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Virtual Museums

Page history last edited by Alexa Labozan 11 years ago

Virtual Museums

By: Ashley Kelley, Alexa Labozan, Katelyn Jones, and Eathan Holtz

About Virtual Museums:

Virtual museums are online museums used to explore a vast verity of primary sources that can be found in museums though out the world that people don’t always have the opportunity to go to. Each museum takes you through artifacts in different ways. Some are set up like power points where there is a text box of information right next to a picture or a group of picture to look at. Many like this one http://www.europeanvirtualmuseum.net/ bring in links to many content areas that have a list of items that are in the museum with a link by them that take to you to a page dedicated to that artifact. There are some that are even a filmed walk though of the museum itself. These are very interactive as the students can click on arrows that take them to a certain part and they can spin around using the arrow keys to get a full panoramic view of that hall. So in these types it is just like you are at the museum and walking to each hall to get that experience of being there without actually being there. Here is a virtual museum of the Smithsonian national museum of natural history http://www.mnh.si.edu/vtp/1-desktop/. This site uses the style of virtual museum of clicking arrows to explore the artifacts. Virtual museums allow students to get hands on experience and gives access of artifact that are found on the other side of the world. Just like museums they have exhibits and can change their exhibits to hold new items.

Tutorial Information for Self-Directed Learning:

The first virtual museum that we used was a virtual tour of the Smithsonian museum. The link to the website is found below. You will arrive at the page and it will seem as though you are in the Atrium Café, which is on the ground floor and is right at the entrance of the museum. In this virtual museum, it is as though you are walking through the museum as a guest and have the opportunity to view every item in the museum as if you were really there. You can follow the arrows that are shown on the ground, you simply click on the arrows and they take you to another room within the museum. You can also zoom in and out with the + and – buttons located on the bottom of the screen. While zooming in and out you can press down on your mouse and drag it from side to side to change the view of the room if you would like. You can zoom in on the artifacts in the museum to view them and to see what is said about each one. On some exhibits there is a large camera shown. You can click on the camera and it is a zoomed in picture of an item that is on the display board. This makes it easier for those viewing the museum to better see all of the things in the exhibit. Another thing to know about this tool is that in the top right corner there are three words, ground, first, and third. This is each of the levels in the museum. When you click on a level, it will open up a map and you can select the area of the museum in which you would like to go to. You can explore the tool as much as you would like, going back and forth between rooms and skipping around as much as you would like. If you have any questions or become confused about how to navigate the site, there is a button in the bottom left corner with a question mark on it and it will give you the basic instructions on how to use this virtual museum.

http://www.mnh.si.edu/vtp/1-desktop/

The second virtual museum we decided to look at was F-MU.S.EU.M. (Form Multimedia System For a European Museum). This museum is not as interactive as the first although it is very informational. The homepage is located below. No navigate to the virtual museum; you will go to the information bar on the left hand side of the page and scroll down to “virtual museum”. Click on that and then from there you can browse different museums, artifacts, or itineraries people might take when traveling through museums in Europe. There are several different museums listed in the top column. If you select one of the museums, it will bring up a variety of artifacts within that museum. To find out more about each artifact, you can click on the link titled “more info/3D” and from there it will bring up more details. Another way to search this virtual museum is through clicking on the chronology or area. Artifacts throughout the several museums listed at the site will be within that section. If you want to search artifacts that solely come from Germany, you can click on that section of the map and it will bring up artifacts from that area of Europe. If you want to search a specific era, such as 7000-3500 BC, you can select that under chronology and it will bring up artifacts and their information. The information that is listed about each object is typically which museum it is located at, what the title of the exhibit is, which period it is from and the chronology of that artifact. There is also a little blurb under each artifact giving a brief description of each one.

http://www.europeanvirtualmuseum.net/evm/index.asp.html

The third virtual museum we decided to explore was the Louvre. The link to the website is found below. For this specific tool, there are many different things you can explore. You can select the center picture and from there there are many links that will take you to different sites and exhibitions. One example of this would be selecting the large picture entitled “A Closer Look”. This will take you to the next site where, when you scroll down the page, there are several different small links. This specific group has 15 different small links. If you select the first link entitled “A Closer Look at the Mona Lisa” you would click on the button that reads, “View the feature”. Make sure that you have the volume turned on so you can hear the woman who is talking about the Mona Lisa. She will begin with an introduction about the painting and then from there will go into more details with pictures and audio about the painting. There is also a sort description to the right of the picture and you can select one of the specific pictures to see it for a longer time if you would like to. There are a few links above the description on the right, which are the timeline, scale, glossary, and bibliography. The timeline shows key dates around when the Mona Lisa was painted. The scale is a comparison between the Mona Lisa painting and an actual humans height. The glossary is comprised of a few words that are relative to the Mona Lisa painting (either the style the artist used, the type of paint, or an item in the painting). The bibliography is a citation of all the sources used to comprise the site for the closer look at the Mona Lisa. A few other things on this site are buttons on the left side of the page, which take you into a description about specific elements within each painting and details about that piece of art. There are a lot of details in this virtual museum and it is very informational and insightful.

http://www.louvre.fr/en/homepage

Teaching with Virtual Museums:

Example #1: http://www.europeanvirtualmuseum.net/

The European Virtual Museum is a fantastic tool to have in the classroom because it allows students to learn about specific artifacts and how they applied to the area of history being studied. This website is specific to European history, so students of all grade levels are able to use it. On the website students can closely look at specific historical artifacts. Students have the ability to read about the type of object, time period, it’s museum location as well as details about it. A good example of using this tool is when studying the Bronze Age. By looking at artifacts students have the ability to learn about specific objects first hand. To help tie in visual arts students can pick their favorite artifact and recreate it for our own “Visual Museum” on the class website. Photos will be taken of their objects made and then they will be posted with information the students write.

Example #2: http://www.mnh.si.edu/vtp/1-desktop/

The Smithsonian online is a fantastic tool to have in the classroom. With this virtual museum, students are able to explore every exhibit in the museum as if they were actually there. By picking the exhibit and then the area they want to explore, students have direct access to information. This One idea is using the Rastafarian exhibit while learning about the history of Jamaica. Students are able to enter the exhibit and look at various images, information and objects. Students will find a favorite image from the exhibit and they will then write a poem based off of it. The poems will be posted along side the pictures in the classroom and they can be entered in local poetry contests.

Example #3: http://www.louvre.fr/

The Louvre is one of the most famous museums in the world and being able to use their virtual tours in the classroom is a unique opportunity. Students are able to browse through the museum and look at famous and significant works of art. When studying important artists, this virtual museum provides endless resources. If students in the second grade are learning about Ancient Egypt and its history, this is a great tool to have. Students are able to look at important works of art that they would otherwise be unable to see. A project that students can do to relate what they saw online to the classroom is to think about and discuss as a group how the art was developed with tools very different from today’s. They will put their ideas on the board and we will review them as a class.

A Video Tour of Abraham Lincoln's Home: