Pedagogy and Design: Understanding Teacher Use of Online Museum Resources

As museums increase access to collections through Web-based digitization projects and create accompanying educational activities, it is important to consider the success of these as teaching tools in classrooms. This paper examines the pedagogical integration of museum Web resources through teacher surveys, focus groups, classroom observations and a case study from the Museum of London. This variety of qualitative sources, coupled with Web site statistics, helps build a picture of classroom practice. Understanding how teachers use digital assets and interactives in planning and instruction provides useful insight when developing resources for school audiences. An example of how these considerations were put into practice is explored through the Museum of London's development of the Great Fire of London Web site (www.fireoflondon.org.uk) .