Museum Box Virtual Shoebox Diorama

Museum Box Virtual Shoebox Diorama

Museum Box is one of the captivating new tools to help teachers integrate technology in the classroom.  I previously wrote about Glogster EDU virtual posters as another tool students can use to show what they've learned.  Museum Box is equally versatile and engaging.

When picturing Museum Box, think of the diorama idea of archive boxes in a museum.  Each box contains up to three levels of compartments.  Each compartment level has 1-8 segments.  Each segment contains a cube.  And each side of the cube has some piece of information on the box's theme.

Although the website emphasizes historical themes, these virtual archives boxes are flexible enough to be used across the curriculum.  The sides of the cube allow for images, videos, text, sounds - even file attachments or website links.

Young elementary students could show what they've learned by using the diorama idea of an Animal Museum Box in which each cube has pictures of animals taken by the children.  High school students may create archive boxes of historical figures, complete with quotes, images of primary source documents, web links and video clips.

Teachers have tools on the Museum Box site as well.  You can register your school and set up student accounts so that you can moderate and approve or delete their work.  This makes it very helpful as an option for evaluating your students.

Museum Box is maintained by E2BN, an English broadband network tasked by the government to improve teaching and learning via broadband access.