Research

Relevant Research Regarding Non-traditional Education

Initial Problem: Use of instructional technology in the museum.

I initially thought I wanted to evaluate the instructional technologies that were available in the museum. and how they complemented learning. The more I became involved with this initiative though, it became clear that we had a much more pressing issue we needed to address and one that many libraries face. The Birthplace of Country Music Museum did not have a dedicated educational staff member or consistent program. All staff and volunteers have assisted with class visits, but they had not recently provided a dedicated teacher training workshop with resources. Because of this, they wanted to utilize my expertise as a working educator to create a training and to present it.

The museum has several types of instructional technology, including a listening lab; however technology is expensive and because this museum is a nonprofit with limited funding, staff have not been able to expand the technologies available for hands-on learning. Though, that is a goal, it is a current challenge due to limited funded.

Final Problem Identified and Addressed: Teacher Training For Use of the Museum

Current scholarship identified how collaborating with teachers was an important part of the museum's mission. Further, museums sometimes struggle with finding ways to mesh their collections with state education standards. In addition, finding time and money to provide these trainings for teachers and to create these materials is often a challenge for most museums, especially smaller, non-profit entities. This is the problem that I addressed during my internship, as we provided a unique in-service training for teachers and resource materials. My site supervisor wrote a grant for funding for these trainings and materials, and now that COVID restrictions have eased, the trainings are becoming a reality.

Prior to developing the training and resources, we held focus group meetings with teachers, listened to their needs, and then tied our lessons to the state standards for Virginia and Tennessee. We also provided two sets of lessons for each topic, one for elementary and one for middle and high school. We modeled strategies teachers could use in their own classrooms during the trainings (KWLA and Jigsaw), as well as gave them relevant, meaningful ways to integrate the museum material into their classrooms.