Fall 2015 Issue

Blended History

By Colonial Williamsburg Staff

The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s ENLIGHT online learning initiative and the William & Mary School of Education collaborated this past summer to offer the blended course “Teaching with Exhibits in the History/Social Studies Classroom.” The course provided an introduction to using museum exhibits in the classroom as an effective interdisciplinary and interactive learning strategy and offered students the option of earning one to three graduate credits. The format for the course included project-based instruction on planning, designing and building classroom museum exhibits; creation of resources for immediate classroom implementation on using exhibit concepts for discovery education; panel discussions with museum experts and School of Education professors; and the opportunity to tour Colonial Williamsburg and William & Mary’s museums and interact with staff.