Great Museums of the World: Symabaloo Links for Pleasure and Study

SUMMARY
Links to great museums of the world with significant online content or portal information are organized into a new Symbaloo web mix. The author discusses the benefits of the virtual field trip as a resource in schools.

Location, Location, Location

As the school break approaches, I get the urge to visit great cultural locations, at least virtually. I remember a creative Grade 10 teacher who partnered with me on a Travel and Tourism library project. We decided to highlight online museums from around the world. Students were to act as tour guides and present the collections from multiple perspectives: historical, artistic, cultural, and literary. These wonderful digital locations did what physical travel promises: to enlarge the mind.

Symbaloo, Again

To provide an Internet itinerary for different subjects and inquiry activities, I have used Symbaloo to create a web mix of links to Museums of the World. Come along with me from your easy chair!

Museums of the World on symbaloo.com

timgauntley.blogspot.com

All links are to English-speaking sites that provide deep content or act as portals to multiple links.  I have exploited Symbaloo's colour, spatial, and iconic mapping to organize my selections by country or region (United Kingdom in green, Canada in red, USA in blue, Europe in black, etc.) Portals are in white at the bottom.

I have tried to find sites of quality and richness but would love to hear from you if I have missed your favourites. You might like to extend this by having students create themed web mixes such as regional museums, the silk trade, and special exhibitions being held in a particular month in different museums. The possibilities are endless.

By the way, Symbaloo is free and fun to use. I described its features and advantages in an earlier blog.

The Virtual Field Trip

I increasingly hear stories of how bureaucratic protectiveness is preventing many classes from organizing field trips. While virtual travel is no substitute, both such adventures help students to:

• expand the mind 
• experience new and exciting cultures
• explore different perspectives 
• foster an inclusive world view
• read rich and nuanced sites carefully
• enrich vocabulary through image and story
• develop interdisciplinary habits of mind by navigating convergent fields of art, history, culture, and literature

Of course, whether students are setting out on an inquiry activity, or just bumming around the inter web for pleasure, it would be far better for them to create their own web mix itinerary than to be restricted to mine.

Symbaloo makes it easy to be an informed virtual tourist and an engaging tour guide. Bon voyage!