Virtual Museums as Learning Agents

Abstract

Virtual solutions for exhibiting museum collections are no longer a novelty, as such experiences already exist in the world, but the remote use of museum collections for learning purposes has so far not been widely used in the educational environment. This article analyzes virtual museum applications by evaluating them from a learning perspective, including 25 criteria in the evaluation rubric divided into three groups: (i) Technical performance; (ii) information architecture; and (iii) educational value. This will enable educators to select the most appropriate material for their specific learning purpose and to plan the most appropriate learning strategies by organizing training sessions to acquire knowledge that can be enhanced by museum information and teaching students digital skills in evaluating information available in the digital environment, analyzing its pros and cons to teach them how to develop new innovative solutions. The research is carried out from a phenomenological perspective; to be more precise, virtual museums are analyzed using the principles of transcendental design and a hermeneutic design is used to interpret the resulting data. A total of 36 applications of virtual museums were analyzed, whereupon the results were compiled using static data analysis software, while 13 applications were used for the hermeneutic data analysis. The results suggest that the strength of virtual museums is in information architecture, but less attention is paid to the educational value of the material, which points to the need to change the principles of virtual museum design and emphasizes the role of teachers in using virtual museums as learning agents.

Interdisciplinarity in Teacher Education: Evaluation of the Effectiveness of an Educational Innovation Project

“…They also demonstrate that the use of the National Archaeological Museum as an educational resource improves students' involvement in their own learning process. This is aligned to the results obtained by other studies [46,55,56,65], who argue that museums are valuable educational resources for teachers, as they improve motivation, enrich the educational offering and optimise teachers' work. However, the results obtained in relation to teamwork and the self-efficacy are contrary to those reached by Denigri [71], who argues that interdisciplinary experiences lead to greater expressions of self-efficacy, in both educational tasks as well as teamwork and the ability to innovate.…”

“…The National Archaeological Museum was used as educational resource as museums are privileged spaces that address different topics [54][55][56][57][58][59], they enable knowledge to be shared and therefore offer a source of inspiration for interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary proposals which involve both History [59,60] and Mathematics [33]. Numerous studies highlight the important role that museums have as cultural spaces and learning communities [46,54,55,57,58,61,62], both from a student's perspective [57][58][59]63,64], as well as a teacher's perspective [56,65]. Furthermore, interdisciplinary project practice was included in the teacher education (role-play at the NAM, simulating the role of students and future teachers), so that the preservice teachers had the opportunity to experience the difficulties of performing the dual role of student and teacher [66].…”

Building Relationships between Museums and Schools: Reggio Emilia as a Bridge to Educate Children about Heritage

“…Taking students to a museum or bringing a museum to the classroom, be it physically or digitally, changes and instantly enriches the dynamics of the usual learning environment [5], providing teachers with innovative tools and opportunities to interact with students in creative ways [119][120][121][122]. To establish links between museums and schools, open education is a democratic vehicle that promotes mutual learning and makes the most of museum collections by allowing educators to access materials as OERs and the educational activities developed around these [123][124][125][126].…”

Challenges and in Museum Education, Best Practices in Hungary

“…Nowadays, museums have the task of not only storing and preserving historical values but also of using them for learning purposes. From the perspective of educational sciences, learning in museums is one form of situated learning, where access to a variety of knowledge is possible, providing learning opportunities that enhance individuals' interest in knowledge accumulated in museums, interacting with virtual artefacts, and enabling them to interact with substance and concreteness with the museum's intangible artefacts (sum of Daniela 2020).…”