When students are asked to think back on their school year and describe their favorite memory, many of them will think back to field trips or other experiences that they had outside of the classroom. A large reason for this is that it is fun for students to get on a bus and go somewhere exciting, but I think another important reason is because it broadens students' perspectives on the world around them and helps them to find something new that interests them. Traveling to a museum engages students' creativity, even among those students who might not travel to one on their own time. Sometimes, however, students are unable to get to a museum due to budget constraints, distance constraints, or other reasons.
As many schools will continue to be teaching virtually in the fall, one resource that could allow students the same exciting opportunities provided by field trips is Google Arts and Culture. Through this resource, Google partnered with numerous museums, parks, and cultural centers around the world to bring their artifacts online in high definition. It features a web-based component, in addition to apps available on the Google Play and iOS app stores.
While the web-based program works well, this resource really shines
when you use it in conjunction with the app. For instance, through their
"Art Projector" feature, you can use AR to display famous works of art
in your classroom. Each work of art will be displayed in their actual size,
which means you may be surprised at how small or large some of them
actually are! Here is what Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks" would look like
in my dining room, compared to that of the Mona Lisa in the same
location:
You can even take a selfie and see how much you look like a work of art! Here is my result:
There
are ready-made exhibits, or you can create your own gallery for
students to view. Students
can even make their own gallery, put it together into a blog-like post
with text and pictures, and share it to Google Classroom. The works featured on Google Arts and Culture include:
- over 100,000 high definition works of art
- from over 2,000 museums around the world
- representing over 80 countries
This resource would a great way to incorporate interdisciplinary learning in the classroom. You can easily make connections to history, art, music, literature, geography, and natural science, just to name a few. Google Arts and Culture also pairs well with other apps like Google Earth to give tours of cultural sites around the world.
Due to the high definition uploads, some works of art allow you to get even closer to the art than you would be able to in a gallery. You can almost feel the brush strokes in van Gogh's "Starry Night"!
This resource is so much fun and so incredibly versatile! I would recommend this resource to any educator, and would not be surprised if they could find something on this
site that could be of use, regardless of the age or discipline they
teach. I am so thankful to know about this resource now, and can't wait to use it in my own classroom.
You can watch this video to learn more, or head right to the site to get started now!
Wow! What an awesome blog first of all. Also, what a perfect resource. I love this as an arts educator. I absolutely love doing cross curricular projects. This would be a great asset to my class. Your post was so well written and informative. I would be excited to use it in conjunction with my impressionism unit in the music class with impressionist art.
ReplyDeleteExcellent post! I felt like I was being carried away into a field trip. I really love that you were able to find art work that resembles you. I'm sure your students will enjoy learning through this.
ReplyDeleteVery informative post! I love the integration of graphics to enhance the blog. Many schools might be leaning on this tool more this year due to restrictions. I also now want to try out that self-portrait feature! Thank you for sharing.
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