Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Museum Box Update


Last week for Digital Learning Day, I introduced Museum Box to my students (More here). They were so excited! All in all it was a good experience. There were pros and cons with this tool, just as with many others out there, and there was a definite learning curve for me and the kids! 

The original plan was for groups of 3 to make one cube that would be included in one class box. However, when we got started, I didn't know that I would have to have each group load the same box. They all wound up working on their own box instead of one cube.

Want to try it with your kids? Here are some things you might want to know first:

Pros:
  • Bright and colorful
  • Icons are kid-friendly
  • Print is large
  • Easy to learn and navigate
  • Allows you to add links, pictures, videos, and text
  • Searchable database of images and sounds
  • Very easy for teacher to approve, reject, or edit boxes once they're submitted
  • FREE
Cons:
  • Sometimes the colors that students used within the text boxes and saved didn't show up on the cube the way they were designed. 
  • If the text that students created needed to be edited and was already placed on a side of the cube, you could re-save the text, but not add it immediately. There would be an error message on that side of the cube and you'd have to go back in and add it again.
  • The "Clear All Sides" button is too close to the "Clear This Side" button, causing many mistakes and complete do-overs.
  • Found pictures, videos, and files must be uploaded. They can't simply be linked. 
  • When adding a link, say to a video, the image of the website didn't necessarily look like the website's linked page. 
With all of that said, I will definitely use it again. There were a few issues, but it was still a fun learning experience for both my students and for me. Here are a few samples my kiddos created:
Hope you enjoy!

Happy creating!

1 comment:

  1. These are so cute! Thank you so much for sharing such a great idea.

    ReplyDelete