New Vision, New Reality: Methodology and Mission in Developing Interactive Videoconference Programming
John Falco, Project VIEW, USA
Dianna Newman, The Evaluation Consortium, USA
Patricia Barbanell, Schenectady City Schools, USA
http://www.projectVIEW.org

Session: Not Just Virtual

As museums throughout the world enter the interactive arena of 21st century digital communications, a need has emerged to access strategies of program development that seamlessly interface with existing missions and resources. This paper examines Project VIEW, a US Department of Education Technology Innovation Challenge Grant, that collaborates with major museums - the Guggenheim (NY) Museum, the Whitney Museum, the Smithsonian Institution, the Philadelphia Museum of Art - and other content providers - the Bronx Zoo, NASA/Space Center Houston, etc. - to create templates for developing point-to-point interactive museum-centered videoconferences along with pre- and post-conference materials designed to enhance and solidify student learning. Underlying the work of VIEW is the premise that to achieve the promise and potential of interactive technologies, it is necessary to change the construct of educational pedagogy and the structure of content for classroom instruction. In order to accomplish its ambitious program, Project VIEW employs multi-phase integration techniques that bring together the needs and missions of diverse yet intersecting educational delivery systems at museums and schools. Essential to the process is recognition of the need to assist schools in meeting educational Learning Standards without sacrificing the integrity of museum-based scholarship. Project VIEW has designed a process of needs analysis, infrastructure support, mission integration, and collaborative educational delivery that achieves unique success by facilitating the development and integration of new modes of content delivery. VIEW brings master teachers together with museum personnel to lay the foundation for a transformation and evolution of teaching pedagogy and instructional practice using interactive technologies ? point-to-point videoconferencing and asynchronous web-based resources ? to access and integrate museum content and resources into curriculum delivery in the classroom. Imbedded in these programs are interactive, student-centered activities that result in direct standards-based learning through museum content and interaction with museum educators. The interface and synergy between content providers and content receivers have produced strategies for developing both technological infrastructure and also has created a community of users. Additionally, while the development of a model for sustainable program development and content integration a core component of Project VIEW, the primary goal of VIEW is to deliver instruction that produces evidence of higher level student learning and academic performance. Interim evaluation by an external reviewer (The Evaluation Consortium) indicates evidence of enhanced student learning among students who participate in Project VIEW programs. Importantly, evidence confirms that outcomes for students are the result of VIEW training and development processes in which both schools and museums are transforming the way that they deliver education and define their through integrated, interactive videoconferencing and web-based learning.