*++Makassed+-+Beirut,+Lebanon



=**//Makassed Khalil Shehab School// **=



The following was originally published December 7, 2011 at http://clover-khalil.blogspot.com/2011/12/lebanese-virtual-museum.html

Realizing the importance of learning about different cultures, more importantly about one’s own culture, the third grade students at Makassed Khalil Shehab Elementary School took part of a project based learning activity under the title of " Virtual Museum” in the following wikispaces http://a-virtual-museum.wikispaces.com/.The project aims at infusing recent skills, particularly research and presentation skills, into traditional learning. Moreover; it encourages cross-curricular integration by allowing students to link their ideas through comparing their culture to other cultures as such enhancing their critical thinking. All this shall be achieved through creating a Lebanese virtual museum.The following videos depict how the teacher introduced the project to the students, whereby she initiated the learning process by explaining to students what a virtual museum is. Next, her explanation was supported by showing them the wiki page dedicated for virtual museums. Through this page students had the chance to take a look at museums all over the world while a discussion of the places took place simultaneously. Some students were asked to present their observations in front of the class; others had to share their knowledge about the introduced places. This activity was intended to prepare students for their presentation and the ability to speak in front of audience and for their visit to the museum. In addition, the third graders were allowed to watch samples of other students’ work, some of the posted videos included comparing museums at their home country to museums at other parts of the world, while other videos were limited to comparing the students’ current culture to their ancient one. Finally, students were told that they are to prepare similar videos in order to create their own Lebanese Virtual Museum after they visit their museum.

Visiting the Lebanese Museum. The guide narrated historical stories about each piece in the museum. Lebanese Virtual Museum = = 