Liberating Heritage Content to Classrooms Via the Web

Just Make It:

Summary

In this section:

The Internet is increasingly becoming an accepted tool for conducting research, building relationships, communicating ideas and shaping new experiences and for extending the reach of heritage content. All of these practices are at the very core of educational practices. The dynamic of the student, teacher and community relationship is shifting and becoming more flexible to accommodate different learning experiences. As students are often more comfortable with technology than their teachers, opportunities are being created for student driven learning and less traditional forms of mentorship and instruction.

Heritage professionals offer the wisdom of experience and valuable authoritative content, which can transcend technology and physical location. By combining the wisdom of physical experience with the innovation of Web-based technology, students, teachers and museum professionals can begin to foster a new type of learning experience. Museums are beginning to create their own knowledge networks that provide support and tools to active learners around the world. This exciting method of building Web-based content and learning experiences is putting museums at the forefront of innovation by creating new ways to explore cultural capital.

In creating experiences that use technology to allow heritage related content to transcend physical spaces, we allow educational audiences the flexibility to construct their own meanings in a variety of different contexts: at home, in the class, with friends, in the museum and in the world. In doing so the information contained in a museum collection is liberated from the confines of time and space and can be used in many different ways to create new meaning while remaining contextually relevant.

The Web provides a unique and exceptional opportunity for museums to connect with and engage youth culture like never before, fostering relationships with future museum goers. By engaging students through less traditional means, heritage professionals can create a set of new and innovative learning tools that students can utilize in the classroom, at the exhibition or at home. The Web’s role is two-fold: to enrich the physical student-teacher experience, and to provide a virtual venue for heritage content. Web-based content can enrich the physical experience, or stand alone as an exciting educational opportunity. As the practice of creating web based learning experiences continues to evolve, heritage professionals, educators and students will continue to play an active role in creating engaging experiences both on the Web and in the world.

Further Reading and Links:

More about population, demographics, Internet access and socioeconomic factors in information access:
Demystifying the Digital Divide”
By: Mark Warschauer
Scientific American, August 2003
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000112F0-AB93-1F09-97AE80A84189EEDF

More on globalization and education:
“Keep the Whole World at Your Fingertips:
Education, Globalization and the Nation”
By: John Willinsky
Education Canada, Winter 2005
http://www.cea-ace.ca/media/en/JMW_WA_text.pdf

More about open source, media design and digital innovation:
Knowledge Media Design Institute
http://www.kmdi.utoronto.ca/

More about the “Knowledge Society,” education, design and technology:
Learning Lab Denmark http://www.lld.dk

More about technological literacy:
Multiliteracies
http://multiliteracies.com/

More about open source for educational purposes:
Public Knowledge Project
http://www.pkp.ubc.ca/

More about the relationship between experiential education and technology: Social Informatics
http://rkcsi.indiana.edu/

More about wikis and the legitimacy of Web based content:
“The Book Stops Here”
By: Daniel H. Pink
Wired Magazine, March 2005
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.03/wiki.html

More about Web usability and general guidelines for being user friendly:
Web Usability Guidelines
http://www.useit.com