The Virtual Museum in Educational Practice

The educational role and social contribution of the Museums are achieved by increasing their communication with each social group and their extroversion cultural roles. Τhey can also offer exchanges of experiences by encouraging students’ audience. Because of the general world upheavals, the social contribution of the Museums has changed. The goal of this study is to appoint the students’ views of a virtual educational Popular Culture Museum. In this context, a research in the third grade of junior High school in Ialyssos, Rhodes, was carried out during the school year 2012-2013. After participating in a school project concerning a construction of an educational virtual Museum, one hundred (100) students took part in the research and answered a questionnaire before and after the teaching intervention. In order to extract the research results, we used statistics software SPSS v.17 and SPAD v. 4.5, offered by the Department Education in the University of the Aegean.


Introduction
Current educational trends suggest the connection between school knowledge and children's experiences with the situations, conditions and circumstances of everyday life.This conception means new approaching methods of knowledge.Experimental learning approach is the modern pedagogical challenge.It offers the students an active role, based on educational interaction, initiative and creativity.It also emphasizes the participatory aspect in courses, turning students and teachers to co-creators during the educational process.It is mainly implemented through educational action plans (projects) within student's methodical involvement in order to convert their own studies into an interesting topic.Giving students acting ability on issues from his/her experiences, needs and interests, not only we provide knowledge that is "essentially beneficial and actually educational" (Raptis, 1983), but, we also strengthen learning availability (Birbili, 2005).

Method
The effective educational interventations should ensure the kind of education children are interested in, responding to their interests and be attractive to them.Propably there is nothing we can learn without personal motivation to do it (Rogers, 1957), except in conjuction with our experiences (Georgopoulos et. al., 2009).The new research data is focused not only in knowledge itself, but in the process of its acquisition.It supports teaching models such as experimental approach based on the needs and interests of children through peer communication relationships and involves all team members of the classroom.Teaching is a process in which both teachers and students interact and involve actively.The relationships that develop between the students are equally important, too (Kampouropoulou et al., 2003).We know that if we really want to help children to discover the world around, we should provide them opportunities for experiences by using the appropriate materials, organize activities in an appropriate social atmosphere.These experiences should become "the start point for all kind of education" (Dewey, 1941).
Experiential addresses children's individual experiences as educational material and gives them the chance to produce more knowledge compared to the traditional way if education (Dewey, 1938(Dewey, , 1998)).The procedure of integrating experiential situations in school life and mutating in teaching activities, implements under an equal communicative relationship between educator and children (Chrysafidis, 2000).Meanwhile teachers become coordinators and help children to discover knowledge, emphasizing in their participatory aspect in order to become with the students co-creators in the learning process.Experiential learning approach is mainly implemented through educational action plans, in other words through project, with the involvement of students in methodical action, so the study of a topic can be interest to them (Matsagouras, 2002).The joint involvement of all team members in the individual process of the method, leads to experiences that become learning source.
In our project, students worked in three different teams.The first team visited students' and relatives' houses accompanied by teachers and took digital photos of various folk art items (such as pottery, objects of woodcarving etc.), measured their sides and interviewed the owners about the history of the items.The second team undertook the identification of the items with others, searcing in bibliography of the school library and internet suggested by the teachers.Work of the third team was the diditization of the texts/information, the transcript of oral testimonies and the digital grouping of the items in different folders.The procedure consisted four stages: (1) Isolate objects from their environment using the "gimp" image editing program (free software), (2) Virtual Museum rooms' construction where the items would be "hosted" using the PowerPoint software.Each slide of the application was stored as a picrure, (3) Image maps construction (4), Suspension on the school website as html files.During the educational activity the teachers who were responsible for the project, acted as mentors and advisors for the students at all stages and solved out any emcountered difficulties.

Education of Art and Virtual Reality
It has become increasingly clear that Arts' study may support generally education and approach of historical concepts, such as those of "change" and "conservation" (Baltas & Demou, 2002), and also a wider prospect of emphasizing the cultural dimension of education.Since Museums host the visible part of History and Art and also testimonies that reflect aspects of material culture and natural environment, students have the opportunity to receive many messages and stimuli that contribute to learning and historical research.They can meanwhile study different areas and get envolved in learning experiences and adventures (Girtzi & Boutidou, 2010).
The new scientific field of virtual reality has developed rapidly in the overall of technological progress, claiming Technological implementations with anthropocentric character (Archontides et al., 2004).Virtual reality is increasingly attractive to more and more both recearchers and educators at the application level in multiple disciplines.Its use is based on constructive learning theories because it is focused to the experiental knowledge and experience of students.Through their navigation and involvement by using many senses, they manage to interact with virtual environment (Mikropoulos et al., 1994;Mikropoulos, 1995).

Goals of Educational Virtual Museum
Digitizing items and exhibit them in a virtual Museum, achieves the survival, emergence and strengthening of all the elements they characterize and define the collective memory of a society.It also promotes the social, educational, cultural and economic objectives and contributes decisively to the historical cultural and scientific promotion.Virtual Museums' educational role and social contribution is achieved by increasing their communication with each social group and their extroversion cultural roles.It can also offer exchanges of experiences encouraging students' audience.The Museums' aim is to create and view "substitute" tangible and intangible assets of local art, in order to extract information related to courses taught at school.Visitors try to understand objects and learn through an active exploration (active discovery) and they are also given more opportunities for learning (Bernier, 2002).

General Goals
The virtual educational Popular Culture Museum was created onsite to: -Conserve valuable information extracted through items, photographs, images, files, scripts, etc.
-Create digital educational material useful for implementation courses in school.
-Promote cultural goods through internet.
-Promote the cultural physiognomy of the local community.

Teaching and Research Goals
-Acquisition of general knowledge about Folklore science and espcecially students' contact with folk Art and civilazation.
-Search of information related to items, local workshops and decoration style.
-Develop childrens' aesthetic perception, increase their imagination and abilities/skills.
-Involve students in the collection, digitization and exhibition of items.