Connecting To Technology

Interactive Broadcast from the Lower East Side Tenement Museum

Tenement Museum Video Clip
In an innovative attempt to increase access to an inaccessible museum in New York, HVS students had the opportunity to visit the Lower East Side Tenement Museum via a live, interactive, virtual tour from the Smeal Learning Center here at Abilities!. Using our technological expertise in collaboration with museum education specialists, 6th, 9th and 11th graders interacted in live time with a docent in period character and costume who played the role of Victoria Confino, an actual documented immigrant teenager to the Lower East Side in 1916. Victoria gave the students a tour of her tenement providing details about her family life and customs, language, community, the cramped quarters she shared with her numerous siblings, outhouses, public bath houses and life and work for immigrants in the early 1900s. Students were able to verbally and visually interact and ask questions that Victoria answered for them. And did they have questions! Students were engaged with “Victoria” and interacted with her as if she were truly the character she represented. Some of us even waved goodbye as she closed the door to her tenement at the conclusion of the broadcast.

The live broadcast was preceded by a visit to the students by museum educators and was complemented by a hands on session with museum artifacts prior to the broadcast. In addition to our participating group in Smeal Learning Center, our Inclusive Technology classrooms in the HVS were able to access the broadcast and ask questions as well.

Due to the historic preservation of this building, The Tenement Museum is not accessible to many individuals with mobility issues. The two way live interactivity of this program allowed us to bridge physical barriers in order to access the tour. This initial attempt to expand cultural experiences through a live, interactive, virtual visit was a success and speaks to the potential of future opportunities to connect with remote or inaccessible sites.


Metropolitan Museum of Art

Metopolitan Museum Egyptian exhibitStudents at Henry Viscardi School were able to visit the tombs in the Egyptian Exhibit at the Met without ever leaving their classroom. After a previsit using replicas, students followed the tour guide to see the mummies and other artifacts and ask and answer questions live. This was a first for the museum.




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