e-museums


  A Digital museum is a museum which is accessible by a computer as it digitizes its items and exhibits. Digital services are offered by the museums themselves and this is an increasing trend (Szanto, 2010) during the last years while museums are trying to move forward to the new digital age. The term "virtual museums" on the other hand is constantly changing but in general it refers to a museum which exists online, close to what a psysicall museum is and consists of complex types of media and information (Ivarson, 2009). In this blog with the term "digital museum" we refer to both, physical museums that include in their sites virtual tours, and museums that exist exclusively online.  


source of the picture Museum iD retrieved on 4/12/2012


  The current debade around the digital and virtual museums is similar to the ongoing debade for the digital libraries . Museums are experiencing the digital age and nowadays it is easier for a lot of people to have access in valiable cultural heritage and rare knowledge from their computers (Incandela, Liffick & Dark 2007). However, many questions are raising on how the real value of an exhibit could be perceived through a computer screen (Reese, 2012).
  Nevertheless, digital museums offer a lot of opportunities to anyone who is interested to explore their implementation to the education process (Cromwell, 2010). There is a variety of options and it is quite interesting that several tools are also available for a teacher to create his "own museum" according to his/her classroom needs. A list of Virtual Museum Tour software could be found here 



Some suggestions!


Museum of the History of Science, Oxford

 The museum of History of Science is hosting a collection of early scientific instruments and it offers a virtual tour which according to the official site consists of 360 degree panoramas of the museum. The virtual tour of the museum is part of the city's virtual tour .

 official site: http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/
Virtual tour of Oxford: http://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/oxfordtour/

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

 The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washinghton is housing collections and exhibitions from our natural world. The virtual tour of the museum could be done from room to room and while past exhibits are also available.

source of the picture Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History retrieved on4/12/2012
official site: http://www.mnh.si.edu/
virtual tour: http://www.mnh.si.edu/panoramas/



One of the most famous museums the The Louvre Museum in Paris provides anyone who is interested with virtual tours in parts of the museum. Thousand of exhibits from all over the world and major collections could be "transferred" in the classroom creating an inspiring learning environment.

source of the picture: Education for the masses retrieved on 4/12/2012

official site: http://www.louvre.fr/en
general information for educational purposes: http://www.learnnc.org/lp/external/382?ref=search




It is a project created by Google. Planetariums are not museums if we want to be accurate, however, they are unique places for research and knowledge related to astronomy sciences. Google has created a virtual planetarium and offers an interesting opportunity to observe and  "explore" constellation, planets, the moon and other. It could be a tool in an educator's hands to use it and extend it. The Google sky is a similar project.
You can find some information on how the Google sky can be used from an educator here





Planetarium by Google: http://www.barnabu.co.uk/planetarium/

Google's Art Project a contains virtual tours from museums all over the world. Using the street tools, goes inside the museums and brings the collections and exhibits in our screen creating a unique educational tool. The option "Education" is available in the site offering suggestions and directions on how the project could be used as complement in a learning environment.
Art Project-Street View of the Metropolitan Museum of Art



Google's Art Project-Education: http://www.googleartproject.com/education/








references/sources:

 Cramwell, S., (2010) Take a museum field trip, Without leaving your classroom! Education World. Retrieved on 2/12/2012 from:  http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr057.shtml
Incandela, D., Liffick, M., Dark, D. (2007) Starting a Digital Revolution. Museums and the Web 2007,the international conferencefor culture and heritage online. Retrieved on 2/12/2012 from: http://www.museumsandtheweb.com/mw2007/papers/incandela/incandela.html
Ivarsson, E. (2009) Definition and prospects of the Virtual museum. Department of ALM, Museum and Herittage studies, ISSN:1651-6079, retrieved on 2/12/2012 from: http://home.student.uu.se/eliv7000/virtual_museums.pdf 

Reese, F (2011) Rise of Google Art Project begs the question: can an online work replace the real thing? New web application sparks legal, scholarly concerns of open access.  The Tufts Daily. Retrieved on 2/12/2012 from:  http://www.tuftsdaily.com/features/rise-of-google-art-project-begs-the-question-can-an-online-work-replace-the-real-thing-1.2480241#.ULtwn4OcN6M

Szanto, A (2010) Time to loose control. The Art Newspaper. Retrieved on 2/12/2012 from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_museum
http://www.museum-id.com/home.asp


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