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Philippa Rappoport

Lead, Education and Engagement
Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology
Smithsonian Staff

I work in education and engagement, teacher professional development, and outreach at the Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology (OET), and have a particular interest in developing and producing trainings, programs, teaching techniques, and platforms that foster deep learning and contribute knowledge to improve practices in museum and preK-16 education and engagement. At OET over the last decade+, I created digital assets for schools, families, and new immigrant English Language learners to complement teacher professional development and pan-Smithsonian programming, including Learning Lab teaching collections, YouTube videos with tradition bearers, a handmade family stories book-making website, and online heritage tours.

Philippa Rappoport's collections

 

Digital Storytelling for Classroom Engagement (Companion Collection for a Smithsonian National Education Summit Presentation)

<p>Digital Storytelling is a creative and participatory method that enables learners to reflect on a specific subject and produce a first-person narrative in the form of a 2-3-minute video. Digital Storytelling empowers students to share their own perspectives and reflections on America’s 250th anniversary, making the learning experience more personal and meaningful. In this companion collection to a Smithsonian National Education Summit 2025 presentation, you will find resources and activities to help you use digital museum objects for digital storytelling in your own learning environments. These activities can help to amplify student voices, and increase classroom engagement and active learning across disciplines. </p> <p>This collection has been produced by Antonia Liguori of Teesside University (UK) and Philippa Rappoport of the Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology. We would like to acknowledge the work of professors Sara Ducey, Matthew Decker, and Jamie Gillan, who have championed amongst Montgomery College faculty the use of Digital Storytelling with museum objects, and some of whose materials are cited in this collection. (See also <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/collections/story-work-to-increase-engagement-and-empathy-companion-collection-for-a-smithsonian-national-education-summit-workshop/HrYIwCKtm3dXhlUR" target="_blank">"Story Work to Increase Engagement and Empathy (Companion Collection for a Smithsonian National Education Summit Workshop."</a>) We would also like to acknowledge Joe Lambert and colleagues from StoryCenter for introducing us to the process and a network of colleagues around the world.</p> <p></p> <p>#DigitalStorytelling</p>
Philippa Rappoport
45
 

Story Work to Increase Engagement and Empathy (Companion Collection for a Smithsonian National Education Summit Workshop)

<p>Interested in designing rewarding assignments for students that incorporate museum digital content, while developing written communication skills, collaboration, and technology literacy? This collection supports a workshop that introduces participants to Digital Storytelling--a high-impact pedagogy embraced by artists, activists, and educators worldwide--with the support of content from the Smithsonian’s free online Learning Lab platform. Participants analyze examples and create their own digital stories to inform applications for their classrooms. Examples shown come from college classrooms, but digital storytelling is broadly applicable across disciplines and grade levels.</p> <p>Included here are materials intended to help users produce digital storytelling projects in their own classrooms. Click on the paperclip on the agenda tile (first row, third tile) to see the pre-workshop assignment that participants were asked to complete before attending the in-person workshop.</p> <p>The workshop and collection have been produced by Matthew Decker and Sara Ducey of Montgomery College, Antonia Liguori of Teesside University (UK), and Philippa Rappoport of the Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology.</p> <p></p> <p>#DigitalStorytelling, #MCTeach</p>
Philippa Rappoport
45
 

2024 Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship Program - National Air and Space Museum

<p>This collection serves as an introduction to the fourth session of the 2024 Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship Program. This year's theme is “Teaching and Learning with the Smithsonian: Creating Classroom Conversations that Foster a Hopeful Future to Meet the Challenges of a Rapidly Changing World.”<br><br>Four Smithsonian staff members - Shannon Baldioli, Bob Craddock, Mike Hulslander, and Cathy Lewis - will discuss content and educational materials and strategies related to the National Air and Space Museum exhibitions, <em>Exploring the Planets </em>and <em>Destination Moon. </em>Their bios and presentation descriptions are included inside. Resources included in this collection have been recommended by the presenters for participants to explore before the seminar itself.<br></p> <p>#MCteach</p>
Philippa Rappoport
5
 

Topical collection for State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education (SEADAE)

<p>This topical collection is designed to introduce SEADAE educators to the Smithsonian Learning Lab and to help them consider a variety of ways to incorporate digital museum content - images, video footage, and learning activities -  into their new toolkit for arts educators.</p> <p>#SEADAE</p>
Philippa Rappoport
36
 

Learning Lab Introduction and Training for DC Embassy Adoption Program Teachers: Exploring Luis Cruz Azaceta's "Shifting States: Iraq"

<p>This student activity explores Luis Cruz Azaceta's "Shifting States: Iraq" using Project Zero Thinking Routines to help students think critically and globally.  The work is a metaphorical representation of political unrest in Iraq, and more broadly, an exploration of the human condition during times of crisis.</p> <p>Included here are an image of the work from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, an explanatory video with curator E. Carmen Ramos, several  Thinking Routines from Harvard's Project Zero Visible Thinking and Global Thinking materials, an array of prompts and Learning Lab tools and support, as well as a sample training assignment. <br><br></p>
Philippa Rappoport
19
 

Digital Storytelling with Museum Objects in the Smithsonian Learning Lab

<p>This Learning Lab collection was made to complement the presentation, "Digital Storytelling with Museum Objects in the Smithsonian Learning Lab." During the workshop,  co-facilitators <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/profile/24977">Dr. Antonia Liguori</a> (Loughborough University, UK) and <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/profile/212">Dr. Philippa Rappoport</a> (Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology) will demonstrate a variety of techniques to incorporate personal experiences in the exploration and use of museum resources. They will share how the Smithsonian Learning Lab and Digital Storytelling (DS) can be used together to access digital resources, build learning experiences, and cultivate collaboration and community over distance.</p> <p>We will explore artwork from an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, <em><a href="https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/IgLygJNprGf3JA%20and%20https:/npg.si.edu/exhibition/eye-i-self-portraits-1900-today">Eye to I: Self-Portraiture as an Exploration of Identity</a></em>), which compels viewers to consider how self-portraits reflect an artist’s identity through what is revealed and concealed. </p> <p>After an introduction to the Smithsonian Learning Lab and previous experiences with Digital Storytelling within that environment, participants will be engaged in discussions about how Digital Storytelling can be used to support museum educators. In particular, digital storytelling as a co-created and participatory approach can foster workshop participants' capacity and disposition to understand and act on issues of global significance. <br></p> <ul></ul> <p>You will find in this collection: </p> <ul><li>a short icebreaker activity using exhibition images to start shifting from a cognitive appreciation of art to a personal connection to museum objects; </li><li>some examples of annotated objects that demonstrate the functionality of the Learning Lab; </li><li>some examples of digital stories made by students and also other educators during previous Digital Storytelling workshops; </li><li>a description of the Digital Storytelling process; </li><li>workshop participants' reflections;  </li><li>supplemental resources. </li></ul> <p></p> <p></p> <p>#DigitalStorytelling</p>
Philippa Rappoport
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Outbreak: Epidemics in a Connected World (National Museum of Natural History)

<p>This collection complements Unit 8 of the EdX course, <em><a href="https://www.edx.org/course/teaching-with-the-smithsonian-addressing-21st-century-challenges-in-the-community-college-classroom" target="_blank">Teaching with the Smithsonian: Addressing 21st-Century Challenges in the College Classroom</a>. </em>It includes resources to support the session presentation by Ashley Peery of the National Museum of Natural History.</p> <p>#MCTeach #EdXTeach</p>
Philippa Rappoport
12
 

Are Parasites Always Bad? (Smithsonian Environmental Research Center)

<p>This collection complements Unit 4 of the EdX course, <em><a href="https://www.edx.org/course/teaching-with-the-smithsonian-addressing-21st-century-challenges-in-the-community-college-classroom">Teaching with the Smithsonian: Addressing 21st-Century Challenges in the College Classroom</a></em><em>. </em>It includes resources to support the session presentation by Katrina Lohan of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. </p> <p></p> <p>#MCTeach #EdXTeach</p>
Philippa Rappoport
19
 

Power of Storytelling (National Museum of African American History and Culture)

<p>This collection complements Unit 3 of the EdX course, <em><a href="https://www.edx.org/course/teaching-with-the-smithsonian-addressing-21st-century-challenges-in-the-community-college-classroom" target="_blank">Teaching with the Smithsonian: Addressing 21st-Century Challenges in the College Classroom</a></em><em>. </em>It includes resources recommended by session presenter Kelly Elaine Navies of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. </p> <p><br></p>
Philippa Rappoport
12
 

Learning Lab Training Collection on the Theme: “Social Justice in the Time of Pandemic"

<p>This collection is designed to help educators bridge the classroom experience to a museum visit. It is intended as a preview activity to our upcoming workshop demonstrating various ways to use the Learning Lab and its tools, while offering specific, replicable, pre-engagement activities that can simply be copied to a new collection and used to help students engage with museum resources. </p> <p>Included here is a set of flashcards, a template document so that teachers can create and print their own specific sets, and strategies for their use in their classrooms, and some questions to guide users in exploring the objects.</p> <p>In the following activity, explore the objects in this collection and choose one you might want to use in your classroom. Be prepared to share at the workshop the object you selected, why you selected it, and how you might use it in your classroom.<br></p> <ul></ul> <p>Keywords: #MCteach</p> <p><br></p>
Philippa Rappoport
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Social Justice in the Time of Pandemic: the National Museum of American History

<p>This collection serves as a preview for the third of six seminar sessions in the 2022 Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship Program. This year's theme is “Social Justice in the time of Pandemic."<br><br>Patty Arteaga and Orlando Serrano will discuss how the National Museum of Amerian History is addressing issues of social justice through collecting, projects, programming, exhibitions, education, and engagement. </p> <p>Resources included in this collection have been recommended by the presenters for participants to explore before and after the seminar itself.<br></p> <p>#MCteach</p>
Philippa Rappoport
26
 

Exploring Time, Memory and History Through Portraiture

<p>This collection serves as a preview for the second of six seminar sessions in the 2022 Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship Program. This year's theme is “Social Justice in the time of Pandemic."<br><br>Dorothy Moss and Briana Zavadil White will discuss two National Portrait Gallery exhibitions: <em>Hung Liu: </em><em>Portraits of Promised Lands </em>and <em>Struggle for Justice, </em>as well as educational strategies for the classroom. </p> <p>Resources included in this collection have been recommended by the presenters for participants to explore before and after the seminar itself.<br></p> <p>#MCteach</p>
Philippa Rappoport
31