Recently, along with Raquel Solorzano-Duenas and Pete Nguyen (my husband), both teachers at Western High School in Anaheim, CA, I presented at CUE-Nevada’s virtual conference, CUE’D UP 2020 on Curating Virtual and Augmented Exhibits for Social Students. Virtual exhibits can be a convenient and affordable way to expose students to historical and cultural artifacts and supplement a teacher’s curriculum. With the tools now available to educators, teachers and students can create their own online exhibits to connect with a global audience. And during a time when field trips are not running for safety purposes and cut budgets, this would be a great alternative.
Museums have been developing virtual exhibits to help share resources and information to a greater audience beyond those that can physically visit. Check out the National Museum of African American History & Culture “We Return Fighting: The African American Experience in World War I” and the British Museum’s Museum of the World interactive exhibit experience that spans time, continents and culture.
During our presentation at CUE’D UP 2020, Raquel shared how her AP History students created virtual museums using David Lee’s template on Google Slides rather than write an essay on the causes of the Great Depression. Each slide in the template represented a room in a museum where the students demonstrated their understanding of the causes of the Great Depression with audio narration, text, images, charts and videos.
Raquel’s AP History students worked in small groups to complete the virtual museum, dividing the research, artifact collection, building of the slides and recording narration. “They learned that anything they create online can be seen and heard by others,” noted Raquel. In addition to learning how synthesize information about the causes of the Great Depression, Raquel’s students learned about creating a positive digital footprint and how to collaborate online.
“My students gained confidence in recording themselves and using the apps involved in the Museum project,” Raquel shared. “They also grew confidence in tackling a project as a group by learning how to be responsible for their own piece which contributed to the whole project.”
Another great example of this innovation is a project Raquel assigned using Edrenaline Rush’s Netflix template for US History. Students were able to break down key concepts and events into individual “episodes.” This exercise was helpful for students as they synthesized new ideas to recap their understanding of content they covered.
Additional tools teachers can provide to students to record their reflections, interviews and presentations include:
Ways to share virtual exhibits.
There are a variety of ways to share the online exhibits with a wider audience.
In a remote learning environment, educators can still foster community and collaboration with projects like virtual museums or exhibits. Designing projects like these provide students opportunities to master understandings of core concepts and deliver an innovative well-rounded product.
All Covered Education has been helping schools develop solutions for remote and hybrid learning. We can help your teachers develop the skills to teach remotely using the applications and resources already available to them as well as provide the technical tools to help bridge teaching and learning in various settings.
