Shedding Some Light on Google Arts and Culture

Google Arts & Culture, while not new, is an underutilized resource for educators and explorers. According to its website, it brings the world’s art and culture online for everyone. They work with museums and artists around the world to preserve art and culture and make it accessible for free for anyone, anywhere (Google, n.d.). Exploring content in Google Arts & Culture is like going down a rabbit hole because there is so much content that is accessible and engaging. Even on the front page, users can explore curated stories, visit online museums, travel to different countries, discover over 100,000 pieces of artwork by color, play with music and art, and travel through time.  

While it is fun to play on Google Arts & Culture, using it in the classroom to motivate students to gain a deeper understanding of a scientific concept is important for their use of digital tools.  For some students, a total eclipse is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and some were fortunate to have experienced the eclipse in 2017.  Hosting a workshop where students and families can create pinhole viewers, learn how to use a colander for a science tool, and listen to a read-aloud about the eclipse are all important elements of preparing for the solar eclipse.  What happens when the families cannot come to you?  Or they are on Zoom? How do you create an engaging and interactive experience to prepare them for the eclipse when they are not in the room where it happens?

On April 8th, from 1:46 PM to 4:17 PM, students will be able to experience the Solar Eclipse in central Florida.  Google Arts & Culture can build up a student’s schema before the eclipse through images, videos, and 3D models.  They can even explore virtual tours of museums and planetariums.  As engaging as that is, it can be even more motivating and engaging. 

Extrinsic Motivation

Students exploring Google Arts & Culture are extrinsically motivated through gamification, real-world connections, virtual field trips, the creation of opera with AI, and sharing their accomplishments with others. Unlocking achievements like Art Inspector, Bookworm, and Time Explorer, help students level up their knowledge with badges.  Experiments are interactive and build excitement about a concept and help them understand AI.  Some of the experiments are Blob Opera, Hip Hop Poetry Bot, and Plastic Air.  Plastic Air deals with the impact of airborne microplastics on the environment and health.  The lessons are cross-disciplinary and have interactive experiments for music, art, biology, ecology, and literature (Google, 2021).  The experiments, gamification, and accomplishments all support a student’s extrinsic motivation.  “Extrinsically motivated individuals engage in tasks for rewards associated with successful accomplishments” (Keller & Deimann, 2018). As students encounter more and more parts of Google Arts & Culture, they will start to build intrinsic motivation because they are more confident in their skills in navigating the site and they experience pleasure from the activities and don’t rely on the extrinsic rewards as much.    

Knowledge and Learning Tied to Goals

The goal of the lessons around the eclipse is to tie what they are learning in the classroom with real-life science phenomena and how to experience it safely and creatively. The extrinsic motivation of earning a high grade on the assignment may help some students make the connections between what they are learning with Google Arts & Culture and the Eclipse.  For others, grades are not a motivator. Google Arts & Culture uses elements of constructionism, an inquiry-based approach to knowledge creation.  It allows students to use practical digital skills and critical thinking  (Cowin, 2020).  Using these tools are motivating. In the weeks leading up to the eclipse, students can be actively engaged in their knowledge acquisition by working towards their goals with lessons and experiments in Google Arts & Culture.  To start, students can compare the eclipses of 1860, 1974, and 2017.  What similarities and differences do they notice between the three eclipses? Identify three similarities about the eclipse itself, like the type, path, and duration. Identify three differences between the eclipses, including the advancements in technology, scientific understanding, and how they documented it.  How does the use of primary sources aid in the understanding of what happened? On Google Arts & Culture, there is a pocket gallery titled, “Histories and Futures: Selected Works from the Smithsonian American Art Museum.” In the gallery, there is a piece of artwork called, ‘The Eclipse’ by Alma Thomas.  Students can play with the patterns and hues of the piece with Art Remix by using AI to create a personalized version of the eclipse.  One of the new Florida English language arts standards that was introduced in third grade was the differentiation between different types of poetry.  Using the Poem Postcard with the Eclipse, students can use AI to generate different kinds of poems about the eclipse. Students can take the Remixed Artwork and the Poem Postcard and put them in the class slideshow where they will use what they have learned about the eclipse to create their own poem. Combining what they are learning in science class, their use of AI for the depiction of the eclipse in artwork as well as poetry, and their creation of content all tie to the goal of taking what we learning and applying it to the real world safely and creatively. 

Motivation and Satisfaction

As students tinker with Google Arts & Culture, read and listen more about the eclipse, and take what they have learned and apply it to new lessons, like the Postcard Poem creation, they will be motivated to learn and succeed.  Teachers can support students’ motivation and satisfaction by providing informational feedback (Keller & Deimann, 2018).  When teachers give positive feedback that recognizes the volition of the student, they are demonstrating that persistence is more important than just getting the correct answer.  Students work their volition muscles throughout the lessons leading up to the eclipse by having open-ended, obtainable tasks.  They are motivated to learn and more willing to work with open-ended tasks.  Exploring Google Arts & Culture can and should be done at more than just the eclipse.  It weaves AI, art, culture, history, and science and shows how all of it is connected.  Teachers can build personalized experiences using virtual field trips, 3-D collections, maps, and more to bring the standards and content to life.  Those with students in the younger grades may want to explore the “Learning to Look” Guide.  By using Google Arts & Culture and combining the motivation strategies, students and educators can experience informative and engaging lessons around the eclipse that not only addresses the science content, but also the cultural and historical content of the phenomenon.  

Throughout the blog, the person reading the blog has been able to explore all the different features of Google Arts & Culture by clicking on the links.  Which one was your favorite?

References

Cowin, J. B. (2020). Digital Worlds and Transformative Learning: Google Expeditions, Google Arts and Culture, and the Merge Cube. International Research and Review, Journal of Phi Beta Delta Honor Society for International Scholars, 42-53.

Google. (2021). Google Arts & Culture Teacher Guide. Retrieved from Google Lesson Plans: https://storage.googleapis.com/lesson-plans/Google-Arts-Culture_Teacher-Guide.pdf

Google Arts & Culture. (2018, October 11). Meet Google Arts & Culture. Google Arts & Culture [Video]. YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqXy2Q8mRQg

Google Arts & Culture. (2020, April 20). For the Culturally Curious. Google Arts & Culture [Video]. YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5JD2kLMgDE

Google. (n.d.). Bringing the world's art and culture online for everyone. Retrieved from Google Arts & Culture: https://about.artsandculture.google.com/

Keller, J., & Deimann, M. (2018). Motivation, Volition, and Performance. In R. Reiser, & J. Dempsey, Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology (pp. 78-86). New York: Pearson.