Museum Box (http://museumbox.e2bn.org/) is another great free Web 2.0 tool for students to use for projects and research. What exactly is Museum Box? It enables a user to research and describe an event, person, or historical place by placing items in a virtual box. Students can also display text, add video and audio, and links to other related sites.
This tool is not limited to creating projects for history but also language arts, math, science, and even art. Teachers have often created their own rubric for students to follow to complete the Museum Box, which allows them to have more control over the information ensuring that inappropriate material is not used.
Creating a museum box on the site is pretty simple and user friendly. There is a link that takes you to the page where you add your information to the box. On the page with the box are links at the bottom for images, text, audio, video, and other types of files, and adding links. The web tool is compatible with any operating system and documents can be formatted as PDFs, PowerPoint, and Word documents.
The social media aspect of Museum Box is that it allows users to view and comment on museum boxes created by other users. I think it’s another great way to introduce collaborative learning to students at an early age. Collaboration can enhance students’ critical thinking skills as well. For example, it allows students to solve problems using their research skills. This tool also expands the student’s focus by encouraging them to incorporate connections, which broadens their knowledge base and most importantly their understanding of the connected subject material.
Dana,
ReplyDeleteWow- what a great find! There are so many awesome Web 2.0 tools out there it would take us a long time to discover all there is available. I think this type of sharing with each other makes the process so much easier and what a great way to collaboratively share our finds with each other.
This tools sounds like something I definitely have to try out. I do so much research and design work with my students that I think having the ability to share all kinds of files is a plus. Not only word docs, but presentations and other forms of media files all in one place will be quite a time saver.
Thanks for sharing this wonderful tool and making it so interesting at the same time. Your description and comments in your blog made it very tempting and I can't wait to find out more about this great tool for my students and the colleagues I will be working with on my AR project!
Dana,
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this great tool. I will explore this more when I get back into the classroom. It is a great idea to use to get the students looking at how things may have happened. I am an art teacher and always looking to find new ways to have the students share their images.