As more schools turn to videoconferencing to enhance lesson plans and replace field trips, more museums and other institutions around the country are offering programs and classes for students through live video.
The Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame started videoconferencing in 2005, education coordinator John Goehrke said. On-site lessons have been a staple at the Cleveland museum since it opened in 1995. Recognizing that its programs might be of interest beyond northeast Ohio, the hall of fame used video technology to expand its reach.
Since 2005, the hall of fame has made about 1,600 video connections, reaching about 45,000 students in 46 states and countries. Goehrke said the current programming mix, about 500 offerings a year, is almost equally divided between on site and videoconferencing.
“Many of the students we connect with have never visited— and will never visit — the museum,” Goehrke said.
“Video numbers are growing rapidly. That’s consistent with school budget cuts. It’s easier to do a one-hour videoconference with us,” he said. “There’s no travel, you don’t lose any instructional time.”
And, he added, classes are developed to align with national, regional and state education standards.
The Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame is hardly alone in offering educational content through videoconferencing. The Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration, a nonprofit clearinghouse used by the Cape Henlopen School District and others, has a catalog of lessons from about 225 sources, including the Smithsonian, the National Archives, Mount Vernon, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Baseball Hall of Fame, and two smaller venues close to Delaware, Fort Mifflin on the Delaware, scene of a Revolutionary War battle, and Pennsbury Manor, a reconstruction of William Penn’s home north of Philadelphia.
With videoconferencing, “we can go places we couldn’t afford to go to, or have the time to go to,” said Katie Wood, instructional technology specialist in the Smyrna School District. “And we save the cost involved in field trips, not to mention all the background time in planning the trip,” including collecting permission slips and trip fees, she said.