Lesson plans, teaching activities and free teacher resources from Canadian museums.

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Ready! Agora - The VMC Learning Centre will replace the Virtual Museum of Canada Teachers' Centre. This pilot project aims to position Canadian museum content as an essential part of today's elementary and secondary classrooms. Using wikis, blogs, Web conferencing and other technologies, AGORA provides teachers with online learning tools and encourages knowledge sharing between museum educators and students.

Arts, History, Language, Science and Social Studies teachers will find Canadian museum content that meets the curriculum needs of their province or territory, offering new teaching ideas that bring Canadian museums to life in the classroom!

Set! From images to historical events, AGORA will offer primary and secondary teachers the opportunity to create their own space to communicate with their classes. Students will have password access to the content assembled by their teachers and can even complete assignments online.

Go! Through online participation, AGORA will provide a way of learning both in and out of the classroom. Stay tuned to find out when AGORA will be available for you to enjoy!

In the News
Agora - The VMC Learning Centre takes the test!
With the start of the new school year, a number of volunteer teachers have begun in-class testing of the upcoming pilot learning space. The current testing phase has allowed a group of educators and students to move towards a participative and interactive way of learning - while their valuable feedback and suggestions are leading to great improvements to the new pilot learning space. The VMC has introduced the Agora concept at educational conferences throughout the year, and continues to receive great interest from educators and teachers across the country!

Offering secure access, the virtual learning space will be equipped to serve as a meeting place where educators, learners and museum experts can share their work, ideas, and content. Teachers will be able to share their own lesson plans with other teachers, and they will be able to create dedicated spaces where they can post assignments and interact with their students. Rather than engaging in linear storytelling, the space will feature highly interactive educational components that can be extensively manipulated. Stay tuned, as more news and updates will be posted on this page!

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My Content
Users will be able to add learning resource content to the AGORA Studio for reference when preparing the next lesson or completing a task or an assignment.Web Conferencing
Users will be able to interact with museum educators in real-time, creating a rich and interactive learning experience.My Account
Users will create their own account to store resources, create lessons and assignments, and use communication and collaboration tools.Message Centre
Students and teachers will be able to communicate with each other directly through an internal messaging system, allowing for instant collaboration to answer questions or obtain clarifications.Lesson and Assignment Creation
Teachers will be able to develop lesson plans based on the learning resources created by museums, and ask students to create and publish their own assignments.Blog
This interactive publishing tool will allow teachers to initiate discussions with their students, providing them with regular updates while keeping a day-by-day record of what the students are learning!Class Manager
Teachers can register their students and place them in groups according to their class list. Once the class is organized, teachers can assign lessons and tools to each group.Classroom Wiki
The Wiki is a Web page that can be edited by all users of the space, thereby serving as a collaborative tool for tackling classroom activities.

Find out more about the VMC Investment Program (for Museum Professionals)

Last update: 2006 11 24

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