A unique distance learning scenario.

            When I was in high school, one of the best parts of the school year was when I had the opportunity to go on field trips.  There was something special about being able to go somewhere out of the norm; part of it was special for it being a unique learning opportunity, and the other part of it was special because it wasn't the four walls of the school building.  Living in a rural setting, I think to how I would be able to enable my students to experience learning environments like a history teacher trying to giver her students a learning experience by visiting art exhibits across the country without physically going to them.  And the way I would accomplish this daunting feat would be to enable my students to participate in a virtual art gallery experience.
            The first way I would attempt to provide a way to explore the pieces of art would be to assemble a board on Pinterest devoted specifically to the pieces of art.  Looking at an example for this board I began creating with education resources, I would find images for each art piece and assemble them in one location.  Each image could then contain links to additional information about the piece, much like one would find if he or she visited the real gallery.
            Another way I would attempt to give students the experience of visiting the art exhibits would be to see if a virtual gallery such as the one for the National Gallery of Art already exists, and if not, develop one.  Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, and Zvacek (2012) explain that using a virtual world such as this enables the "exciting potential for placing students in real-life applications of course content" (p. 132).  A virtual art gallery would provide the benefits of a Pinterest board art gallery along with a pseudo-spatial experience of walking around the gallery.
            Each unique learning environment comes with its own unique challenges.  Thanks to technological developments in distance learning, visiting an art gallery all the way across the country is not impossible, it simply takes some ingenuity and creativity.

References

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.