This is an excellent initiative. I wonder if they could be used as a basis
for a museum-based online course aimed at adults. Maybe a MOOC? The
Smithsonian have done something similar.
https://www.edx.org/course/objects-define-america-smithsonianx-ushis1-1x#.VRww3fnF_hE
All the best,
Colin Hynson
-----Original Message-----
From: Emilia Mckenzie
Sent: Wednesday, April 1, 2015 10:08 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [MCG] Teaching History with 100 Objects
Dear MCG-ers,
The final 21 objects were added to our ‘Teaching History with 100 Objects’
site (www.teachinghistory100.org) earlier this year and we thought this
would be a good opportunity to share some information about the project and
our lessons learned from the process. The site is the outcome of the first
formal partnership between the Department for Education, the British Museum
and 40 museums from across the UK. It uses object-based learning to enable a
wide understanding of UK and world history, supporting the history
curriculum at KS1, KS2 and KS3. The teaching resources on the site, linked
to objects across the country, include high-resolution images, links to
video and audio clips and teaching ideas.
Format
The site’s format was inspired by our popular ‘History of the World in 100
Objects’ project and responded to the requirements that the Schools team
received from teachers regarding our current website. Via teachers’ panels,
anecdotal feedback and other evaluations over the years, teachers have
indicated that they want simple, downloadable online resources which can
easily be repurposed for their lessons.
Technology
As the museum’s existing CMS is currently nearing end of life, it didn’t
make sense to put content into this system and we considered several other
open source and commercial CMS packages for the site. We narrowed it down to
Umbraco and Expression Engine – the latter won out due to our developer’s
existing PHP knowledge and also because we were keen to work with this
popular system. Although our experience with EE was positive, the platform
proved to be less intuitive than we had expected in some areas.
Management
It was a challenge for us to manage the large number of contributors,
sourcing images and navigating copyright issues while maintaining attention
to consistency across the site. On the other hand, our decision to stagger
the “release” of the objects on the site meant we could launch with only
some of the content finalised, allowing us a longer project timeline.
We are proud of the final outcome and believe it provides teachers with
valuable teaching resources within a clear, easy-to-navigate experience. We’d
love to hear your thoughts about the site – please get in touch with me
directly on [log in to unmask] to share any comments.
Best wishes,
Emilia McKenzie
Education Manager (Digital Content)
(Usual working days Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday)
Learning, Volunteers and Audiences
T (UK +44) 020 7323 8459
[log in to unmask]
The British Museum
Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG
britishmuseum.org
****************************************************************
website: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ukmcg
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/museumscomputergroup
[un]subscribe: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/email-list/
****************************************************************
****************************************************************
website: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ukmcg
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/museumscomputergroup
[un]subscribe: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/email-list/
****************************************************************
|