The Virtual Museum of Canada's learning objects: why do French Canadian teachers and their students use them so little?

Abstract

For French Canadian teachers, French-language digital resources, including the Virtual Museum of Canada's (VMC) learning objects (LOs), are essential to helping achieve the goals and skill sets prescribed by school curricula. In francophone minority contexts, these resources are even more important because they compensate for the general lack of availability of French-language digital resources, and they can help teachers achieve their educational mission in a minority language. If the VMC's LOs can be useful, however, they pose great challenges to teachers who must attempt to integrate them into their professional practices. This article examines the challenges faced by teachers who use LOs with students, and considers why French Canadian teachers use LOs so little for teaching and learning.

Keywords:

• Virtual Museum of Canada
• learning objects
• French Canadian teachers
• students
• Francophone elementary and secondary schools
• integration technology

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Maryse G. Paquin is associate professor in Cultural Studies at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada. Her research interests focus on user experience with museum technologies (virtual museums) and on Information Systems Usage in cultural heritage institutions. She has published in the International Journal of Instructional Media and several international French-speaking academic journals.

Notes

1. http://www.fncsf.ca/files/File/publications/Bulletin-vol3-no1.pdf.

2. http://icom.museum/the-organisation/icom-statutes/2-mission-and-purpose/-sommairecontent.

3. http://www.pressure.to/qda/.

4. These quotes have been translated from French into English language.