Exploring E-Learning for theSamsung Digital Discovery Centre

The British Museum17th March 2009

Shelley Mannionshelley.mannion@gmail.com

Cicada Liu 2006

Where I’m from

I remember life before the Internet, but my students don’t.

Four challenges

1. The Cool factorImage (1910-15) from Flickr Commons

Library of Congress B2240715

2. Museum visit life cycle

Long-lasting memories and relationships

The Museum ExperienceBy J. Falk and L. Dierking

Maker of DreamsBy Laura Burlton

3. Museum as resource for lifelong learning

Image from Flickr Commons. Library of Congress B2267110

4. A different kind of experience

Alternative AliceBy Laura Burlton

[Some] spaces look a lot like the classrooms they

just left.From Civilizing the Museum

By Elaine Heumann Gurian

Alternate Routes: Student created multimedia tours

• Full day session• 15-20 secondary (KS3/KS4) students • English, Design & Tech and ICT• Enquiry-based learning model• Multiple perspectives on works of art

Works of art have a capacity for multiple readings.

Interpretation should make visitors aware of the subjectivity of

interpretive texts.

From Multimedia Tour Programme at Tate ModernMuseums and the Web 2004By Gillian Wilson

Stage One: Initiating & Eliciting

• Visual bookmarking with digital cameras• Individual, personal exploration• Learners choose own paths of enquiry• Insights from Lugano, Exploratorium

Stage Two: Defining & Responding

• Group discussion aided by wall display• Categorise images by overarching themes• Groups of 2-3 reflect shared interests• Decide what objects to include

Stage Three: Doing and Making

• Return to galleries to collect media assets• Research objects on laptops • Script the tour• Record audio with handheld microphones• Create multimedia tour with VoiceThread

• Supports multiple voices• Includes multiple forms of media• Creates publicly accessible, living artefact

VoiceThread tourof Chinese gallery

at The British Museum

Stage Four: Communicating, Presenting, Evaluating

• Facilitator creates centralised web page• Students follow tours on mobile PCs• Explore gallery from another perspective• Comment on tours using VoiceThread

Learning and technology• Personalised visual exploration with digital cameras• Online research on laptops• Multimedia production on laptops• Collaborative discussion with VoiceThread• Just-in-time learning with mobile PCs

Extending the event

• Tours available for teacher in the classroom• Tours available for parents and friends• Exceptional tours published on museum website• Other visitors can continue to comment

Talking Animals: Adventures in Chinese Storytelling

• Full day session • 15-20 primary (KS2) students• English, Art & Design• Child development theory (Yardsticks)

Hear the opera...hear the passover…do you want to hear me yodel? Hear the songs we sang against Genghis Khan...Do you want to hear it?

From Tripmaster Monkeyby Maxine Hong Kingston

Step One: Storytelling in China

• Talk-story oral tradition• Journey to the West• Videos of master storytellers, adaptations

Step Two: Quest for animals

• Collect animal objects in gallery with mobile PCs• Sort objects into categories• Photograph favourite animal

with digital cameras

Step Three: Digital storytelling

• Student pairs select a scene featuring their favourite animal

• Retell the episode in their own way• Draw, colour and scan a backdrop• Act out and film the scene in front of green/blue

screen wall

Step Four: Post-processing

• Scanned backdrops edited into films• Students decide the order of scenes in final

narrative • Students receive DVD of class story to take home

Learning and technology• Storytelling videos ignite interest

• Real-time feedback on collecting/sorting on mobile PCs

• Personalisation through visual bookmarking with digital cameras

• Kinaesthetic learning through physical re-enactment and filming

• Completed collective story reflects Chinese cultural practice

Extending the event

• Connections to musical (2008) and television series

• DVD allows family and friends to appreciate students’ work

• Films could be uploaded to video sharing websites (clips.e2bn.org)

• Individual episodes can be remixed to create new stories

• Hollywood film adaptation planned for 2010

Four potential programmes

Naturalist andBodily-Kinaesthetic

Lands of Illusion: Spaces and Places of China

Linguistic andInterpersonal

Dancing on Hairpins and Needles: Lives of Chinese

Women

Logical-MathematicalTechniques, Toys and Gadgets: Building Things from

Scratch

Visual-spatial andIntrapersonal

Pillows and iPods: Everyday Objects in China

Potentialities

• Real-time communication potential of mobile

devices and social networks

• Leveraging students’ own digital devices

• Theatricality of the physical space

• Wacom-like tablets for natural interaction

• Connecting the Centre with galleries

• Connecting museum with classrooms

Many thanks

All monkey and cartoon illustrations by Cicada Liu (Creative Commons)

Holga photographs by Laura Burlton(Creative Commons)

Archive photographs from Flickr Commons, Library of Congress Collection

Nancy Blume, Asia Society

Lisa Bruemmer, Milwaukee Public MuseumPaul de Jong

Claire Johnstone, The British Museum

Bridget McKenzie, Flow AssociatesClaudia Schallert, University of Vienna

Kris Wetterlund, Sandbox Studios

References• Enquiry-based learning (www.enquiringminds.org.uk)

• Exploratorium study described by Sherry Hsi in Designing for Mobile Visitor

Engagement (pages 125-146) in Digital Technologies and the Museum

Experience (Tallon and Walker, Eds. 2008)

• Multimedia Tour Programme at Tate Modern by Gillian Wilson in Bearman,

David and Jennifer Trant (Eds.), Papers, Museums and the Web 2004

• VoiceThread for Education (ed.voicethread.com). Example tour of the Chinese

gallery at The British Museum (tr.im/hqLa)

• Yardsticks: Children in the Classroom Ages 4-14 : A Resource for Parents and

Teachers. Chip Wood. Northeast Foundation for Children, 1997.

• Maxine Hong Kingston. The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among

Ghosts

• Learning Styles and Multiple Intelligences from the Museums, Libraries,

Archives Council (MLA)

• Bridget McKenzie’s blog Cultural Interpretation & Creative Education

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