Year: 2003
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This study consists of four case studies of virtual museum projects conducted in \npartnerships between tribally controlled American Indian schools and museums \nwith Native American collections. The purpose of the study was two-fold: to \nexamine virtual museum projects as an educational innovation, and to determine \nwhat contributions such projects might make to the development of culturally \nresponsive teaching practice. The model of virtual museum projects that the case \nstudies examined grew out of prior experiences with similar projects in the Four \nDirections project. Native American students worked with teachers, Native \ncommunity members, museum professionals, and in one case, anthropologists, as \nthey selected cultural items for a virtual exhibit to be included in a Web-based \nvirtual museum. The students imaged their objects on a turntable using digital \ncameras to create three-dimensional QuickTime Virtual Reality media. They \nresearched the items they had selected with the help of the Native community \nmembers, teachers, and museum professionals to write essays about the objects \nfor the finished virtual exhibits. Research data included participant interviews, \nvideotapes of project activities, and other documents, including the digital virtual \nmuseum products. The interviews were transcribed and coded using Nud*ist \nsoftware. By pulling out specific coded passages and correlating them with other \nresearch data, specific themes related to the conduct of and response to each case \nemerged. In a second level of analysis, the themes of all of the cases were \ncompared and condensed into a comprehensive description of virtual museum \nprojects that follow the model used in this study. Problems that were identified in \neach of the projects suggested specific solutions that were added to a prescriptive \ndescription of virtual museum projects. In a separate chapter, coded statements \nrelating primarily to student and community responses across all of the projects \nwere examined to determine how the projects worked as a culturally responsive \npractice. The culturally responsive elements identified included the affirmation of \nculture, Native people saying who they are to the world, collaboration, hands-on \nlearning, the familiar and familial aspects of the objects, and student choice. The \nprojects were responsive to the Native communities as well.
Author: Mark Christal
Language: English
Subfield: Museology
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1881686002