Mobile Learning in Museums: Insights from recent research

Mobile learning in museumsInsights from research at the British MuseumPresented at University of Leicester, 19 June 2013

Shelley Mannion @smannionDigital Learning Programmes ManagerThe British MuseumPhotos by Benedict Johnson

Virtual versus real. Really?

Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1952Photo by LoicT on Flickr

Integrated interpretation

From Peter Samis, MW2007, Gaining Traction in Vaseline

Mobile is simply an

addition to our existing

arsenal of interpretive

tools.

Big Draw, 2010: Even old devices are cool.

Mobile learning at the British Museum

Passport to the Afterlife Augmented Reality trail

QR code trails with iBeaken in permanent galleries

Photography trails for schools, families. Cameras are mobile devices too.

Tablet-based activity trails plus cameras in Multimedia Magic.

Mobile worksheets with WildForm for fact gathering offline.

Get away from stop-based treasure hunts

Active and participatory

Experiential

Collaborative

Accommodate different learning styles

Our goals

Our audience

Our content

Novelty effect

Motivating

• Can be superficial. Too excited.

Distractions

Distractions

Distractions

Distractions

Collaboration

4-5 per device too many

Large screens - bah.

Can blend with analogue (sometimes)

Friendship groups versus ability groups

Younger children, 2 per device, but prompt them to share

Teens (11 and up), own device doesn’t discourage social interaction

Activity design

Photography trumps all

Drawing.

Drawing.

Very creative and you can remember it more if you do something yourself. 65

Augmented Reality.

Provides direct visual dialogue between camera view and objects in cases.

Natural feature trackingand reconstruction.

Challenges spatial hegemony in galleries.

Promotes kinaesthetic learning.

Narrative / theme versus object-based activities.

1 2 3

Paper prototypes

Model for mobile learning

Frohberg, et al 2009Adapted by Doll 2012: 31

Only 11 of 102 mobile learning apps used this approach

Voice recording,drawing

Platforms

Research models

Educators as pioneers