Museum Educators and Technology
Wang Wai LEE
Sign up for access to the world's latest research
checkGet notified about relevant papers
checkSave papers to use in your research
checkJoin the discussion with peers
checkTrack your impact
Abstract
AI
AI
The article discusses the intersection of museum education and digital technology, emphasizing the need for museum educators to adapt to and effectively utilize available digital tools in their teaching methods. It features insights from a technologist and outlines practical steps that educators can take to enhance their digital presence and improve audience engagement. Ultimately, the piece advocates for collaboration between educators and technologists to develop innovative educational experiences.
Key takeaways
- to fit the idea to the tools that we can build now, with the resources available to a museum.
- EDUCATOR: What could be so terrible?
- This issue of the journal of Museum Education aims to clarify how digital technology can support these familiar museum education approaches and in some cases, transform what can be done.
- In her article focused on community and collaboration, Katherine Whitney, an educator and exhibit developer, looks at The International Museum of Women.
- The writers and museum educators contributing to this issue are deeply aware of the educational goals that underlie the projects they present.
Related papers
Digital Pedagogy at Museums for Increased Participation and Co-creation: A Handbook for Museum Professionals
Digital Pedagogy at Museums for Increased Participation and Co-creation: A Handbook for Museum Professionals, 2023
This book is directed toward museum professionals who want to expand and innovate their work in outreach through digital means. Learning, participation, and co-creation are central concepts in the book. The book is relevant for people holding different capacities at the museum: especially museum educators, exhibition producers, communicators, and museum directors. This does not mean that only museum professionals would find the book useful. What works in a museum context can often be adjusted to other contexts as well. Everyone is welcome to read the book and hopefully find inspiration and new perspectives. The purpose of the book is to provide food for thought in how to work with digital tools in outreach, and on occasion, to challenge old ways of working and thinking in museums. It is most often the capacity to imagine how to do things differently, rather than the limitations of the technology per se, that poses the greatest challenge to museums in an increasingly digital, or even postdigital, society. Focus will primarily be on how digital technology can help museum professionals stimulate active participation and co-creation with an audience. We do not only address completely online pedagogical programs, but we are also looking at how the digital can enhance the outcome and offer a new pedagogy in the museum – a (post)digital pedagogy.
Moving from Downloads to Uploads Curricular implications of access to large scale digitized museum collections on the professional practice of K-12 classroom educators
University of Leicester Masters Dissertation, 2015
The need for museum strategy to be audience-driven is now being both facilitated and directed (in an accelerated way) by digital technology. This allows museums, or requires of them, to understand the intersection between the needs of those it hopes to serve and the capacity of its own organization to meet them: to provide customized experiences and opportunities to unique audience groups. Educators are one of museums' historically most valued audiences and opportunities to have greater impact with teachers, their students, and the learning experiences they create, are great, greater than in the past when museums focused on school visitation, exhibition-focused lesson plans, and adult programming. These opportunities lie primarily in the utilization of museum resources within the classroom, where the teacher can make use of them in ways that fit naturally into the learning process they have already developed for their students. To enable this, as we should, we need to understand this group and how they use digital assets to design and deliver learning experiences. This study looks towards the development of a reusable framework for addressing this need through an understanding of the evolving role of the museum in the education space (both as an educational institution itself and the ways that it has historically served the classroom), the process and knowledge bases required for teachers to be designers of learning resources, and finally the ways that technology itself (in this case, primarily the web) changes the nature of teaching and learning. The framework proposed is then applied to a case study of a soon-to-be-launched digital platform for teachers, the Smithsonian Learning Lab, to better investigate how the knowledge and experience of its users, as examined through this framework, could impact decisions made on how to adapt its features to better meet teacher needs.
Lessons Learned: A Reflection of Five Years of Engaging Educators with Digital Museum Resources
Digital Studies / Le champ numérique, 2022
This article reports lessons learned from educator need-centered professional development offerings (PD) on accessing and using digital museum resources through the Smithsonian Learning Lab (SLL), a free, interactive platform for discovering digital resources, creating content with online tools, and sharing with communities of learners. Since the platform launched in late 2015, the Smithsonian Office of Education Technology has engaged more than 20,000 educators on the use of the SLL through PD that was offered both in-person and digitally, synchronously and asynchronously, frequently through partners within the network of Smithsonian Affiliate museums. Results from more than 1,100 aggregated surveys, 50 in-depth interviews, and five focus groups were triangulated and demonstrated that PD was associated with increased participants’ awareness of, skills in, and frequency in using the SLL, creating, and sharing content, and overall satisfaction with the platform. Educators, especially...
Museum Education and New Media
ICOM Education 23, 2012
Renewal of the Museum in the Digital Epoch
The Future of Museums
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, digital technologies are radically changing the way young people communicate, learn and spend their free time. Museums, in order not to lose the next generations as visitors, must conform to the new expectations and needs. On a large scale, the museum must address young people, provide a forum for self-expression and participation and advertise itself by new means. On a smaller scale, the style and means of individual exhibitions must change, providing space for activity, emotions and multiple modalities besides text, personalized visits, interactive explorations and self-expression, evoking emotions but meanwhile also fulfilling educational objectives. Digital technologies-by the yet smaller, cheaper and more and more pervasive devices and services-provide ample means to reach these goals. In our article first we provide a conceptual framework, focussing on the Internet generation as new audience and traditional and new functions of museums. We show how digital technologies may be used to reach six major and general goals. For each issue, we discuss concrete recent examples, from international and own projects. Finally, we address the roles in the complex process of design, development and daily operation of digital applications, in the context of a digital strategy for the museum.
"Learning with Digital Representations." Digging Digital Museum Collections Blog series, The Alexandria Archive Institute and Open Context. (June, 2021).
Digging Digital Museum Collections, 2021
The past year has presented new challenges, but also new opportunities, for teaching with museum collections in the online space. As museums closed their doors to visitors, many turned to digital resources as their primary tools for engagement. Based on our recent experiences working with museum collections online, we share several tips for learning with three types of digital representation—2D images of objects, 3D models, and virtual reconstructions—in equitable, accessible, and ethical ways.
Museum Object Lessons for the Digital Age by Haidy Geismar
The fundamental argument of this book is that we need to pay attention to the specific contexts, as well as materialities, of digital objects and that digital media in museums exist in a long-standing continuum or process of mediation, technological mimesis and objectification. In an exchange of comment in the journal Science, Franz Boas argued with his colleague O.T. Mason about the purpose and nature of museum collections. The debate emerged from the growing museological tension between the spectacular nature of individual objects and their contextualisation within academic and scientific knowledge systems. Boas, summarising his position later, noted: I think no word has ever been said that is less true than Dr. Brown Goode’s oft-repeated statement that a museum is a well-arranged col- lection of labels illustrated by specimens. On the contrary, the attrac- tion for the public is the striking specimen; and whatever additional information either the label or the surrounding specimens may be able to convey to the mind of the visitor is the only result that can be hoped for.
The Application of Digital Technologies in Museums
In this modern electronic era museum objects of both conventional and digital help us to understand our past and relevant for teaching and learning. Access of these objects is different in many ways. Therefore, it becomes a crucial task to handle these items for learning and teaching purposes. To fulfill these task museums, cultural heritage institutions pay more attention on museum objects to provide better understanding of them. Hagedorn-Saupe (2012) stated that digital medium and the digital reproduction of the objects in it open up completely new possibilities for users, both experts and general public, to work with the digital objects: the digital object reproduction can be adapted into one’s own digital-work space and can be studied, analyzed, commented and to some degree even “changed” (eg. when working and drawings). Hagedorn-Saupe clearly described the close relationship among digital objects and the user and how digital objects facilitate users to study them in user’s own work –places though they are expert or not. This gives a clear vision of future museums in digital environment. International Committee of Museums (ICOM) has defined that a museum is a non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of its environment for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment (ICOM, 2007). This definition has unpacked by Geser & Niccolucci (2012). According to them the application of digital technologies is widely recognized to be helpful in fulfilling its function in novel and effective ways. Further they described the conceiving a museum that does not avail of some of the technologies that are such a great part of our everyday life would be as anachronistic as thinking of a museum without electricity or heating. It is crystal clear that digital technologies have become a dynamic part of the museums and future museums have no life without that.
Related topics
Related papers
Beyond Museum Walls"--A Critical Analysis of Emerging Approaches to Museum Web-Based Education
2000
The most ubiquitous of contemporary interactive multimedia (IMM), the Internet, is making steady progress as an interpretive tool within museums.However, its major impact is being felt beyond museum walls. As an outreach agent, the Internet has captivated many museums and particularly their educators. As a communication medium, the Internet allows museum educators to enter the homes and schools of students without their ever needing to visit the museum. Some museum education products try to simulate the spatial and social experience of visiting a museum. However, this approach is just one of many resource "types" educators have deployed as they grapple with the promise and reality of on-line education. This paper explores why and how museums are using the Internet for education outreach, as well as the diversity of emerging on-line education expressions. It also reviews current research into the unique interface, navigation and content preferences of various learners and discusses best practice teaching and learning strategies to help museum educators develop more effective on-line educational resources. (Author/AEF) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.
Virtual Museums from Four Directions: An Emerging Model for School-Museum Collaboration
2001
Museums have long been the repository of important cultural items. They make these items available to public view in exhibitions in specially designed architectural spaces, and more recently, in the virtual spaces provided on the World Wide Web and on CD-ROM. By making their collections accessible to the public in carefully crafted and coherent presentations, museums serve an important mission of perpetuating cultural heritage through the educational experiences they offer to the public. Schools share a mission of cultural preservation with museums, making them natural partners in the development of effective educational experiences for young citizens. The creation of virtual museums as classroom learning projects is one emerging strategy schools have explored that makes use of new digital media, the World Wide Web and multimedia authoring. This paper presents a culturally responsive emerging model for school-museum collaboration. The Four Directions Project has been working with American Indian Schools to explore the uses of technology for culturally responsive teaching. One approach Four Directions is exploring is school-museum collaboration for student-created virtual museum projects. A Four Directions Model for school-museum partnerships has emerged from these experiences. Two example projects are described and the benefits of virtual museum projects are discussed. (Contains 11 references.) (AEF) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.
New York Museums and Pratt-Partnership Building Web Collections and Preparing Museum Professionals for the Digital World
The New York Art Resources Consortium (NYARC) involves the research libraries of the Brooklyn Museum, Frick, and MoMA. Together with the Pratt Institute, the Brooklyn Museum and then NYARC have undertaken partnership projects to implement digitization of collections in a museum-education setting. This paper explores challenges including integrating digital information within the physical museum and on the Web, recognizing the crucial role this plays in user engagement. Education is a key aspect, and information on a new master program to support professionals in the interdisciplinary skills needed is also presented. Leading museums realize the importance of an integrated digital approach. The Cooper Hewitt Museum’s newly redeveloped display is presented as a model example. Educational underpinning and inventive use of digital technology, with regard for social and cultural issues, are key aspects for success.
Reflections on Teaching with Online Museum Collections. Challenges and Opportunities
RACAR 47 1 2022, 2022
The Challenges of Digital Museum
Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, Third Edition
Points of Departure: Curators and Educators Collaborate to Prototype a Museum of the Future.
Proc. of ICHIM 2001, 2001
Art museum curators and educators worked closely together to develop Points qf' Departure, an exhibition in which artworks and educational media were seamlessly integrated. Four multimedia prototypes were developed and deployed i n the galleries: interactive .srnurt taDle,s featuring curatorial video introductions to each of the six exhibition themes; handheld iPAQ Gallery E,xplorer PDAs displaying video clips of featured artists; a Flash-based Make Your Own Gallery activity in which visitors were invited to curate their own exhibition and comment on it; and Muking Sense qf Modern Art, a kiosk (and Web-) based program providing in-depth treatment of the artworks on display and the issues that surround them. Evaluation of visitor response to these varied educational technologies is currently underway and will be reported at the 1CMlM conference in Milan.
Museum Education Between Digital Technologies and Unplugged Processes. Two Case Studies
Makers at School, Educational Robotics and Innovative Learning Environments
This document presents the results of architectural design and prototyping of educational kits within the museum context, two case studies featuring a combination of digital technologies and unplugged processes. The field of application is cultural heritage and the topics are part of school curricula. The first case study is a museum display of digital video installations and educational kits that reproduce mechanisms of symmetry from patterned flooring (“www.formulas.it” laboratory, Department of Architecture, Roma Tre University and Liceo Scientifico Cavour” high school). The second case concerns the setting up of a school fab lab in which 3D-printed prototype educational kits are made for schools and museums in Rome, in partnership with the Municipality of Rome and the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities (General Directorate for Education and Research). The cases involve professional, research and didactic experiences which led to funding-supported projects. The experien...
THE DIGITAL MUSEUM: CHALLENGES AND SOLUTION
This article discusses the development of digital curation in cultural expression applications, such as museum and art gallery, focusing on the user experience perspective. The use of digital technology has improved the production process in conventional museum and art gallery and has greatly facilitated the interaction between viewers and collections. Although the concept of digital museum has attracted a lot of attention in the past decade, there remain many challenges to be addressed. In this paper, we discuss current progress in the development of digital museum and identify important factors that affect its successful deployment.
The Museum in the Digital Age. New Media & Novel Methods of Mediation
The Museum in the Digital Age. New media & novel methods of mediation, Bonnefoit Régine and Rérat Melissa, eds, Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing Ltd, 2017
The current "digital revolution" or "digital era" has affected most of the realms of today's world, particularly the domains of communication and the creation, safeguarding and transmission of knowledge. Museums, whose mission is to be open to the public and to acquire, conserve, research, communicate and exhibit the heritage of humanity, are thus directly concerned by this revolution. This collection highlights the manner in which museums and curators tackle the challenges of digital technology. The contributions are divided into four groups that illustrate the extent of the impact of digital technologies on museums: namely, exhibitions devoted to new media or mounted with the use of new media; the hidden face of the museum and the conservation of digital works of art; cultural mediation and the communication and promotion of museums using digital tools; and the legal aspects of the digitalisation of content, whether for creative purposes or preservation. Hardback and e-book: 2017 Paperback: 2021
Creating New Audiences for Digital Objects Through Museum-University Collaboration
Museums in the MENA Region Journal, 2022
With the closure of artistic and cultural institutions in 2020 due to the global pandemic, museums witnessed serious challenges in material and physical research of the objects in their collections. By experimenting with new digital forms across their professional activities—digitization of museum objects, modes of communication, dissemination of research results online in conferences and professional webinars—researchers and cultural practitioners have made virtue out of necessity.
Loading Preview
Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.