Journal 2 - NETS I & IV

"Museums in the Classroom" -Rose Reissman

Reissman, Rose (February 2009). Museums in the Classroom. Learning and Leading with Technology, 37, Retrieved February 5, 2009, from http://localhost:51966/learning_leading/200902-offline2/index.html

"Museums in the Classroom" is basically about how to bring a museum into your own classroom. There are a variety of websites that educators can access with their students to learn about history through the web. One of the museum websites that was suggested in the article is Resource Central-Museum Resources . This website is a search engine that educators and students can use to access real-live museums on the web. This search engine leads you to links for the different museum's websites. For example, students can learn about the aircraft that were used during the war at the virtual San Diego Aerospace Museum. Without having to leave your classroom to go on a field trip, students can have access to artifacts in history that are usually only accessible by going to the different museums through the web.

The article also suggests using Going to a Museum? Resources for Educators website (http://www.curry.edschool.virginia.edu/it/projects/Museums) for educators who are just beginning to learn how to incorporate virtual museums into their classroom. This website not only has tips and tools for beginners but it can also be useful for educators who have been utilizing web-based museums in their classrooms. I think that using online museums that are available to us on the web is a great substitute for a classroom field trip to the museum. Online museums can save a lot of time and money because students will be able to have access to museum artifacts through the click of a mouse. Students will have a greater variety of artifacts to look at with less time and effort because they can have access to more than just one museum a day.

Question 1: How can educators bring museums into their own classroom?

There are a variety of websites that educators can use to provide a virtual museum experience for their students. One of them is the Resource Central-Museum Resources website which is a search engine that provides links to online museums such as the San Diego Aerospace Museum and the Pilgrim Hall Museum. The Going to a Museum? Resources for Educators website provides step-by-step instructions for educators on how to integrate museums into the classroom. Educators can learn how to incorporate museum artifacts into their own classrooms to promote student learning and creativity with the help of all these different websites that are easily accessible to them.

Question 2: How can educators use the idea of a museum in their own classroom?

Educators can turn their own classroom into a museum by having a wide display of student's work throughout the classroom. Students can help to arrange their work in ways that artifacts are arranged in real museums. As a class, students and teachers can create admission tickets, brochures, and souvenirs to create the feeling of attending a real museum. This would not only encourage the students to do good but would also give the student's guardians a chance to see what their children are working on in the classrooms. This classroom museum is an extremely cool idea to display student's work on a specific topic.