As the end of the year approaches, teachers are often looking for engaging activities to keep their energetic students on task. Perhaps you might want to consider taking your students on a virtual field trip to explore art museums from around the world.

Google Art Project is an interactive website that uses the same street view technology you’ve probably seen in Google Maps to allows visitors to virtually explore museums and view hundreds of pieces of art. Even better, visitors can view them at incredible zoom levels to get even closer than you could if you were actually standing in front of the original painting. Visitors can even create and share their own collection of masterpieces.

A Few Ideas for Classroom Use
I have collected some interesting suggestions for classroom use and used Kwout to publish the screenshots and attribution you see below. Clicking on the link under each excerpt will take you to the full blog articles referenced, and in most cases lead you to more ideas for integration. Have some good ideas of your own? Please consider sharing them here through a comment.

Joe Jelen on Google’s Art Project | Teachinghistory.org via kwout

Real vs. Virtual: Examining Works of Art Online – NYTimes.com via kwout

iLearn Technology » Blog Archive » Google Art Project: Virtual Art Museums via kwout

9 Ideas for Integrating Google Art Project in Your Curriculum | The Teaching Palette via kwout

 Take a Sneak Peak

Explore at googleartproject.com