additional conversation points with the curator.  Recommendations to the teacher should encourage moving this portion of the project to be completed before videoconferencing with the curator.

Concluding Thoughts

The use of wiki and blogs for collaboration are effective for classroom use.  These provide a place that students can interact and store their thoughts as they collaborate (Pitler, Hubbell, Kun, & Malenoski, 2007; Beldarrain, 2006). The interaction with the curator and the tour of the museum provide an opportunity to make connections to their learning.  The use of technology in this example serves to enhance the learning process and must not take the central role of learning.  The lesson also allows for using the web in learning as well as move the learning beyond the textbook.  These characteristics are important for making distance learning effective and appropriate for the learning outcomes (Smaldino et al., 2012).

Resources

Beldarrain, Y. (2006). Distance education trends: Integrating new technologies to foster student interaction and collaboration. Distance Education, 27(2),139–153.

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007).  Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works. Denver, CO: Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning.

Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media. (n.d.). Skype. Retrieved from http://teachinghistory.org/digital-classroom/tech-for-teachers/23569

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

Stephenson, N. (2009, February 15) The many roles of skype in the classroom.  [Blog message]. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/connect/iste-connects/blog-detail/09-02-15/The_Many_Roles_of_Skype_in_the_Classroom.aspx