Digital Learning Experience in Museums: Cultural Readings in a Virtual Environment

Abstract

This study revolves around primary and secondary school visual arts teachers’ cultural and critical readings on their VR museum experience through object and representation. As part of the in-service training and research project, the study was carried out in the provinces of Çanakkale, Erzincan, Kayseri, Diyarbakır, Giresun, Mersin, Denizli, which were selected from seven regions of Turkey within a seven-month period. 508 primary and secondary school visual arts teachers participated in the study. The study is a case study and teachers’ readings related to the object and representation in the virtual museum and their VR museum experiences formed the units of analysis in the study. The data of the study was collected through worksheets, pre-evaluation forms, participant diaries and focus group interviews with voluntary teachers and content analysis method was employed to analyse the data. In the study, teachers were motivated to incorporate social and personal contexts into their readings of the object-space-representation. The results denoted that the activity enhanced teachers’ learning experiences in terms of personal and professional contexts. Although teachers highlighted that VR museum experiences could not offer much more rich experiences than the actual museum visits, they believed that it could be effective for visual arts classes and be blended with various learning activities given that the virtual museum experience offers the possibility of exploring a museum without a barrier of distance and incite enthusiasm and learning interest through digital technologies (e.g., sound, motion, immersive experience).

Keywords

• teacher training
• cultural heritage,
• virtual reality,
• virtual museum,
• visual culture in visual arts education