The art of planning real instruction - "A Virtual Tour"

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 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?

According to Keegan, 1986 (as cited in, Beldarrain, Y., 2006), Distance education emerged in response to the need of providing access to those who would otherwise not be able to participate in face-to-face courses. It encompasses those programs that allow the learner and instructor to be physically apart during the learning process and maintain communication in a variety of ways.

Instructional designers are sought out to provide better solutions and or options to address the educational needs of desired learning experiences. Of course, there are plenty of factors to consider before taking considering the use of an id professional. For example, before approaching any type of planner, whether it’s a wedding planner an interior designer or a constructional engineer one must consider the budget of planning towards bringing the vision into a reality.

In the scenario above, the high school instructor is face with various challenges towards fulfilling the educational needs of the classroom. The challenges above aren’t problematic; however, assuming that there’s not a budget in place, the instructional designer will have to plan/design the best option(s) to fulfilling the needs of the client, in this case the high school history teacher.

Situation I: The teacher wants her students to take a "tour," and wants to showcase to her students new exhibits (displayed artwork) being held at two prominent New York City museums. Clearly, traveling across the states would be an expensive and high accountability situation; however, accomplishing the task of visiting a museum in New York, would not present a challenge. So, what could happen in this situation is, the teacher could utilize this website to choose up to five museums which are located in New York and preview the virtual tours that are available. For example, if the teacher could assign a group(s) to view or explore, “Thinking Outside the Box: European Cabinets, Caskets, and Cases from the Permanent Collection (1500–1900),” located at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1000 Fifth Avenue New York, New York 10028).

According to Kearsley and Shneiderman (1999), it is the responsibility of the instructor to maximize student interaction. As emerging technologies are implemented to support interaction, the instructor’s role will include not just monitoring and facilitating the interactions, but also actively participating in the exchange of knowledge and reflection
(Beldarrain, 2006).

ID Solution I: Virtual Tour - http://www.virtualfreesites.com/museums.museums.html - These Sites present over 300 Museums, Exhibits, Points of Special Interest and Real-Time journeys which offer online multimedia guided tours on the Web. Most of the following offer text and pictures, others in addition transmit sound and an occasional movie; the Virtual Tours of Museums and Exhibits never close.
Or http://www.youtube.com/ - YouTube is an Internet website that specializes in publishing user-posted video clip. YouTube is built upon standardized, readily-available technologies. Videos can be uploaded in the user's choice of Audio Video Interleave (avi), QuickTime (mov), Moving Picture Experts Group (mpeg), or Windows Media Video (wmv) formats.

Video Demonstration I -
Clearly, traveling across the states would be an expensive and high accountability situation; however, accomplishing the task of visiting a museum in New York, would not present a challenge. So, what could happen in this situation is, the teacher could utilize this website to choose up to five museums which are located in New York and preview the virtual tours that are available. For example, if the teacher could assign a group(s) to view or explore, “Thinking Outside the Box: European Cabinets, Caskets, and Cases from the Permanent Collection (1500–1900),” located at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1000 Fifth Avenue New York, New York 10028).

Situation II: The teacher wants her students to be able to interact with the museum curators…

ID Solution II: skype - http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/features/allfeatures/video-call/ - The use of skype or web/videoconferencing eliminates the need for the classroom to travel, although there’s not a replacement for an authentic learning experience; however, due to the fact that traveling across the states to visit New York would be considerably expensive and require much more planning and more the learners are still able to interactive with the curator and fulfill their learning needs. In order to effectively maximize the use of curator and time, the teacher will have to divide the student into groups, perhaps assign each group to different art forms and or time periods within history: after or during the tour exploration the learners will have synthesized questions for the curator(s) to answer. Please view the video demonstrations below.

Video Demonstration I -

Video Demonstration II -

Situation III: 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. Incorporating an LMS presents a perfect opportunity to allow each assembled group to not only post critiques of the artwork, however, the learners could go as far as creating a webpage and embed a video, in an event that a classroom presentation was an option. Utilizing media in this case, provides the learners with opportunities of internet exploration a provision of technological experiences.
ID Solution III: EDU 2.0 - http://www.edu20.org/ -
Video Demonstration I -

In conclusion, a virtual presentation cannot replace the feeling and experience of a real life visit to a museum; however, for those who are less fortunate gaining that experience, there are other alternative solutions available for the individual to at least come close to the real thing. The state of technology will continue to advance; however, we must practice the use of those technologies to our advantage in order to fulfill both he educational and experiential needs of the learner.

References

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

Retrieved on January 24, 2011 from: http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/features/allfeatures/video-call/

Retrieved on January 24, 2011 from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqd7ds2mEbY

Retrieved on January 24, 2011 from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHwaB21gAL8&feature=related

Retrieved on January 24, 2011 from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHwaB21gAL8

Retrieved on January 24, 2011 from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onKAwTZU_9A

Retrieved on January 24, 2011 from: http://what-is-what.com/what_is/youtube.html