Learning in a Museum - MOOC

Virtual museum visits are an excellent way to let museums come to our classrooms so that students can connect and interact with an exhibit at their own pace and according to a specific task their teacher designed. They can both be used as a pre-visit/ warm-up activity or as a post-visit activity.

It's also a very practical way of "travelling around the world" whenever a real trip is unfeasible.

As an English teacher, I guess the opportunities are almost unlimited. Either by taking the chance to actually visit a museum whose site is in English, or by visiting one that enables the students to put their English know-how to the test. Why not challenging the students to choose a particular object and translate the available information into English?

These resources could be used in such a way that they would complement each other.

As warming-up, students could take the virtual tour focusing on general information, to get them interested in the topic/ motivated.

http://www.museumaritimo.cm-ilhavo.pt/visitavirtualnaviosantoandre/index.html

In this example, students can get to know the many different parts the ship is divided into and can start exploring each one separately before actually visiting the real ship.

As follow-up, students could compare their previous expectations with the on-site tour they made. A debate could be held in class in which suggestions to improve both the virtual and the on-site tour would be uttered.

Not every classroom is equipped with 21st century technology. So a teacher must previously inform students they should use their BOYD in class. It's very common for students to inform the teacher their batteries are down or their wireless isn't working, so a teacher must carefully plan and anticipate a way to solve these problems.

Although not exactly a museum, University of Coimbra has a virtual tour that's interesting for the students to get to know one of the oldest universities in the world.

http://visit.uc.pt/