Interactive Tours - Distance Learning Challenge

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. What technologies would I suggest?

Given that the teacher is a novice of distance learning and distance learning technologies, I would not opt to put this in a CMS.    I would recommend using computers with internet access and a projector or Smart board. 

The teacher can facilitate an initial virtual group tour by using Google Art Project or the museum’s own virtual tour interface (or if it is a lesser known museum by perusing for video’s and images in advance) and then students could be assigned to continue to explore on their own at a computer lab or on iPads.     Questions collected during class or brought up by individuals can be directed to curators through the museum’s website.   Museums are bringing more and more art to the public virtually.   Many have specific educational sections for K-12 and some even have blogs for teens like the Metropolitan Museum of Art. (metmuseum.org) Responses to questions posed cold be shared with the whole glass. The group critique could be done F2F but could include using Turning Point technology “clickers” to keep students engaged and maintain anonymity.  

Now, this might not sound all that grandiose from a technology perspective and I must admit, I had thoughts of web conferencing streaming video from the museum to the class and creating a follow up discussion forum in a CMS, but I don’t think either of those would fit with this group.   First, although, the students are probably pretty proficient with technology, the instructor is a novice.  “In assessing the available technologies, I would determine the lowest level of common technologies (LCT).”  (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek 2012)  Second, I would strive to “provide an experience that is no more real than necessary in order for outcomes to be achieved….Dale (1946) implied when discussing his cone that the tension between efficiency (abstract experiences) and effectiveness (realistic experiences) is at the core of instructional design.”  It is not necessary to draw additional technology in to obtain the learning outcomes the teacher has defined.    It is also not necessary to go overboard with technology if the users are not yet comfortable with it.  

References:

Durgahee, Ayesha and Gross, Doug; (2011) Google offers virtual tours of the world’s top art museums retrieved from   http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/innovation/02/02/google.streetview.art/

Iding, Marie & Nordbotten, Joan Selecting Virtual Museum Exhibits to Support Classroom Teaching retrieved from http://nordbotten.com/joan/publications/2010_Selecting%20V-museum%20Exhibits%20for%20Classroom%20Teaching.pdf

Martyn, Margaret (2007) Clickers in the Classroom an Active Learning Approach retrieved from

http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/clickers-classroom-active-learning-approach

 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 Metropolitan Museum of Art retrieved from http://www.metmuseum.org/learn/~/media/AA1564368A61472D8BA01764B45F6FD3.pdf

Distance Learning Defined

Mindmap of my definition of Distance Learning and some thoughts on the future



 

My definition of Distance Learning



The first time I had heard the term distance learning was about 10 years ago when an aunt of mine taught high school courses online for students with special circumstances and needs, ie. physical injury, which prohibited them from attending school for significant parts of a school year or an entire school year.   Back then, I would have defined distance learning as:

Formal education where the teacher and student are physically seperated from each other.

As I entered into the Walden online program, my definition grew to become:

Formal education where the teacher and students are physically seperated from each other, but interaction between students, teacher, content and each other is accomplished through various media and technology.

As I studied the definitions, history and theories of distance education in my current EDUC course Distance Learning,  I have expanded my personal definition to include the very important clarifying idea of two way communication between and among teachers and students and the idea that "the majority of educational communications between (among) teachers and student(s) occur noncontiguously. " (Garrison and Shale 1987).

Even with my new definition, I still feel that I am in the 'traditional definition camp' of distance learning. 

The newer and emerging definitions - open learning and virtual school for example, are not quite in my realm yet and I believe the terminology is in the process of being established. Until it is, there is likely to be confusion as today it may come across as conflicting.    Open learning, for example, as described by Edwards (1995)  focuses on local and individual needs and requirements, however MOOC's (Mass Open Online Course) is just the opposite yet both use the word open within the context of education.   Open educational practices (OEP's) are touted as the next phase in 21st century learning where the learners will be like a co-producer of their education.    Click the link to see more about OEP's.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_educational_practices

My vision is that those practices which support quality learning will become popular, recognized and established as the new 'norms' of the future.  I feel that current distance learning through accredited universtities will expand significantly and that we will also see an expansion in K-12 and corporate type training.

 

So it has been quite a long while since I posted, but my Distance Learning course is underway and we will be using blogs as tools of learning.  Looking forward to posting again soon!