Mobile Phone Use in U.S. Museums
Marian Stewart Titus
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Abstract
A survey with 94 science museums in the United States was conducted to examine how science museums in the United States have utilized advanced technologies (e.g., mobile phone interactive programs). This study explores the use of mobile phones to enrich the visitor experience in 94 science museums in the United States. Most museums were not using mobile phones, and for the minority that were, their decision to adopt the technology was primarily visitordriven: the most popular exhibits, extra exhibit content, and visitor recommendations. These museums were not significantly influenced by peer institutions with similar programs, indicating that they were responding less to industry best practices, and more to visitors' needs. Museums made a clear distinction between hands-on exhibits and mobile phone interactivity. Museums not using mobile technology were emphatic about maintaining the hands-on nature of their exhibits, and saw mobile phones as a distraction from these exhibits, and as a passive medium that reduced the visitor's ability to interact with exhibits. This study revealed that mobile phone technology in U.S. science museums is still an emerging trend, but there was great interest in using this technology in the near future.
Figures (4)
Key takeaways
- Science museums in particular, even before adopting mobile phone technology, have often encouraged visitors to interact with their exhibits, unlike art museums for instance.
- This study proposed three main research questions to explore the extent to which science museums in the United States were using mobile phones as interactive vehicles in their exhibits.
- 5.2 Museums using a mobile phone interactive program RQ2: For those using mobile phone interactive programs, what are the motives and criteria that influenced your institution to make the program available to visitors?
- Two museums were developing their programs and needed time to assess their progress, and one museum did not want their visitors to pay extra for mobile phone calls.
- Most of the museums in the study (95%) do not prevent visitors from bringing their mobile phones into their museums, and most (70%) have no formal polices for cell phone use.
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