The Lost Museum website displays a virtual museum with information about P.T Barnum’s American Museum. This website opens with a short video that provides some background information about the museum. The video lets the visitor know some basics about when the museum opened, it’s popularity, displays and when it burned down. This short video is intended to peak the visitors interest in order to encourage them to continue looking through this virtual museum.The website offers different options after playing this clip. Visitors are able to explore the museum freely, engage in a game that allows them to look for clues throughout the museum, visit their archives or look at their options for the classroom. I liked that this website offered the visitor the traditional path, of simply reading their information, as well as a more modern path with the interactivity.
Virtual Reality can be very helpful in gaining a deeper understanding of the past. The Lost Museum alone is a strong supporter of this claim. Understanding the past by simply reading about it in a text book does not always foster a deep understanding of a topic. However, when you are able to interact with the subject you wish to learn about and can manipulate it in a fun and interesting way, you are bound to retain much more information. Virtual reality can also be edited as new information arises. If suddenly new information about the Lost Museum came to light the creators can include this information much more easily than the publisher of a text book. This information is readily accessible at all times making it easy to learn about the past whenever you please. I think virtual reality is a great asset to have when looking to gain easily understood information about the past. For many people interactions like these allow them to create stronger memories about what they’ve learned, therefore, having a stronger memory of the past being displayed.
Kara Smith