Centre of Excellence in Teaching and Learning

through Design(CETLD)

What is CETLD?

CETLD is a unique partnership between two higher education institutions, a museum and a professional organisation.

CETLD partners are:

• University of Brighton• Royal College of Art (RCA)• Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A)• Royal Institute of British Architects

(RIBA)

Background

• Lack of targeted provision for HE students in museum

• Limited research into the needs of students in HE and specialist subject

groups including design

Museum Learning

• Museums have a public duty to make provision for all learners

• Museums have traditionally engaged in mass communication rather than modifying content for particular audiences

• Museums are ‘free-choice’ learning environments - not obliged to follow any set syllabus

Physical and Virtual Learning

Spaces • Process of learning involves an interaction

between the learner and the object • Importance of context • Physical and virtual learning spaces

‘iGuides from StreetAccess’

What are ‘iGuides’?

Web-based museum trails which are accessed on handheld computers in the galleries

What does the technology offer?

• User can access audio, video, text and images

• Can upload voice recordings, photos and text as they take the trail

• Can access this ‘personalised’ trail on the web after the visit

What can trails on PDAs do?

Provide context

Bring different resources together

Provide ‘scaffolding’

What do you think?

Why?

Who?

Provide a structure for students’ responses

Change the museum environment

How deep can museum

learning be?

Can we create resources that ‘stimulate exploration and reflection’ rather than being ‘an electronic textbook’?

Semper and Spasojevic (2002)

Evaluation of the ‘iGuides’ project

• Evaluation is an essential planning tool • It takes a cyclical approach: - Front-end - Formative - Summative• Designed to support project milestones

and pedagogic enquiry

Preliminary Observations

- Students spend much longer looking at objects when using the trail

- Students appreciate extra information about the objects on display

- Students prefer conducting a trail outside their own subject area

- Students enjoy the capacity that the technology has to offer. They like to make notes, record audio and take photographs.

- It is difficult to gauge the content of information at the right level for undergraduate and postgraduate students

What about the needs of your students’ in the museum(s)?