Virtual Destinations and Student Learning in Middle School: A Cas ...

1. What is the effect of Museum Explorer (a virtual biology museum used in conjunction with a museum / school partnership) on middle school students’ content knowledge?

2. What is the effect of Museum Explorer on student learning engagement?

3. What further engagement is generated by a field trip to the Portland State University biology museum and communication with an assistant curator via email?

Assumptions, Limitations, and Benefits of the Study

A major assumption of this study was that the data collected by the researcher would reflect genuinely the views of the participants as they self-reported. The small sampling size of 50 participants and limited time span of ten weeks, however, restricted the ability to generalize the findings. Further, the full effect of the intervention of Museum Explorer could not be compared to no intervention at all because the new experience mid-year for these students could explain some variations. The participants of this study were middle school students of Latino heritage who were learning English as a second language. A weakness of questionnaires is that data are open to misinterpretation due to cultural differences (Marshall & Rossman, 1999). This may have been a factor of increased importance in this study since all the students were of Latino origin. Further, questionnaires are limiting in that the researcher must rely totally on the honesty and accuracy of the responses. Yin (1993) suggests using multiple sources of evidence, thus establishing a clear chain of evidence to establish the linkages between the research problems through to the study’s conclusion. There may have been biases, not only in the selection of the subjects to be studied, but also because the researcher had designed the online museum, thus reflecting personal preferences in the design and choice of measuring instruments and in the creation of the pre- and post-tests.

The benefits of this study were numerous. The students had an enriched learning experience using the online biology museum and enjoyed correspondence with the university assistant curator at the museum. The field trip offered a real-life experience for the students where they saw first-hand the things they had been looking at online. The questionnaires gave both teacher and students time for introspection as they answered the questions regarding their own attitudes toward computers. Metacognition is an impor­tant aspect in learning.