Education and learning in museum

Education and Learning in Museums 2.0

PhD Thesis "Art Museums in Web 2.0" by Bianca BocatiusInstitute of Information Science, Heinrich-Heine-University Duesseldorf

Outline

1. Lifelong Learning in Museums

2. Digital Educational Museum Service

3. Overview

4. Outlook


Reasons for increasing importance of lifelong

learning (LINDE & STOCK, 2009: 205f):

Modification of knowledge

Knowledge as most important economic resource

Lifelong learning is essential for success and

development of a knowledge-based society.

1. Lifelong Learning in Museums Museum as informal learning place:

"Museums provide unique educational opportunities; their displays of objects

and their informal atmosphere not only invite learning, but also make possible

the enjoyment of learning, often for the first time […]"(AAM, 1969).

Museum as place of lifelong learning:

"Museums all over Europe have been reviewing their rôle, adding a new facet to

their mission in terms of their relationship with society and the local community

and have undertaken significant actions to become agents of social change and

social integration, bringing more people back into the learning cycle. Nowadays

it is largely recognized that most of what we learn is acquired in informal

contexts and that museums are ideal places for learning throughout life, as they

offer free choice learning and can address all age ranges" (EUROPEAN MUSEUM

FORUM (ed.), 2005: 1).


Ramifications for museums:

Nowadays education and learning are the biggest

challenges for museums (DMB & BVMP (ed.), 2008:

6).

Museums as informative and communicative systems

Information and Communication Technologies enlarge the

educational support

ICT in museums: e.g. smartphones, computer-based terminals

and the Internet.


ASTLEITNER (2004) points out four basic

developments for learning online:

Self-directed learning

Local distance

Cooperative knowledge acquisition

Diversity for pluralistic thinking (ASTLEITNER

2004: 13f)

2. Digital Educational Museum Service The Internet is part of everyday life of most of European citizens.

Figure 1 How often do you use the Internet in your leisure time? Source: EUROPEAN COMMISSON (ed.), 2007: WWW, 16).


The World Wide Web developed from a static and

one-way platform to an interactive and two-way

communicative service (O'REILLY 30.09.2005:

WWW).

The Internet can now be used to grasp information

but also as a platform for self-expression (O'REILLY

30.09.2005: WWW).

Now in the time of Web 2.0 the Internet user is a

consumer and producer of content as well

(prosumer) (WEIBEL, 2007: 23).

2. Digital Educational Museum Service The digital educational museum service in

Germany can be separated into three categories: General information, such as address, contact person

and other contact details;

Specialized information about the educational service as

well as an on-line registration form, download center,

information about projects or educational programs;

Educational service and learning opportunities such as

mentioned in the second category plus information about

the collection or exhibitions, online games, databases,

online exhibitions, detailed explanations (PREHN, 2002:

WWW, 5).


Figure 2 Digital Educational Museum Service of the Jewish Museum Berlin (Jewish Museum Berlin, WWW. Last access: 02.09.10.)


Figure 3 Rafael Roth Learning Center of the Jewish Museum Berlin (Jewish Museum Berlin, WWW. Last access: 02.09.10.)

2. Digital Educational Museum Service A fourth category of the Digital Educational

Museum Service: Brooklyn Museum, New York = unit of building

and virtual counterpart with the Project "Click! A Crowd-Curated Exhibition" Web 2.0 functions and focus on communication,

interaction and participation


Figure 4 Click! A Crowd-Curated Exhibition, Most Discussed. (Brooklyn Museum, WWW. Last access: 08.08.10.)

Participation & Exchange

Information & Communication

Participation

Participation & Exchange

Personalization & Participation

Information & Communication & Participation

Personalization

2. Digital Educational Museum Service So what did the Brooklyn Museum provide

that can be defined as a Web 2.0 tool? Participation: open to any photographer who had

produced work with a Brooklyn theme, participation via rating, selection, comparison & tagging

Communication: blog or comment function on the photos

Personalization: MySite concept, embedding the blog in personal sites, e.g. igoogle, social bookmarking

Information: RSS function on the blog Combination of on-line and on-site activities

Web 2.0 in museums can be divided into four functional areas which represent different purposes of Web 2.0: Personalization: MySite concepts, download center,

databases, social bookmarks Information and Communication: RSS newsfeeds, podcast,

weblogs, microblogging Participation: wikis, social tagging, comment functions,

participatory projects Network and Exchange: Flickr, YouTube, MySpace,

Facebook, social bookmarks, mashups (LILL & SCHWEIBENZ, 2009: WWW, 22)


Figure 5 Click! A Crowd-Curated Exhibition, Real Exhibition in Online-Archive. (Brooklyn Museum, WWW. Last access: 08.08.10.)

3. Overview Benefits of the Digital Educational Museum

Service on the Internet: To guarantee public access to cultural heritage To enable visitors to prepare and review their

visits individually (connection of museum and virtual counterpart)

To offer participatory opportunities To communicate and activate dialogues To connect and expand educational work by

combining on-site and on-line activities To guarantee a communicative and participatory

relationship between the museum and its visitors on-site and on-line

4. Outlook The Museum 2.0:

Desire for a discoursive, communicative and participatory relationship between museums and their visitors

The entire Museum 2.0 is "open-minded, communicative, it opens its doors – at least virtually – to the whole world, it cooperates, it knows its visitors, it learns, it interacts directly and remains open to criticism, it wins" (HAHN, 2002: 92).

Web 2.0 is a cultural and social phenomenon, not only a technical development.

Museums are part of society and have to fulfill their required role to be accepted and valuable for society.

Thank you for your attention!

Bianca [email protected]

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Education and learning in museum

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