Virtual Museum

There are many museum sites to explore - too many to link to here, however I was intrigued by this new Smithsonian museum that "opened" yesterday. The intriguing parts for me is that the physical space will not open until 2015 but the virtual National Nuseum of African American Heritage and Culture is open now.

There are a couple of things that interest me right away:

• The museum is using the idea of social networking (software donated by IBM) to invite persons to contribute to the museum's collection.
  
• I like the web mapping right on the top part of the site - which allows someone to explore threads and visually see how concepts are linked to other concepts. People can then explore many different paths to learn - unlike the physical space of walking down a hallway or going to a room where someone else has decided what should be on display and "linked" together (think tagging...)!
• I have a sense that today's learners can jump onto this method of building a museum much more quickly than those of my generation. The older thought process goes something like:

1. A "curator" (think expert) decides what should go into a museum.
2. A building is built to house the artifacts.
3. It opens
4. The public is invited to come and "learn" about what the "experts" know about this topic.
5. We progress through the structure (maybe even have a guide) and soak up as much as we can. (there could be a test when we get back to the classroom...)
6. Maybe we come back next year since we really liked the way that the museum displayed the artifacts. Maybe "they" added some new artifacts or have a different display!
   

Notice that the above scenario did not mention a thought process something like: What could I contribute to the museum? How should I arrange or tag artifacts?

How about your classroom? Where do your thoughts go related to your classroom museum...?