Interest-driven Learning Makes Garden History Digital

Funded by the Pearson Foundation, the Smithsonian’s Mobile Learning Institute seeks to find new ways for teachers and students to create, explore, and learn. Mobile Learning Institute educators at the Smithsonian EdLab encourage “interest-driven learning,” facilitating collaboration between teachers and students within informal settings, sharing ideas in person and online utilizing social networks. Earlier this week, teachers were assigned an important task: to share a story about our Heirloom and Victory Gardens as well as our Medal of Honor Tree.

On Tuesday, teachers met at the Hirshhorn Museum to share their projects. Many of the groups created innovative multimedia presentations, using Voice Thread, Animoto, and Prezi to produce animated, narrated stories. The subjects of these tales ranged from a short film illustrating the  medicinal properties of Echinacea (found at the Heirloom Garden) to a monologue sourced from informal interviews that teachers had with visitors to the Medal of Honor Tree. Through sharing not only their presentations, but also their digital resources and their research process, visiting teachers will be able to take new learning methods and tools back to their own classrooms.

To view the group’s facebook page, see http://www.facebook.com/groups/381035355276704/

To learn more about the Smithsonian EdLab, visit http://www.edlab.si.edu/about.html

Kristina Borrman, Katzenberger Art History Intern