Mobile Learning in Museums

1
Mobile Learningin Museums

• Giasemi Vavoula
• Deparment of Museum Studies
• University of Leicester
• gv18_at_le.ac.uk

2
Overview

• Introduction
• What is mobile about learning
• Characteristics of mobile learning
• Mobile technology in museums
• Special case mobile learning on school museum
  visits
• Examples
• Case study Myartspace
• What it is and how it works
• Designing Myartspace
• Evaluating Myartspace
• Method
• Results
• Conclusions

3
What is mobile about learning?

• Mobility in physical space
• Learner is peripatetic
• Mobility of technology
• Tools/resources are portable
• Learner alternates between tools/resources
• Mobility in conceptual space
• Learner alternates between topics/areas
• Mobility in social space
• Learner moves in/out of social groups, changing
  roles
• Learning dispersed over time
• Not always clear-cut start/finish
• cumulative

4
Characteristics of Mobile Learning

• Study of learning and mobility (Vavoula, 2005)
• 15 participants kept diary for 2 weeks and
  reported 161 learning episodes
• Broad definition of mobile learning learning
  away from ones normal learning environment, or
  learning involving the use of mobile devices
• Results
• 59 of the reported learning episodes were mobile
• 49 were not in home or office
• Most learning was to enable activity (40) and/or
  solve a problem (15)
• Only 5 of mobile and 10 of non-mobile learning
  was related to a curriculum
• Conversation was the main learning method of
  mobile learning (45mobile and 21 non-mobile)
• Mobile learning involves more activity and
  interaction than non-mobile

Unfamiliar location
Personally relevant
Informal
Conversational
Active
5
Mobile Learning
Museum Learning

• Unfamiliar location

• Importance of orientation/physical context

• Personally relevant

• Personal context

Unfamiliar location

• Informal

• Informal, free-choice

Personally relevant

• Conversational

• Converse with co-visitors, curators, artists
  social context

Informal

• Active

• Active choice of focus, route, resources,
  interactions

Conversational
Theres something there!
Active
6
Mobile Technology in MuseumsWitschey et al.
(2006), Museums in Transition.
extend and expand the way visitors interact with
the museum and with one another

• Uses
• Instant information access
• Customisation
• New communication networks
• Participation and personal expression
• Making science accessible
• Technology as a tool
• Learning about learning

Camera is live and the female has laid five
eggs!
7
Special case supporting school visits

• Known issues
• Visits often isolated from classroom work
• Learning is a cumulative process involving
  connections and reinforcement among the variety
  of learning experiences people encounter in their
  lives at home, during schooling, and out in the
  community and workplace (Dierking et al. 2003)
• making the links between school and museum
  learning explicit, genuine, and continuous
  affords real opportunities for school students to
  have enjoyable learning experiences in both
  settings. (Griffin 2004)
• Making the visit personal and relevant
• Static displays, generic labels
• Structuring inquiry learning. Children need
  specific support in
• planning appropriate investigations
• managing investigations
• interpreting results
• (de Jong, 2006)

? Design linked pre, on, and post-museum visit
learning experiences
? Personalise interaction with exhibits
? Design inquiry-led museum learning
8
Example 1 Collect! at the London ZooHP Labs

• Mobile camera phone application
• Barcode signs outside animal enclosures
• Personalised web page

OHara et al., 2007
9
Example 1 Collect! at the London ZooHP Labs

• Interesting findings
• Barcode signs mixed blessing
• Engaging with content
• Significantly more collected than viewed
• Video gt Audio gt Text
• Provides additional views of exhibits
• Content consumption
• Move between viewing live animal and content
• View on the spot view during transitions view
  at quiet, comfortable location
• Synchronised viewing with friends
• Sharing device
• Groups split up and come back together to share
• The effect of the technology
• Child in charge, responsible for phone
• Choice content pull rather than push

• Collecting important in itself
• Competition who has collected the most
• Completing collections
• Additional value of hard to get or personally
  favoured content
• Importance of adding specific item to collection
  greater than importance of accessing that item
• Web site
• Adds value its published
• Sense of achievement
• Basis for further social interaction at home and
  elsewhere
• Chance for reflection

OHara et al., 2007
10
Example 2 Gidder Groups in Digital Dialogue

• Pilot with High school students at Astrup
  Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo
• Pre-visit students work with information in
  group wiki spaces and select works that they will
  explore more deeply at the museum
• Visit students use mobile phones to blog - and
  label - experiences, impressions, and
  conversations to the wiki
• Post-visit groups use blog, labels, and other
  resources to interpret selected artworks,
  presentation of wiki spaces to class
• http//www.intermedia.uio.no/display/Im2/Gidder

11
Case Study Myartspace

• Service on mobile phones for enquiry-led museum
  learning
• Aim to make school museum visits more engaging
  and educational
• Museum test sites
• Urbis (Manchester)
• The D-Day Museum (Portsmouth)
• The Study Gallery of Modern Art (Poole)
• About 3000 children during 2006

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Case Study Myartspace (now OOKL)
Teacher sets learning task
Handout phones
Logon
Phone training
Recap learning task etc.
Share / present
Explore museum
Example gallery
13
Designing Myartspace
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Bridging technology activity

• For MyArtSpace
• Design mobile phone application and associated
  web portal
• AND ALSO
• Design 3-stage learning experience (classroom
  museum classroom/home)
• Workshops involving designers and software
  engineers AND ALSO teachers, LEA reps,
  educational consultants, museum educators
• What activities do we want the students to
  perform?
• How could these activities be structured into a
  sound learning experience?
• What happens in the classroom and what in the
  museum?
• Does the same thing happen in every
  classroom/museum, with any teacher/students? Can
  the teacher customise to match her teaching
  style, objectives, background, and time
  constraints?
• The design of the learning experience must go
  beyond the design of the technology, with clear
  purpose for the teaching and learning

Vavoula et al., 2007
15
Bridging learning spaces

• Learning experience ?? interactions in different
  spaces
• Physical space (e.g. museum)
• Virtual space (e.g. web portal)
• Personal space (e.g. mobile phone)
• How much of the experience on each space? When?
  Where?
• Danger draw visitors attention on virtual space
  at the expense of the rich physical space ? do
  not immerse in one space at the expense of the
  others!
• Preparing yet another space on which students can
  interact and learn should be done with respect
  for the already available spaces.

16
Bridging contexts museum, classroom, home

• Opportunity for connected learning experiences in
  the classroom, the museum and at home
• Through constructed artefacts that transfer
  automatically between contexts
• Through continuation of learning in both formal
  and informal contexts
• Learning is cumulative, and learning experiences
  should be connected across formal and informal
  contexts.

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Bridging technologies

• Do not digitise and mobilise for the sake of
  it
• Use mobile technology where it brings the most
  value e.g. for data collection in the museum
• Then bridge it to technologies used in other
  parts of the experience e.g. the exhibits,
  installations and printed media in the museum,
  the ICT suite at school
• To decide what type of technology to use where,
  break down experience into activities then for
  each ask
• What will be the location?
• What are the Human Factors?
• What technology is already available?
• What are the technical requirements for the UI?
• What is the cost of transition from this activity
  to the next one?

18
Evaluating Myartspace
19
Evaluation at three levels

• Micro level users experience of the technology
• Usability
• Utility of functions
• Meso level users learning/educational
  experience
• Cognitive learning
• Breakthroughs
• Breakdowns
• Macro level impact on practice
• Appropriation of new technology unexpected and
  envisaged educational use
• Organisational issues

20
Evaluation in three stages

• Users expectations
• Users actual experience
• Expectations reality gaps

21
Evaluation throughout lifecycle
Technology robust enough to support full user
trial
Service deployed long enough to assess impact
micro meso macro
design implement
deploy
22
Myartspace evaluation results

• Micro level usability issues
• Appropriate form factor
• Mobile phone is familiar and popular with this
  age group
• Collecting and creating items (photos, sounds) is
  an easy and natural process
• Mobile phone connection
• Text annotations of photos/audio recordings
• Integration of website with commercial software
  (e.g. Powerpoint)
• Minor usability problems

23
Myartspace evaluation results

• Meso level educational issues
• Supports wide range of curriculum topics
• Including literacy and media studies
• Encourages meaningful and enjoyable pre- and
  post-visit lessons
• Encourages negotiation and active choice
• Teacher preparation
• Balance collection on-site and processing
  in-classroom
• Tools for collaboration

A student can effectively process 5-10 items
during a single post-visit lesson
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Myartspace evaluation results

• Macro level organisational issues
• Museum appeal
• Student engagement
• Museum accessibility
• Museums costs
• Purchase phones
• Train staff
• Support staff
• School costs
• Teacher personal time
• Cover-teacher
• Museum fees
• Need to pass the cost to students/parents ?
  danger of exclusion

25
Myartspace now OOKL

• http//www.ookl.org.uk/
• Commercial service released by The
  Seahttp//www.the-sea.com/
• Currently runs at
• Kew Gardens
• Sheffield East CLC and Sheffield Museums and
  Galleries
• Liverpool Campion CLC
• Firstsite in Colchester
• Abraham Moss City Learning Centre, Manchester

26
Conclusions

• Technology is a means, not an end
• What do you want to support and what are your
  goals for the visitor experience (e.g. support
  schools pre-, on- and post-visit learning)
• Know your visitors what technology do they use
  daily and how?
• Introducing new/unfamiliar technology may
  discourage extensive use and distract from visit
  objectives
• Taking advantage of visitor technology reduces
  costs for museum
• Inform your visitors what does your technology
  offer to them?
• They wont use it unless they know about it!
• Continuous evaluation
• Keep what works and improve/discard what doesnt
• Learn from others
• Budget realistically
• Staff costs
• Technology maintenance/upgrades
• Moderation
• User support
• Be aware of teacher requirements
• Support with technology use outside the museum
• pick up and go

27
Bibliography

• Sharples, M., Taylor, J., Vavoula, G. (2007). A
  Theory of Learning for the Mobile Age. In R.
  Andrews C. Haythornthwaite (eds.) The Sage
  Handbook of E-learning Research. London Sage,
  pp. 221-47.
• Vavoula, G.N. (2005). WP4 A Study of Mobile
  Learning Practices. MOBIlearn deliverable D4.4.
• Witschey, W., Parry, H.J., Maurakis, E., Hagan,
  D., Werner-Avidon, M., Howarth, C., Pohlman, D.
  Dodsworth, C. (2006). Museums in Transition
  emerging technologies as tools for free-choice
  learning. Gyroscope Inc., http//www.gyroscopeinc.
  com/News/articles/MuseumsInTransition.pdf
• Dierking, L.D., Falk, J.H., Rennie, L., Anderson,
  D., and Ellenbogen, K. (2003). Policy Statement
  of the Informal Science Education Ad Hoc
  Committee. Journal of research in science
  teaching, 40(2), pp. 108111.
• Griffin, J. (2004). Research on Students and
  Museums Looking More Closely at the Students in
  School Groups. Science Education, 88(Suppl. I),
  pp. S59-S70.
• de Jong, T. (2006). Computer simulations
  Technological advances in inquiry learning.
  Science Education 312, pp. 532-533.
• OHara, K., Kindberg, T., Glancy, M., Baptista,
  L., Sukumaran, B., Kahana, G. Rowbotham, J.
  (2007). Collecting and Sharing Location-based
  Content on Mobile Phones in a Zoo Visitor
  Experience. Computer Supported Cooperative Work,
  16(1), pp. 11-44.
• Vavoula, G.N., Sharples, M., Rudman, P.,
  Lonsdale, P., and Meek, J. (2007). Learning
  Bridges a role for mobile learning in education.
  Educational Technology Magazine, XLVII(3), pp.
  33-36.

Thank you