Notes from The iMuseum Symposium

Nicole Knibb forwarded these notes after our April peer learning circle. I apologize for not posting these sooner! - Sarah


HAM-ED April 18, 2011 PLC Non-Traditional Approaches to Learning in the Museum & Gallery

iMuseum: OMA/OAAG Symposium Notes

Keynote: Cathy Blackbourn (OMA)
Need clear objectives – to use online platforms to reach our teaching goals and/or to incorporate your current practice with new platforms
Use new platforms to create conversation with audiences (created and shared by audiences)
The human element of museum education must remain
Online audiences are international (opportunity) but languages create barriers

Judy Koke (AGO, Department of Education and Programming): How do we put the audience at the centre of everything we do?
“Invite visitors to think with us.”
Converging Forces: Personalization + Participation
1. Attendance
Museum and art gallery attendance has been dropping since 2000 while museum expansion(s) occurred before attendance began dropping so there is much competition between institutions

2. Pedagogy
Interpretation + meaning-making
Acknowledge what visitors already knows and wants to learn

3. Public Value
The purpose of museums is changing; does your museum/gallery have a role in the community? What difference do you make in your community?

4. Leisure Habits
Audiences want participatory, customized experiences

A stronger shaper of what someone does at and takes away from the museum is to consider why they chose to come to the museum on that particular day – most identities/motivations change day to day

Falk’s 5 Identities:
1. Explorer
These are people who like museums and motivated by personal curiosity
Like to browse museums and connect with an exhibition or object(s) they find while visiting
Enjoy all kinds of free choice learning sites

2. Facilitator
Motivated by social relationships and will come with someone else often as the “reluctant companion”

3. Experience Seeker
Motivated by the experience of visiting the museum – often a tourist seeing something they don’t want to miss
Want to experience the museum, take pictures, buy something in the gift shop

4. Recharger
Motivated by personal nurturing and a contemplative experience
Often visits a quiet art gallery or aquarium

5. Professional/Hobbyist
Motivated by exhibitions or object(s) related to their work or hobby – very specialized knowledge which is a strong sense of their identity
Come for specific content and an in-depth experience

The AGO – one third explorers, one third rechargers and a combination of the other three identities made up the rest. Remember, teachers come for different reasons – not leisure learning.

How to use websites or social media to build online audience or visitors (or potential members) who are interested in your museum but can’t physically attend? Is this worthwhile?

Syrus Marcus Ware (AGO): Youth Councils
After Gehry reno, youth attendance has increased
AGO youth council designs and develops content, street teams, which go to high schools, provide valuable face-to-face contact to spread the word about the AGO – this is more effective than online media which tends to be overdone and ignored
Afterschool and weekend program for ages 14 – 25 designed to engage, motivate, foster teamwork, decision making, and self directed learning
AGO youth councils and initiatives include:
Youth Council
Free After 3 (free admission for youth)
Internships and Coop placements
Youth Centre (soon to be the Weston Family Learning Centre which is a dedicated, drop-in space)
Gallery Guides
Volunteers for kids’ March Break and Summer Camps
‘zine
Work with artists and staff on various projects
Found youth didn’t like technology or found it unnecessary to their experience
Came to the AGO youth council as something they wanted to do or felt it was meaningful to them
Wanted to connect with people
Wanted to be involved with the AGO and community
Mentorship and new opportunities were also important

Nina Simon: Building Relationships with Museums
relationships are usually with individuals --how do you make institutional relationships authentic
Places for relationships are:
a place where everybody knows your name
an agora: coffee shop, neighbourhood bar -- informal spaces
Multi-directional relationships
how can staff help people connect with each other?
Places are Personal
"I like museums" website (http://www.ilikemuseums.com )links and marketing for what people might find interesting hitting on personal preferences
start from what audience is interested in
“wall of fame” idea to recognize and celebrate regular visitors
ask community to provide content (personal photographs or items for exhibitions ie: Tim Hortons in Dundas has all their Timbits children’s’ soccer team pictures on display -- community engagement and recognition )
breeds familiarity
Relationships as social places
artifacts can promote discussion
create spaces to talk and engage with each other that are fun and exciting!

Multi-platform relationships
deep vs. surface relationships
local event, social network, museum visit, text messages, educational programs, websites, blogs, etc
Google Art Project
Is it taking away from visitors into museums?
info boxes: can jump around looking for other institutions with same artists in their collections
use of super resolution digital images
3D walk around is great for context but difficult for "white-cube galleries" since they all look the same
the focus for Google Art is Western art in great institutions
Nina thinks the same idea with UNESCO sites would be more interesting and serve the lower-income populations who cannot travel
Ruru Revolution at the Puke Ariki, a museum/library/visitor center in New Plymouth, New Zealand
Create personalized labels for objects and share personal stories to build relationships with audiences
This is a pocket of innovation – think about small steps you could take to more personal relationships

Audience: Intermediate Students (Grade 7 – 9)
Where do they go for information? Internet, Google, Yahoo.answers, Wikipedia – not the library!
YouTube advertisements – spend a lot of time on YouTube and can message friends on YouTube (You can link Facebook with YouTube (“like” or “share”))
What do you like/don’t like about museums?
Don’t like walking around and just looking
Simulating experiences is better (plane crash, moon landing, etc)
Prefer doing something, especially touching and sound clips
Listening and/or audioguides much better than reading information
Videogames or activities in museums
Geocaching
Tours are boring – find a fun way to teach
Acting out roles is good
Get to do things you can’t do in real life (which is also the appeal of gaming)
Anything that makes a museum visit unique and fun

Audience: Millennials, Growing up in a Digital Environment
Those born between c.1982 – 2000
Grew up with computers in their homes from an early age
Able to serial process – go from one point of information to the next easily (Facebook to homework to text message, etc)
97% of undergrads have cel phones and computers
Google is first step in any research
Attributes:
1. Tech savvy
2. Reliant on internet search engines
3. Interest in multimedia and desire to access information everywhere quickly and easily
4. Creators of internet content
5. Multitasking/multitracking
6. Visual communication – mash ups, tagging, metadata
7. Emotionally communicative
8. Collaborative in work (important in museums, workforce), enjoy brainstorming
9. Prefer typing to handwriting (visitor surveys or responses need to be digital, not written on a piece of paper)
10. Lots of initiative

Feel technology should be sophisticated and engaging
They like to be part of the conversation
Distrustful of a “single voice” and engaging in discourse is important

Strategies and Sources for Understanding Audiences
Listening is the most important approach – not just talking at a group/audience
Web-based learning is a rich resource
Have different outlooks and different voices as part of planning committees or focus groups – avoid the one “token” racial or cultural voice
Colleague research and examples of solid collaboration are excellent places to start
Use Twitter for marketing surveys
Consider the growing use of SmartBoards (interactive whiteboards www.smarttech.com ) in public schools

Audience: Secondary School Teachers
Need museums to fit curriculum to their tours/programs
Also have difficulty fitting trips in with timetables and other classes
Bussing is expensive, free admission is best!
Outreach is excellent (museum makes classroom visit) and a great way to start a relationship, eventually getting classes to your site and chance to evaluate museum/educator before committing to a field trip
Teacher kits are excellent prep for site visit – “historical/art literacy”
Discussion found museum staff have difficulty getting into schools for outreach – who to contact?
Information needs to get into the hands of appropriate teachers
Contact vice principals or department heads
ask for suggestions as to which teachers on staff might be interested in your program and what your site has to offer (might reach more than one teacher)

teachers need to know why they should care about your site or program – how can you dig more deeply to get our attention?
Teacher information sessions are good
During the day is best
PD days (scheduled up to a year in advance so plan early) are an option either at school or at museum
Social/singles event
As learning resources, museums are competing with Wikipedia and online resources
Primary sources are missed and extremely valuable
Students like to pick and choose what they want to explore
At many schools, there is a problem with old technology and the inability to access fast online researching tools
Most students work at home where technology is better
Low-income families are choosing internet over television or telephone
YouTube is very popular (can curriculum be applied to YouTube? Many teachers consider and use it)
Museums should post to YouTube and close the commenting section; send to schools to use in class
Secondary school students are used to DIY videos and that informal format – lower quality but youth-made
If your museum posts on YouTube, it can be added to the Virtual Museums Canada site under “Canada’s Got Treasures” videos
Make exploration possible

Audience Research: Adults
Consider different learning styles, generational differences and modality (how information is channeled)
Educational programming for skill sets rather than demographics

Consider:
1. teaching to learning styles is vague and offers little variation
2. Millenials and the digital generations don’t necessarily learn with technology
3. consider individual temperaments, not generation stereotypes
4. social vs. learning objectives – why are they at the museum?

95% of learning is visual (through images not text or listening)
Suggestion: use a “mole” (frequent visitor or intern) in social media to get the word out about your museum
Archives of Ontario use Twitter to send quotations, letters, etc from historical figures from the War of 1812 (fun and engaging)

Paul Kortenaar and Allan Busch (Ontario Science Centre): Technology Integration Program (TIP) and Adding Engaging Technologies to Our Education Programs
Using technologies such as SmartBoards and audience response systems (ARS) to increase engagement in educational programs
SmartBoards
Ability for classroom follow-up (pre or post museum visit)
Great to use for workshops
Capture interaction
Compelling to watch and engage kids
Future multi-touch and gesturing capabilities

Audience Response Systems (ARS or “Clickers”)
Small, hand-held remote controls for choosing answers to questions – for audience participation
Embedded in PowerPoint
Use for voting or answering multiple choice questions – very engaging
§ Provokes discussion amongst audience members
§ Great for challenging opinion questions since it’s like a secret ballot

Wendy Thomas (CHIN): Virtual Museums Canada Lab Projects and Lessons Learned
§ Program for youth internships for secondary school students and graduate students using social media
§ VMC Lab is a resource of how-to and lessons learned information for all museums and galleries to use when considering setting up online/virtual projects or exhibitions – project reports available online
§ Are social media projects easy and useful for our audiences?

Doris Van Den Breckel (AGO): Gallery Guides Online
§ Online volunteer management for:
Communication
Scheduling
Research
Training
Training:
§ In person training is best for learning, relationship building – truly the preferred method
§ Docents really want a connection to you and the institution
§ Docents require educators to model practice for them – online training might push them away
§ Training sessions can be recorded
Online Training:
§ Need a shareware platform like a wiki
§ Valuable to put training resources on an online platform for easy access at all hours of the day (password protected, not open to the public)
§ Wikis allow everyone to participate – museum staff, educators and docents
§ Wikis allow for links to textual information, websites, images and video clips

§ Suggest setting up a volunteer bulletin board
What she uses:
Wiki (http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiEngines, to find wiki engine which best suits your needs)
Moodle http://moodle.org/ open source learning management system –platform for courseware development
Google Docs

Patricia Bentley (Textile Museum): Interactive Websites
www.textilemuseum.ca and In Touch
§ In Touch is one of the TM’s online virtual exhibitions
§ Have a choice of ways to interact with the website
§ Gaming component – appeal to gamers and gaming is a learning tool
§ How to design educational gaming?
o Must have a win or lose situation, not exploration
o In Touch has 5 different worlds to appeal to many
o Games must be easy to understand but challenging enough to keep attention
o Adult games
o Hire a script writer and begin with storyboards
§ Ideal is that by using these digital resources as an introduction to your museum, visitors will come in
§ Computer work stations are present in some galleries in the TM for visitors to explore online exhibitions as well

Dr. Kevin Kee (Brock University): Augmented Reality for Culture
Serious Gaming for History: Lessons Learned
www.kevinkee.com
§ Museums and online cultural websites rely too much on text=boring
§ Recognize the commercial success of video games mean people really, really like them
Games are great teachers
§ Games allow you to take on an identity which means you have to think like your identity thinks
§ Need to be able to think and work in (or like) a group
§ Builds problem solving skills
§ Get students to make games rather than just play them
§ When designing games for learning try to break conventions
§ No happy outcomes – uncomfortable situations make for good learning
Ie: Outbreak
§ Game about a man who lands in Montreal with small pox and how to control the spread throughout the city
§ Ensure gamer isn’t god-like and don’t give them total control – this is boring – find situations beyond gamers’ control
§ continue your emphasis on community-building, historical or art objects, relationships, pleasure and playfulness
Begin planning your game on paper
§ Play Mobil or Lego are very handy tools for designing games

Robin Elliot: [murmur]
http://murmurtoronto.ca/
§ [murmur] is a locative media, oral history art project (kind of guerilla art)
§ Toronto was the first city – intent was to go beyond the historical plaques you see (usually white, wealthy male history) to feature a more storied life of the city
§ Dial number found on “green ear” to listen to first-person telling of a personal story linked to the area you’re in (Kensington Market for example)
§ IP (internet protocol) technology to use with your own cel phone
§ You listen and walk with the narrative
§ Online complement and brochures – you can listen to all stories online
§ Cel technology is affordable, accessible and intimate
§ Like QR codes or Geocaching, which are now being implemented in [murmur] projects

Sheila Knox (Bata Shoe Museum); Cultural Mapping with Youth
Shoe In project
§ Intern hired to work with a group of youth to create a community mapping project: shoe shopping and culture for youth visiting the Bata Shoe Museum and area
§ Established a blog and final publication which was a map of the cultural sites in the area
§ Youth group approached shops, museums, and restaurants in the area for information and permission to include the in the project
§ Project was interesting to youth
§ Project also featured an exhibition – youth curated, prepared educational materials and led tours – personal stories and relationships with objects in the collection
§ Good internship opportunity, short term project, and gave great insight into youth demographic
§ When overseeing youth council, give lots of support and as minimal supervision as possible – choose a good leader (who will work full-time for the summer)
§ Don’t underestimate their skills
§ What motivates participants in the youth council?
o Like behind-the-scenes, special and inclusive treatment
o Provide free food

Ian Hendry (RBG): Geocaching
§ RBG offers courses and programs in Geocaching (remember Geocaching is basically orienteering)
§ They also have publicly-created Geocaching on site (maintained by the public, like our coins)
§ Fits geography curriculum for Ontario
§ RBG has multicaches – series of places to fins eventually leading to a final treasure
§ Idea of going from place to place and problem solving is very much like gaming
§ Great for classes and teambuilding retreats

Kevin Kee (Brock University): iPhone Apps
§ Apps allow visitors to connect both on site (if you provide apps on site) and off site
§ Great for special needs access (ie: audioguide format for visually impaired)
§ Great for enhancing an already great exhibition or site
§ Apps are great for single visitors (explorers) but not groups – doesn’t allow for group engagement
§ Ensure your app has a context with an object or exhibition at your site
§ All smartphones come with general apps, no need to rely on Apple

Pierre Bois (OMA): Digital Storytelling
§ Video recording and simple editing enables you to post content online (YouTube)
§ Flip cam: http://www.theflip.com/en-ca/ are a cheap, effective and easy way to record talks and tours of your site
§ Use Windows Moviemaker and Publisher
§ OMA is working to create a guide: First Steps to Digital Storytelling, to be available online
§ YouTube videos can be embedded in your website (closed to commenting)
§ 80% of web users watch online videos
§ A simple way to get your site noticed online and people out to your site (Archives of Ontario have a YouTube channel of their own)
§ Consider all the stories you can tell in short video format or create a video using still photographs
§ Use video for docent training