e-learning and museum learning

Museum education for school students is about using artefacts and exhibitions to offer inspiration and authentic, curriculum-linked learning experiences. When it is the student's interaction with the museum object that is so important, how can e-learning contribute to improving learning outcomes?


Before a museum visit students and teachers can access information about the artefacts and exhibitions that they are going to see. They can plan learning goals with museum staff. On the day they interact with authentic objects, gather information, explore and discover. After the visit students reflect and discuss their findings. They can communicate with museum staff again to ask questions and get in touch with people from similar organisations to further their study. Students are then able to create resources about the museum objects for other students to learn from.


How can all this be done?
Museums and e-learning both involve the communication of information; museum-based communication channels in the past have been one-way; from curator/exhibition designer to the visitor. Effective museum education for schools needs to involve multidirectional communication channels between students, teachers, museum staff and possibly the wider community to help build and maintain relationships and help with pre-and post-visit learning opportunities. E-learning tools can facilitate these channels through features such as interactive websites, podcasting, e-mail, wikis and blogging which will allow for the exchange of resources.
We must bear in mind though, that New Educational Technologies will only work for those who are willing and able to use them. It is up to the museum to maintain all communication channels, old and new, to suit the needs of students and teachers and each specific situation; be it writing a response in pen and ink to a student letter or commenting on a blog post - how apt for someone who leads learning experiences on technological change!

Reading: for anyone interested in this area I found a great book called Digital technologies and the museum experience by Loic Tallon & Kevin Walker, (2008), Altamira Press. It is aimed at museum technologies in general, not specifically for school group based museum education, however there are some references to school learning experiences.

Being 'literacy' literate

The term 'literacy' or 'literacies' seems to crop up frequently in education speak, usually with a descriptor in front such as 'information', 'techno', 'new', 'multi'. What do they all mean?
I feel the need to become more literacy literate myself as I try to make my own meaning.
Conventional literacy, the literacy I learnt when growing up and when training to be a teacher "equated to vocational proficiency with language and numbers such that individuals could function at work and in society" Kahn & Kellner (2005, p.240).
However technology evolves, faster and faster, and so do the skills required to communicate, interpret and examine information that is disseminated using new technologies.

Lanshear & Knobel (2006, cited in Lankshear & Knobel, 2007) define literacies as
"socially recognised ways of generating, communicating and negotiating meaningful content through the medium of encoded texts within contexts of participation in Discourses."
They use the term "new literacies" to refer to social practices that involve sharing information, collaboration, collective intelligence etc. through the use of technological tools in differing contexts.
The term 'multiliteracies' was coined by the New London Group in 1996 and refers to the changes literacy practice as a result of "cultural and linguistic diversity" and developments in communications technologies (Cope & Kalantzis, 2001). Multiliteracy pedagogy involves linking in with students prior experience, explicit teaching of skills, examining the cultural contexts and then applying the infomormation in a new context; its role is to "supplement or extend literacy teaching for our new times" (Cope & Kalantzis, 2001). Multiliteracies encompasses computer, information, critical media and multimedia literacies (Kahn & Kellner, 2005).
Technoliteracy is put forward by Kahn & Kellner (2005) to extend the scope of multiliteracies to involve a more critical, analytial approach to literacy that examines the social background as well as the technological background to information and empowers people to use technology to put their own views forward.
The breadth of skills, knowledge and understanding needed to function effectively in 21st century society is wide indeed. The e-learning Action Plan (2006) and the New Zealand Curriculum (2007) begin to address this issue as they set targets to build understanding of "multiple literacies" (Ministry of Education, 2006) across the sector and weave literacy concepts through the effective pedagogy advice and key competencies (Ministry of Education, 2007). Is this enough? Can over-burdened teachers sift through the documents to work out what to teach and how to teach it?
The National Standards are being launched today to help students learn "foundation skills in literacy and numeracy" (New Zealand Herald website, 23.10.09). What 'literacy' is being referred to here? While there is no denying the vital importance of core skills, are we going forwards or backwards?

References:
Cope, B., & Kalantzis, M. (2001) Putting multiliteracies to the test. Retrieved 11 August, 2009 from
alea.edu.au/site-content/publications/documents/at/Feature%20article%20Feb%2001.PDF
Kahn, R., & Kellner, D. (2005) Reconstructing Technoliteracy, a mulitple literacies approach. E-learning 2(3)
Lankshear, C., & Knobel, M. (2007) Researching new literacies: Web 2.0 practices and insider perspectives. E-learning 4(3)
Ministry of Education (2006) Enabling the 21st century learner: An e-learning action plan. Ministry of Education: Wellington
Ministry of Education (2007) The New Zealand Curriculum Ministry of Education: Wellington

Planning a learning activity - content first, technology last

Following my study on TPACK and the taxonomies put together by Harris & Hofer (2009) I thought I would try to put the learning activity planning model into practice.

My current teaching role involves the facilitation of student learning through artefact discovery. The key to the learning is experiencing the artefacts at first hand in an authentic context. Learning outcomes negotiated with teachers tend to fall into the social sciences, science or technology learning areas.
I am interested in follow up work for students after a museum visit.
The day of the trip involves lots of questioning, discussion and exploration, however back at school it is sometimes hard to recall what has been talked about. Follow up activities are essential for students to build on the learning which occurred on the LEOTC trip (Rivers, 2006)
The activity I am keen to plan is to provide images of artefacts that students have explored on the trip. I would then invite continued online discussion with museum staff and other students.
This activity would add an extra dimension to just using photographs taken on the visit. Discussion could also involve students from other schools or classes who have also had a similar experience with the same artefacts. Students might also be able to add their images of the same or similar artefacts and include comments.
Pedagogically this activity offers students the chance to revisit the concepts they explored on the visit. They are able to continue working within the same community they experienced on the visit and have the opportunity to build that community. The collaborative nature of the experience involves the sharing of information; learning from and with others.

With this type of learning activity in mind I went to the social science taxonomy for advice on what type of NET might be suitable. I had been wondering whether a blog or wiki might work as they both invite two way communication.



Under Knowledge Building Activity Types there were a few possible starting points:
View Images - Power point, Word, Photostory, Bubbleshare, Tabblo, Flickr
Group Discussion - BlackBoard, Wikispaces, e-board
Artefact-Based inquiry - Digital archives
Under Conceptual Divergent Knowledge Expression Activity Types:

Generate questions - Word, Wikispaces or Google Docs
Develop a knowledge web - Inspiration, PowerPoint, Word, Imagination Cubed.

The list of activities didn't quite incorporate what I was intending to do - this presumably will happen to lots of people. However Harris & Hofer (2009) suggest combining learning activities into more complex experiences:
Viewing images of artefacts, discussing them and generating questions begins to fit the bill.
My next move is to investigate the suggested technologies as they might offer a better solution than my original concept and some of them, I know nothing about. Back off to the internet to further my research!

As far as my own learning goes - I have just succeeded in uploading an image onto my page. Next goal . . . a video link?



References
Harris, J. & Hofer, M. (2009). Instructional planning activity types as vehicles for curriculum-based TPACK development. In C.D. Maddux, (Ed.). Research highlights in technology and teacher education 2009 (pp 99-108). Chesapeake, VA: Society for Information Technology in Teacher Education (SITE)
retrieved 30.9.09 http://activitytypes.wmwikis.net/file/view/HarrisHofer-TPACKActivityTypes.pdf

Rivers, J. et al. (2006) Effectiveness of programmes for curriculum-based learning experiences outside the classroom: a summary. University of Waikato
retrieved 1.10.09
http://leotc.tki.org.nz/research_and_presentations/ministry_research