e-learning and museum learning

Museum education for school students is about using artefacts and exhibitions to offer inspiration and authentic, curriculum-linked learning experiences. When it is the student's interaction with the museum object that is so important, how can e-learning contribute to improving learning outcomes?


Before a museum visit students and teachers can access information about the artefacts and exhibitions that they are going to see. They can plan learning goals with museum staff. On the day they interact with authentic objects, gather information, explore and discover. After the visit students reflect and discuss their findings. They can communicate with museum staff again to ask questions and get in touch with people from similar organisations to further their study. Students are then able to create resources about the museum objects for other students to learn from.


How can all this be done?
Museums and e-learning both involve the communication of information; museum-based communication channels in the past have been one-way; from curator/exhibition designer to the visitor. Effective museum education for schools needs to involve multidirectional communication channels between students, teachers, museum staff and possibly the wider community to help build and maintain relationships and help with pre-and post-visit learning opportunities. E-learning tools can facilitate these channels through features such as interactive websites, podcasting, e-mail, wikis and blogging which will allow for the exchange of resources.
We must bear in mind though, that New Educational Technologies will only work for those who are willing and able to use them. It is up to the museum to maintain all communication channels, old and new, to suit the needs of students and teachers and each specific situation; be it writing a response in pen and ink to a student letter or commenting on a blog post - how apt for someone who leads learning experiences on technological change!

Reading: for anyone interested in this area I found a great book called Digital technologies and the museum experience by Loic Tallon & Kevin Walker, (2008), Altamira Press. It is aimed at museum technologies in general, not specifically for school group based museum education, however there are some references to school learning experiences.