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‘Online Cultural Consumers and Museums’Kings College, London14 November 2013

Communicating the Museum Learning Experience Online: Reflections on young people’s use of social and mobile technologies in a school trip

Koula CharitonosInstitute of Educational Technology

koula.charitonos@open.ac.uk

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© AustralianMuseum Source: http://australianmuseum.net.au/image/Museums-are-the-best/

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Motivation

• Strong interest in gaining an understanding on how best to support school trips to museums

• Observation 1: School trips are an important means of introducing young people to museum collections and may have a long-term learning impact and influence perceptions

• Observation 2: Gap between an experience that one has during a visit to a museum as a leisure activity and during a school trip

• Observation 3: Museums can be complex spaces for children/young people (i.e. museums are filled with diverse artefacts, too much information and use of highly intellectual language)

• Observation 4: On-going problem for museums (and schools) is how to support and develop interpretation skills in young people

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• People expect to be able to work, learn, study, and connect with their social networks wherever and whenever they want

• The abundance of resources and relationships made easily accessible via the Internet is increasingly challenging us to revisit our roles as educators

• Collection-related rich media are becoming increasingly valuable assets in digital interpretation

• (In. Johnson, L. et al., 2013. The NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Museum Edition, Austin: Texas: New Media Consortium)

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Horizon Report 2012: Museum Edition

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Learning?

In: Digital Culture: How arts and cultural organisations in England use technology; ACE, AHRC, Nesta (2013) Digital R&D Fund for the Arts Report

“the majority of cultural organisations regard digital technologies as essential to marketing, preserving and archiving, and operations”

•growing audience size•reaching new audiences •increasing engagement

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PhD Thesis: An investigation into the use of social and mobile technologies in school trips to museums

• investigate how social and mobile technologies shape young people’s practices and learning processes and facilitate making meaning for learners, in and across settings

Focus on: • incorporate new tools to pedagogical practices

• a research design to allow a learner to switch between different timescales and different contexts i.e. offline/online; individual/social; and formal/informal

• user-generated content (i.e. online posts, pictures, video)

• peer-led communication (face-to-face, online) (esp. social aspects of interpretation)

• embedding reflective practices in encounters with objects (with Twitter)

• value the use of resources that are generated by learners themselves

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Research Question

How does the use of social and mobile technologies by young people before, during and after a school visit to a museum contribute to a student’s learning trajectory and facilitate meaning making processes?

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Why ?

• most popular micro-blogging service • research has shown that it can be used as an educational tool (Elavsky et al. 2011, Junco et al. 2010)

• synchronous and asynchronous attributes • simple interface (web and iPhone application) • updates in users’ status in UK can be carried out using SMS

• not a ‘distractive’ technology (?)• popular among museums

© Guardian 9.3.2010

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Study:’Fight and Protest for your rights’

• Museum of London • Year 9 History class (n=29) • KS3 Scheme of Work ‘Equality and Beliefs’ (‘Civil Rights’)• Pre- and Post-visit Classroom activities

© Museum of London

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Design: Trajectory of class activities

ACTIVITY SETTING

CLASSROOM/ICT SUITE

MUSEUME-LEARNING STUDIO/MUS

EUMBUS

CLASSROOM/ICT SUITE

INTERVIEW ROOM

OBJECT

Communication within, between and beyond institutions (face-to-face and

online)

Communication within the institution

(face-to-face and online)

upload picturesstart presentation

Create a short clip to reflect on

the experience

Communication within the institution

(face-to-face and online)

Reflect on the activities and the

overall experience

TOOLS/RESOUR

CES

pen/paperPCs

online platformsiPhones

MoL websitetextbooksimages

exhibitslabels

Twitter/tweets iPhones/camera

pen/pencil recorder

worksheet museum map

iPhonesPCs

imagesonline platforms (Twitter/Vuvox)

Flip camera

online platforms (Twitter/Vuvox)images (from

museum)tweets paper

post-itsiPhones

pen/paper

recorderTwitter-stream

pen/papermeaning maps

PEOPLEindividual/in groups

in groups in groups individualindividual/ in groups

individual

time

(diagram adopted by Steier & Pierroux, 2011)

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Data collected

Pre - visit Visit Post - visit

pre-test questionnaires

entry meaning maps

online posts on Twitter

observation (notes, video)

pictures/video by participants

group audio files

worksheets

post-test questionnaires

exit meaning maps

individual videos (bus)

online posts on Twitter

classroom observation

video collages on Vuvox

online posts on Twitter

observation (notes, pictures, video)

interviews

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Pre -Visit: Live communication between institutions

• Logistics–MoL trial twitter account @MoLtrial –Social Media Manager at the MoL in Q&A –students in school’s ICT suite–#MoLtrial

• Objectives: –introduce the students into new forms of

communication with the museum/new channels of communication (i.e. YouTube, Website, Twitter)

–achieve a gradual familiarisation of the participants with the Museum of London

–prime the students for the museum experience

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Pre -Visit: Live communication between institutions

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Pre -Visit: What do the participants say?

Interviews (n=7 students)

Q: What did you think of our communication with the museum curator over Twitter before the visit?

Preparation for the visit

“I thought it was really good, because, you haven’t been there before and you get to ask questions about what is it like, what is it gonna teach us, and he answered back to us straight away. So I thought that was a good idea, coz you get to know about the museum before you get there and so you know what you like, going to learn, sort of what is going to be like...” [interview, Maria]

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‘Bringing an expert’ in the classroom

“...is good to have contact with someone of higher knowledge and not just the teacher’s opinion...It’s good to see someone else, not random, but someone else that knows their subject perfectly and see their views on what you’ve said” [interview, Kevin]

“He could give you the points first hand, he knows what it is, he works for the museum [...] he knew what he was talking about [...]” [interview, Neil]

Pre -Visit: What do the participants say?

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Preference for synchronous type of communication

“The essence is that museums are big and like, they are unapproachable, while Twitter it made them more approachable and like friendly [...] Twitter made it a bit more like approachable and like...and it was easy to ask stuff [...] If it was just, like, email, then I"d have thought a bit, like...you know when you are emailing someone, but it"s not instant messaging or anything, so it"s like...kind of thing that you are talking to a wall sometimes...” [interview, Nana]

Pre -Visit: What do the participants say?

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Teacher

‘interesting’, ‘different’, ‘useful’ and ‘really valuable’

“it was a really good introduction to them [students] going there [museum]”

“They found it exciting because it was live...they were doing it at the same time and they were able to talk to someone who wasn"t there (...) than just having me there talking to them!

Pre -Visit: What do the participants say?

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Visit: Museum of London

• Visit Logistics–8 groups in threes/fours –worksheet –recorder with a microphone–iPhones (3G/3GS)–Twitter/TweetDeck and specific

hashtags

• Learning Objectives: –Investigate an inquiry –Select and interpret objects –Communicate knowledge and understanding to an audience

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Charitonos, Koula; Blake, Canan; Scanlon, Eileen and Jones, Ann (2012). Museum learning via social and mobile technologies: (How) can online interactions enhance the visitor experience? British Journal of Educational Technology, 43(5) pp. 802–819.

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This visit Past visits

“Normally when you go to museums, you just go to the museum, go

around and you’re thinking ‘it’s boring’ and spend so little time in each place is, like, really felt puzzled...” (Neil)

“...it was a lot more enjoyable

because it was really focused

and you could actually learn about something...” (Neil)

“ It was boring, really boring...we didn’t have much freedom, you were not allowed to go anywhere, to touch anything, to interact...” (Sara)

“...compared to this museum you

could learn in your own pace and you own way, more personal learning...and it was good to get your point across...” (Sara)

“[...]We were really into it...with that everyone stayed on target...” (Maria)

Visit: Interview Data

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• (Invisible) Interaction among participants

“when we saw the tweet about the carriage...we wanted to go and find it!” (Kevin)

Visit: Interview Data

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Visit: Interview Data

• (Invisible) Interaction among participants

“You know about the Black Panther? Cos when we were at the

museum I tried to find it, I couldn’t find it...and then I saw the pictures

and ‘Ohhhh, that’s what it is!’ So, then I learnt about this thing” (Nana)

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• creation of an ‘opinion space “I like that...cos you go to see

other people’s opinions...I mean, like, if you look at something, as I look at something, I see different things, so you can see how they interpret it.” (Nana)

“you answered some things on iPhone and other people got to read it, so they would (faithful) your opinion and (faithful) the difference... (Maria)

“...some people don’t have the confidence to put the hand up and talk about what they’ve seen. With the technology...I saw a lot of people

write down some really good ideas and maybe the use of technology could help them get their point across” (Sara)

Visit: Interview Data

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• creation of an ‘inter-connected space’

[..] I like the fact that you were staying in touch with everyone, even though they were not there...People tweeting about what they were seeing and you kinda know what is there, without being there...”(Nana)

We were in groups, but I was feeling connected with other

groups, so we were all sharing ideas over internet...we were really into it...” (Maria)

Visit: Interview Data

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• ‘archival’ space

“Without technology you wouldn’t have remembered it and looking back at them when you can” (Sara)

Visit: Interview Data

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• Q. “Looking back at the tweets, do you see any value having them?

• “Yeah, you see a lot of people what they thought about different things and some bits are just comments on what other people have put, but a lot of [name of a student] were very detailed as well, and it really, I think that helped me to go and find the places [...] I think at one point the people were just saying, like, especially with the carriage, they didn’t really READ [emphasizes] the information that was on the [part of it, label?] they were just putting “Oh, look there’s a carriage”.But I think, like, other people were like “Oh, no, no, no, actually if you read it it says this and then “Oh, then I’ll go and look at that again [...]” 20

Visit: Interview Data

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Interview Data

“I remember we split into groups of three and we were going around and we were looking at different artefacts in the museum...and putting on twitter about what we thought and where it would be for other people to (comment and come and look), what we thought it would be interesting and emmm...what we thought other people would be interested in”

[Interview, Kevin asked to recall the visit ]

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• Q. ‘Has the use of technologies made you feel any differently or strongly about looking at objects?’

• “Yes, it’s made me a look at something a lot differently. I think it made me read more of the [labels] that go with it and more of what was around [...] You see something else in the corner of your eye and it will make you go ‘Oh, I could see something good out there and I could put it on twitter and then it will (out of sudden) make you read more around the museum...”

Interview Data

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Interview Data

• Do you think you behaved differently during this visit than you normally behave in school visits?

• “I think we did, because we were trying to think of things we could put up on Twitter [...] we were trying to think of what we could put on and we couldn’t think of what we wanted to say [...]”

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Findings

• Social and mobile technologies may be used in school visits:

• for bringing ‘experts’ in the classroom • for collecting questions and customising a trip• for engaging students to participate and share their experiences

• for facilitating interaction and negotiation of meaning • for enhancing the social dynamics of the visit and creating a collective experience

• for documenting, archiving and extending the experience beyond settings and groups

• for enjoying the visit

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Findings

• Perceived aim of visit: finding objects that are interesting and appealing to other students - acknowledgement of an audience

• Popular activity: Posing by exhibits and taking pictures

• Selections based on: personal interests; prior-knowledge; serendipitous browsing; the social environment; distributing content

• Use of tweets and pictures to resource and communicate their meaning making in this trip

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Reflection • How effective user-generated content is for museum learning? How young

people can engage with it effectively and efficiently, so that quality content – and its curation – becomes a valuable resource?

• How does this shift in learning practices for students (e.g. creating, sharing and curating multimodal content, performing to an audience, and peer-reviewing) bring new ways to ‘read’ and interpret objects into play?

• Technologies should not be introduced to a learning space without adequate attention paid to how users shape practices associated with them

• Museum learning needs to function and integrate young people’s increasingly visual, not text based, digital environments and practices.

• Opt for applications that students are familiar with and may become ubiquitous part of the setting for the primacy of the object and aesthetic encounter to be preserved

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Thank you!

koula.charitonos@open.ac.uk

@ch_koula