Media and the Museum: A Response to Learning Science in Informal Environments

Abstract

Digital environments are one of the newest methods of resource‐ and program‐creation to be added to the museum toolkit, and are increasingly employed by museums across all fields to support learning. Unfortunately, this category is also one of the least‐fleshed‐out components in the Learning Science in Informal Environments (LSIE) chapter devoted to media. The report does not take into account the increasingly interwoven nature of media resources, particularly those found in digital environments. It is imperative that museums both become familiar with the breadth of research that is available related to digital environments and that they continue to specifically build an understanding of how this works in a museum setting.

EGO‐TRAP: A Mobile Augmented Reality Tool for Science Learning in a Semi‐formal Setting

“…Authors generally welcomed LSIE as an important synthesis of research to date, but Marsha Semmel felt it failed to deliver on “the need for more research on online learning, the relationships between on‐site and on‐line learning, the impact of digital games and simulations, and the relationships among different cross‐platform learning modes” ( Semmel 2010, 159 ). Nancy Dribin and Angelique Rickhoff critically wrote: “The report does not take into account the increasingly interwoven nature of media resources, particularly those found in digital environments” ( Dribin and Rickhoff 2010, 221 ). Dribin and Rickhoff recommended addressing mobile audiences as we expand our concept of the museum platform into the digital realm.…”