por Fei Gao 15 anos atrás
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Ann and Monique.
I agree with both of you. More information when you click on the camera. some sound would be a nice additive. Even links to documentaries of video clips to add to the overall experience.
This week, we focus on virtual tours. The example we'll focus on is from the world-famous National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. Before you enter the discussion, take time to explore the this simulations thoroughly.
The Smithsonian The National Museum of Natural History
http://www.mnh.si.edu/panoramas/flashVersion/index.html
Here's the scenario. The Smithsonian website is full of text, images, video, and sound. Virtual tours are also available for some of the exhibits.
* As a learning experience, what are the particular strengths and weaknesses of this simulation? As an educator, what feasible suggestions for improvement might you make to the Smithsonian about this virtual tour?
I have been reading The World is Open by Chris Bonk for my other class, and there is a chapter about Learner Participation and Open Information Communities. I'm thinking that if they set this virtual tour up so that it would have a component to it where experts could add content information or make revisions on the various aspects of the simulation in order for it to gradually evolve to a higher quality virtual experience, everyone would benefit. I also think it would be cool if they could provide places to for discussions forums related to the various exhibits. Experts and ordinary travelers could post related information and share personal connections with the exhibits that might raise the viewers interest level, as well as respond to other comments posted. It would also be great if they could provide an "ask the experts" section where people of all ages can inquire about specific artifacts and the process by which they were acquired, and have these questions answered.
The Smithsonian Virtual Tour was very cool! I have never been there so taking this tour was the closest I have come to seeing it. As a learning experience for students, they would get to see images and figures of dinosaures and animals that they might never see in person. This would feel fairly real for them. They also would be interested to read text about what they are seeing so a audio tour would be cool as well. I have to go through and see if I can find this feature. As a teacher and first time user of this tour, I had a hard time with a few of the features like the play button, which kept taking me to the map and the starting point. The more I played around with the tabs the better I was able to maneuver throught the tour. I liked the map that showed where everything was located. I also liked the feature of zooming in and out, however, zooming in sometimes made it too blurry to see the figure clear. Overall, I think it's a cool tool to show students since most of them haven't had the chance to go to this museum.
I took a second look and did not find any video/audio features. Perhaps in some part of the site there are some of those features that are working but not the pages that I visited. I suppose though for kids that cannot get to the Muesum this would be better than nothing.
Monique, I agree with you and this was my first introduction to the Smithsonian as well. It is definitely a great expereince for children who, as we have mentioned in previous discussions, would not get to experience the tour at all. I teach first grade, and although there may be some things I could tie into it later on, they would still love it. It reminds me of a virtual field trip we take during Christmas time. We learn all about Christmas at the White House and how they decorate the rooms differently and have different themes. The kids LOVE going on the virtual field trip through the White House to see the different rooms we have talked about and decide how they decorate them. I can't remeber for sure, but I want to say that they update the pictures so you can see the decorations. ( This may have just been pictures we saw, and not part of the field trip) but it is a really great experience.
Hey Laura,
I would like to get the link to the tour of the White House that you use. Our third graders take a pretend trip to Washington DC after President's month and our studies on state and national government. For one of our centers we show a virtual tour of the White House where various former Presidents and First Wives take turns giving a tour of the various rooms. While the students are watching the tour, they are encouraged to try and find the eagles in each of the rooms. The students really enjoy this tour.
http://www.whitehousehistory.org
What is the link for you tour?
Ann, My computer crashed and I lost my bookmarks, so I have to check with our other teacher to see if she has the link, because I googled it and can't find it. I am going to be so mad if I can't find it! It is hard to find good things like that! I will let you know ASAP once I find it!
** I have spent about an hour looking on google for the site we used and I am getting very discouraged. I hope it is still around!!!
This White House Tour sounds very cool Laura! How did you find out about it? Do you have them do the tour on their own or together. It would be cool to have them do it in partners and come together and see their different comments. Then you could do it together as a group and discuss what was good or bad about doing it in pairs and as a group. Just an idea, but this may be too much to ask of 1st graders:-)
Thanks Monique. Yeah the kids really ejoy it. It is not very first grade user friendly so we set the computer up to the T.V. screen and then we do it in whole group. It is a lot of fun, and I wonder if I couldn't have them perhaps try it on their own in the computer lab in partners. That is definitely something to think about :) Thanks!
Since my third grade students have been working on a Rocks and Minerals Unit in Science, I was excited to see the exhibits on Geology, Minerals, Rocks, and Gemstones. I had actually gone through those exhibits while I was there, but had forgotten all about it. I think I am going to take my students on a virtual field trip to show them those exhibits via my Smartboard. Those exhibits happen to have many hotspot cameras where you can zoom in on some really cool minerals and gems. I know the students will love it!
Sorry, I do not teach any classes that would relate to anything here. Unless there was a different hall with the age of computers in it.
I too am excited to show my students this tour since it fits into our animals structures and functions unit, which were doing right now. I can't wait to discuss with my students how the animals bodies have changed over time, this will tie into our area of adaptations, and how animals adapt to their surroundings in order to survive. So COOL!
Call me computer challenged if you would like, but I found it difficult to maneuver around the site. I use a laptop with your finger as the mouse pad, and this seemed a bit challenging for me when trying to guide myself through the tour. I will have to try it again on a different computer using a different mouse. I also found some of the pictures to be blurry when you zoomed in. It would be nice to have more "hot spots" and perhaps some video to add anoter dimension to the tour.
I enjoyed the cameras where you could click for a larger photo. Those images seemed to be clear for the most part and you were able to get a little bit more out of it by having them. I just wish there were more opportunities to click on pictures like that.
Laura, Todd, and Ann,
It seems like we all agree that this simulation could be enhanced with audio, video, clearer and more close up images, more user friendly mouse features, and more text that is easy to read. I was wondering why the audio and video clip hot spot features are listed on the feature page, but they seem to be unaccessable. I went to each of the tabs on the map and I didn't see audio or video clips. I hope I am not missing them.
I'm guessing that this virtual tour is a work in progress and they aren't finished with adding the audio and visual yet. If this is the case, I think they should inform the visitors of this, and give an estimated date of completion. They should also have a place where people can give feedback about the virtual tour and make suggestions for improvement.
Even just to let us know that this is still a work in progress and more will be comming with a gustimated date. That would at least let us know when to come back and look again. At this point I do not see a reason to use this site for any thing.
I did not find this virtual tour very good. It was nice that you could see the basic outline of the museum and some of the skeletons. I looked through the Early life and Dinosur, and Ice Age Exibits. I found it frustrating that i could not walk up to something and read the plaque. Yes, I could zoom in but it was difficule to get the correct angle to read anything and when you actually could get the right angle and soom in close enough, the text was unreadable.
All in all I would not rate this as a good experience.
To make improvements i would create many more hotspots in which one could click and it would be the plaquards that are in front of each exibit. That in itself would be big.
Adding some sound in the exhibits would help.
Deffinatly need better navigation controlls.
Todd, I found your post to be almost EXACTLY what I was going to write. I was extremely frustrated that I was unable to read the plaques to see what they said. Perhaps if they were unable to have you read them on your own, they could add a voice over where you could click and have it read to you.
It was great to get the "skeleton" as you stated of the museum, but that is asically all that I took away from the simulation. I understand that it is better than no visit at all, but at the same time, they seem to have already put a lot into the site, why not bump it up a little bit and add some more interesting aspects?
I think it was an advantage that I had visited this museum in person. I had a better sense of the layout and felt more comfortable navigating my way through the various exhibits. I can see where it would have been frustrating, when there is know prior knowledge of the museum and it's layout.
One thought I had was that it would be very helpful if they could provide an index of exhibits, including a list of specific items and a text, audio, or video presentation giving the same kind of information about the various artifacts that you would be able to access while actually touring the museum. I would like to have read, heard, or viewed information about things as I was moving through the different exhibits. I am curious if any of you were able to access the audio or video component of the virtual musuem. If so, let me know what I can do to access it.
I was also thinking that an index would be helpful for students who are studying a specific topic or item. Instead of taking a tour of the whole museum, they may just want information and an opportunity to view the specific thing that they are studying. It would be nice for them to be able to click on an item listed in an index, and it would link them right to the exhibit and the information available about that given item.
I had problems finding the audio and video components with the virtual tour. I am going to spend more time tomorrow night looking at it. I agree with you Ann that the hot spot camera tabs were a cool feature but only some had text to go with the pictures. I description to go along with the picture would be great for showing students and having them learn while they go through the tour.
I really enjoyed my virtual field trip to The Smithonian Museum of Natural History. I had gone their three years ago, so it was fun to see some of the exhibits that I saw in person. I liked the navigation system set up to take you through the various exhibits. The only hot spot feature I was able to use was to click on the camera and see a close up zoom of a particular part of an exhibit. I liked being able to see the close up, but I was wishing that there was some information to go along with it. I found the floor maps very useful, and liked being able to visit different parts of exhibits by clicking on the blue dots on the map.
