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Building a Virtual Museum on the History of EdTech Wiki

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Modified: 15 October 2008, 10:07 AM   User: Sylvia Currie  → photo of me taken by a short person :-)

October 1 - 21, 2008

Overview

Often repeated admonitions of the dangers of ignoring the lessons of history have to date not been heeded within the educational technology community. Basic historical accounts of the field's development, key contributors, and important successes and failures have not been compiled and sufficiently disseminated to provide as sources of guidance and direction. As the pace of change in new technologies, and suggestions for new pedagogies accelerates, the deficiency of a historical record needs to be corrected. University of Manitoba's Learning Technologies Centre, SCoPE, and Richard Schwier from the Educational Communications and Technology Program at the University of Saskatchewan have initiated a project to create a freely accessible "museum of educational technology". There's much to be learned from using a wide lens, and inviting international perspectives.

In this three-week online forum we will begin the conversation about our history. This will be the initial development of what we hope will become a living, growing and collaborative resource. In April 2009, the site will officially open with a final week of discussion (and a little bit of celebration).

Contributors:

Picture of BJ BerquistPicture of Sylvia CurriePicture of Richard SchwierPicture of George SiemensPicture of Paul StaceyPicture of Jo Ann Hammond-MeiersPicture of Arcadio ViverosPicture of Robert NystuenPicture of Cindy SeibelPicture of Trevor WasilowPicture of Dan SchellenbergPicture of Heather RossPicture of Jim JuliusPicture of Colby Stuart
Picture of David BrearPicture of Deirdre BonnycastlePicture of Barbara Dieuvirtual mePicture of Cristina CostaPicture of Jeffrey KeeferDon on his bike at Ironman Canada 2008Picture of Cynthia AlvaradoPicture of Christine HorganPicture of Nicholas BowskillPicture of Nick KearneyGrant Potter - SL AvatarPicture of Juanita Foster-JonesPicture of Kim HobbsPicture of lesley walters

(+ 25 participants at Oct 1 Elluminate session)
(+ 25 participants at Oct 14 Elluminate session)

Live Sessions

(Via Elluminate: http://tinyurl.com/4wupyt)
  • Project Launch: A Living History | slides | recording
    Facilitator: Richard Schwier
    Moderator: George Siemens
    October 1st, 10:00 am (PDT) 17:00 UTC (see world clock)
  • The History of Learning Technologies | recording
    Facilitator: Elizabeth Berge
    Moderator: George Siemens
    October 14th, 9:00 am (PDT) 16:00 UTC (see world clock)

Purposes for the Collection

  • xx
  • xx

Audiences for the Collection

  • Instructors (for student projects, etc)
  • xx

Historical Lenses

  • People lens
  • Cross-disciplinary influences lens
  • Edtech pedagogies lens
  • Media lens
  • Our own experiences lens
  • Intercultural or cross-cultural lens
  • researchers lens
  • organizational lens
  • "thinkers" in ICT lens
  • publication lens
  • panacea lens
  • social lens
  • theoretical lens
  • national lens

Examples of online museums

Virtual Museum of Canada
Agora
Maple Leaf Museum
The Apple Museum

Military Communications and Electronics Museum (virtual tour of a physical museum)
Natural History Museum
Oklahoma World War II Stories Web site.
The Tech Museum of Innovation
Museum of Unnatural Mystery
Canada Aviation Museum
Museum Of Science

What we liked about these sites

  • teachers resources
  • fun & games
  • wraps social tools (blogs, wikis, etc) around museum artifacts
  • imagination was triggered, takes you there
  • variety of media - video, audio, images, animations, etc
  • look and feel appropriate for era (black & white images)
  • avoid overloading
  • variety of content, of interest to many people
  • easy to navigate
  • FAQ of questions and answers from viewers
  • narratives, biographies, stories told in part through pictures
  • an education program, section for kids
  • serves a specific purpose
  • good search - on keywords
  • revolving featured collections allows quick perusal of items you may not think to search for
  • customization of content, e.g. around a theme (My Personal Museum - mashup)
  • question posed at the end of each virtual exhibit
  • social events

Museum memories

Think about a good museum you visited...
  • Being able to interact with the exhibits
  • Having a quest to complete as part of the tour
  • See something new or different or changing upon every revisit
  • Some of the works ...may be the same, but I view them in a different frame of mind, perspective, and sensibility each time I go
  • Spaces/ light and how the different objects are brought to attention or highlighted
  • Non-linear multimedia layers on a timeline, patterns or associations which bring together various perspectives around a theme
  • Guiding narrative should include interesting questions, which make you better observe details, and/or episodes that illustrate and relate the artifacts or people in their social and personal context.
  • Architecture, inviting atmosphere (lighting, sound)
  • Sense of discovery
  • Choice between guided and self-guided tours
  • Path through time, path through "areas" with choice to explore areas in more depth (like Ikea!) so left with feeling that haven't missed something important.

Similar online projects

Technology in Education
Encyclopedia of Educational Technology
Avnet Technology Museum in Second Life allows for virtual 3-D exploration of many early technology artifacts.

Useful Development Tools

  • Capzles - allows for a multimedia, group created timeline.

Page Design

  • No "flashy" home pages! - don't overwhelm visitors on their first encounter.
  • Hyperlinks embedded in text to examples, source material
  • Avoid too much text
  • Good visual design invites user to explore
  • Happy colours! ☺
  • Aesthetic appeal important Emphasize visual information
  • More images than text using FlickR to exhibit photos of long term or temporary exhibitions

Audience Engagement

  • Who is our audience
  • Focus on a primary audience
  • Useful to those in and outside the field of education
  • The ability for anyone to upload material.
  • Encourage contributions and stories from all who visit.
  • Serves a specific purpose
  • “My personal museum”
  • An open-ended question posed at the end of a section.
  • Evidence is given, theories are presented, but conclusions are left up to the visitor.
  • Feature to allow users to post answers/conclusions

Site Design

  • Inclusion of web mapping to allow users to visually explore how concepts are linked as on www.visuwords.com graphic dictionary
  • Podcasts, Videocasts, Lectures, Forum, super cool Virtual Exhibits, and Social Events.
  • Web/map that floats at the top of the site
  • Nonlinear approach invites the visitor to enter at any point and in a sense it allows the viewer to begin to author his/her own experience.
  • Site well-laid out, appealing and most importantly, not overwhelming
  • Search for a specific key word based on any curriculum
  • Universal design (accessible design – Braille bug, JAWS compatible, etc.)
  • Narratives
  • Video tour
  • Navigation critical
  • Consider learning styles and motivation (ARCS)
  • Strong organization: simple and attractive
  • Interactive activities important
  • Sense of “being there” good elements of communication, and illustrate a “reality”. It “takes you there”. Video, audio, images, colors, animations, figures, information are well articulated.
  • Ability to provide feedback
  • Facility to “relocate” information on a site (iGoogle function)
  • KISS
  • Ability to choose and follow a path
  • Easy navigation
  • Easy access through search feature
  • Allows anonymous access
  • Clear paths to exhibits
  • Clear usage statements (Creative Commons, copyright)
  • Intuitive links and built in player for media

Content

  • An organized collection of electronic artefacts and information resources
  • A who’s who of technology innovators useful to those considering technology-related careers and others interested in using technology more effectively for learning and communication
  • A global focus tying in to local interests and audiences
  • The intro and content of the entire website impressive enough to be used on an e-board
  • Stories connected to each other in often complex and fascinating ways.
  • French/English?
  • Motto for the museum?
  • Chronology of history
  • Products/equipments over time
  • Variety of content
  • FAQ
  • Featured collections (perhaps revolving)
  • Supplemental audio and video clips to support exhibits
  • Staff picks
  • Most downloaded listings

Quality Control

  • xxx
  • xxx