Purposes
The purposes of this project were multifaceted. First, it was to create an example for educators to a place based technological project. Second, the intention of the project was to instill ownership of learning, cultivate leadership, and to strengthen Alaska Native self-identity through a place based project using the Reinventing Schools Coalition model.
Each purpose was achieved in varying degrees. An Educator Guide was developed and posted on the web as well as Podcast on iTunes music store. The expediency of both could have been better. Since I sat on films and posted them all at once. As always, there are technological hurdles to overcome. I overlooked calculating time for these inevitable mishaps – not having the right software on hand and established server space to house the project. As a whole I feel the Educator Guide:
now up and running, is beneficial to Educators. It offers the textual background of the project, the philosophies it is founded on, and a visual chronology of lessons and work done.
What students gained doing this project differed from student to student. As a whole, it is evident that students were enthused about this project. They were excited and open to share about their culture and life. There were no protests to writing about topics such as death in Kalskag, traditions of women, and hunting. In fact, students were the ones to instigate these topics. The processes of collecting community input and brainstorming fueled inquiry and empowered students, which were goals of this project. Students took a clear ownership of the information being shared, ways it was collected, learning about their communities, traditions and families. and were empowered to take control of their project. More and more it became student rather than teacher led. It is hoped that this increases the prospectes of its survival and reading.
Although there was no protest to writing in class on topics, students did need prompting to gathering information from the community. Students were to conduct at least one interview about their chosen topic. The completion of this task lingered on for weeks. Students stated that people were “out of town”, “too busy”, or “sick”. It is likely that these were valid excuses. Regardless, student ownership and leadership in this project is illustrated by the fact that each student did complete at least one interview.
Leadership of students was shown throughout the process of this project. Students assumed leadership roles in composing and distributing a community letter, brainstorming topics, organizing and conducting interviews, gathering and preserving old photos and caption information, and the compilation of information into web pages. Of all the intentions of this project for students, I feel that the cultivation of student leadership was the most successful. During this project I, a teacher, felt like a student. Finally, my students were teaching me. They had take possession of the information I guided and shared information on how to share their knowledge. They took the lead.
Reinforcing Alaska Native self-identity was also successful. The success of creating a climate and situation where students can affirm and share who they are looks different than what was envisioned. When planning this project I foresaw students gathering information and stories from Elders. Preserving the past. While the Virtual Museum does do that through it’s Photo Collections and older writings, as of this moment, it tells the most through it’s writings. These writings are student perspectives on their world, the cultures and traditions of Kalskag. It is their version of “Alaska Native”. The Virtual Museum reflects and reinforces students’ experiences and perspectives of their Native cultures.
Lessons
After reviewing literature and exploring different perspectives surrounding the purpose – facilitating students in creating an online museum, basic lessons were designed. As with most instruction, the order and content of lessons delivered were and would be revised again if repeating this virtual museum project.
Following are original plans. An explanation and reflection of each lesson is given.
Lesson One: What is a Virtual Museum?
• define museum (one class period)
• explore online museums (two - three class periods)
The defining of a museum went well. It began with the writing prompt “What is a museum to you?” Students shared experiences and concepts of what a museum is and the purpose it should serve. Students then came up with the purposes of their museum: Discover explore and research, Display and share information, Preserve the wisdom of Native Elders, tradition, land, language, and food. This lesson took less than one class period.
A list of URL addresses for online museums was copied down at the start of the next class period. Then due to technical problems in the building we were not able to view these sites. The class never got back to this task. Had the class done this portion of the lesson they would have been given one to two class periods to view sites. Along with exploring the sites students would be required to write a summary of what they found in three different museums.
I vacillate between regret and joy over not doing this lesson on what existing virtual museums look like. While seeing examples could have guided the students in how their museum should appear, this is the exact reason that they should not be exposed to them. Through out this project I repeatedly found that how I envisioned the way things should happen, when and what results should look like isn’t how it came out at all. The students have their own way of doing things and understanding of what should be shared. Still, their understanding may be broadened and or deepened by exposure to online museums. Exploring and critiquing online museums is an element of the process that an educator will have to determine for their students. For me, I believe it is best to expose students to these online museums after they have established their own.
Lesson Two: Formulating an exhibit/investigation
• compose informative letter to community (one class period)
• needs assessment of community (one-three weeks)
• brainstorm and refine topics to research (one class period)
Although the students worked hard on composing and revising a good letter it was not distributed well. Students wrote a letter and resolved to ask people what they wanted in the museum and return with a list. This did not happen. Students said they had given the letter to people but they had not read it yet.
The class then discussed how to improve or fix the problem. The solution decided on was to add a survey with clear questions on the backside of the letter. After more than one week students returned 15 surveys out or the over one hundred that were to be distributed. Each student was responsible for handing out ten. Therefore the needs assessment of what the community wants in a museum was piecemealed.
As the project unfolded an opportunity to go into the community came about and was relatively successful in gathering information – primarily photos. Reflecting on the order of gathering info, defining topics and research I think the ideal steps would be to organize a gathering or time with students and community members to collect images of old photographs, inform the community about the project (Virtual Museum) and brainstorm topics together. I believe this approach, while being more work and logistics initially, would result in more community cooperation, differing accounts of history, and more artifacts shared.
The brainstorming of this project was led by students and went very well. Topics were refined with the help of the teacher. Although students were engaged in the refining process, overall it did not guide student research and information found. This process took one class period. Collecting need assessment surveys/distribution of letter took upwards of three weeks, as said, this part of the process did not go well. It is suggested to try a method different than having students distribute and collect a survey.
Lesson Three: Methods of Investigation (one-two class periods)
• text (books, Internet)
• oral (interview)
• visual (photos and film)
Previous expose to researching books and the Internet from investigation for research papers, therefore not much time was spent discussing textual research. Rather lecture spanning nearly one class period focused on how to conduct an oral interview, take notes, ask questions and record with tape of film.
Collecting information in picture form and through film was discussed in the context of preserving old images and sharing information. How to compose a photo and tips for getting good film footage where shown to students. The importance of getting good sound when filming and writing down information when talking to people was stressed. Notes were taken through out this lecture.
One element of this lecture that should have been discussed and practiced more is the purpose and use of captions for photos. The unfamiliarity of photo captions came up when students collected old photos from their families. Those were opportunities, I believe, that could have spawned a lot of information about the people, events and structures in each picture. But as a teacher, I failed to give students understanding and practice in what a good caption should look like. Future approaches to teaching about captions would involve analysis of newspaper and magazine captions and practice writing captions for random pictures.
Lesson Four: Documenting information and giving credit
• citing sources (two-three class periods)
• photo and film captions and credits (two class periods)
This lesson was integrated with into lecture surrounding Lesson Three.
Lesson Five: Web page design (one-three class periods)
• composition
• templates
• creation
• refine
Of all the lessons this was by far the most exciting and productive. This lesson occurred earlier than planned, since the students were becoming discouraged in their research and beginning to lag. I knew showing them how to put some of their information into web page form would reinstill their interest in the project. It did.
Because the LCD projector would not work students gathered around the teacher computer, the only one with the iWeb software at the moment and watched. They were shown how pages are formatted as “welcome”, “podcast” , ” blog” and other pages. They were then shown the different styles. Organization of the web site and hyperlinks were discussed. Students then created a class blog page displaying their individual papers about death. Together they composed the introductory text and then each cut and pasted their paper and a photo onto an entry page of the “blog”.
This lesson took one class period with a small number of students. I would suggested to spend two or more days on this stage. If computers with the software are available for all students it would be best to walk them through and then let them practice creating a site about themselves or another topic.
Conclusion
The Virtual Museum project went well for a first time project. Students are engaged and have asked about continuing this museum next school year. While the results are not entirely what the educator envisioned, they reflect aspects of the community through the students perspective. Through the creation of this museum and the processes of collecting images, investigating information and writing about their communities traditions, students’ self-identity as an Alaska Native were honored. What’s more, students now have a worldwide forum to share who they are and where they come from. It is the deepest hope that the leadership skills acquired by students from this and other experiences makes this an ongoing project, spanning over school years.
April 14th, 2006
