Museums and Interactive Virtual Learning

Allyson Mitchell, Tami Moehring, Janet Zanetis

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781000566437
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Museum Studies

Museums and Interactive Virtual Learning provides informal educators with practical resources that will help them to build dynamic digital engagement experiences within their own cultural organizations.

Presenting vignettes from experienced museum educators and end users, as well as scientific data and practical resources, the book highlights the mutual benefits that Interactive Virtual Learning (IVL) programs offer to the museum and those visiting from a distance. Chapters mirror the step-by-step process of developing reputable IVL programs and emphasize how important it is for cultural organizations to encourage cross-departmental collaboration, if they wish to ensure that their programs align with the overall goals of the organization. Providing a thorough overview of the technologies, budget, marketing and staff requirements, the authors offer a realistic depiction of the work involved in building content for digital engagement. Emphasizing the importance of assessing existing programming, the book shows how institutions can adapt content to fit a virtual format and create inclusive digital engagement opportunities that reach local, national, and international audiences.

Museums and Interactive Virtual Learning is an essential guide for professionals who are tasked with interpreting the content of a cultural organization and building lasting digital engagement opportunities. It will be particularly useful to those looking to reach diverse audiences.

1 The History and Practice of Interactive Virtual Learning in Museums

DOI: 10.4324/9781003224815-2

When planning for the future, it is often helpful to understand the past. This chapter offers a comprehensive overview of the field of Synchronous Distance Learning in museums by using a series of images and vignettes from pioneers in the field. These unique perspectives are mixed with data that introduces the role of the professional networks that were founded to support the early initiative to use fiber optics and videoconferencing tools to connect cultural organizations with distant audiences around the globe. Technologies are discussed in parallel with the opportunities and challenges faced by cultural organizations that implement IVL programs. To provide a thorough foundation of the field, the evolution in connection method, hardware, and software are presented in chronological order; a timeline concludes the chapter so that readers can move knowledgeably into the digitally driven future.

How knowledge has been transferred from educator to learner reflects the leading technologies of the era – reed to clay, pen to paper, voice to record, floppy disk to computer, hands to keyboards, fingers to tablets. Distance learning has long been practiced by formal and informal educational institutions. Technology is ever-evolving, so naturally the field of distance learning has rapidly progressed over the last fifty years to encompass both forms of synchronous and asynchronous digital engagement. Asynchronous distance learning¹ does not occur in real-time, rather it is a self-directed, web-based learning experience that allows individuals to set the pace and mode of knowledge collection. Synchronous distance learning,² on the other hand, allows for real-time interaction, between two (or more) groups or sites, through videoconferencing hardware or cloud-based applications. To add to the vast research on the use of synchronous digital engagement experiences in the field of museums this text offers a review of Interactive Virtual Learning (IVL)³ in museums by examining synchronous distance learning programs that are facilitated by cultural organizations and delivered to diverse groups around the globe.

The earliest interactive video calls occurred in the mid-1950s, with the use of expensive and cumbersome equipment; as a result, the earliest users being large fiber optic companies and the US Department of Defense. With the development of video codecs, a less expensive video calling system that used ISDN (phone) lines to transmit audio and video both ways, higher education institutions were the first able to invest in the new form of two-way video calling as well as employing bridging technology to implement delivery of courses for remote students in the 1980s. Before the end of the decade pioneering museums, International Correspondence Schools,⁴ along with rural pre-primary, primary, and secondary schools were able to use synchronous distance learning to connect educators in one location and learners spread out across miles.

Figure 1.1 Content Provider Facilitating a Live Interactive Virtual Learning Program in the 1990s, Using a Videoconferencing Unit and Available Monitors to Connect With Virtual Visitors Miles Away.

Source: Picture provided by Tonya Carriger, Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration (CILC).

Around the same time, telecom giants in the US had the idea to connect cultural organizations with primary and secondary schools for museum-focused IVL programs using these synchronous technologies. Grants funded the organization of education networks in several states, which oversaw installation of video codecs and ISDN (phone) lines in the participating schools and museums statewide. By the mid-1990s these established educational networks had personnel regularly connecting participating primary and secondary school–aged learners in their respective area with museums from around the state for IVL programs. One such network was Vision Athena, which was funded to connect primary and secondary schools with museums in the state of Indiana.

BOX 1.1 Interview With Content Provider

What were the motivations, challenges, and success in the establishing educational networks dedicated to connecting learnings to museums through Interactive Virtual Learning programs?

From the beginning, the Vision Athena project was Ameritech’s (now AT&T) need to have their services deregulated. To be deregulated they had to “give back” to the communities they served. In 1994, Vision Athena was set up as a non-profit, independent of Ameritech, serving K-12 schools, hospitals, and libraries in the state of Indiana. Ameritech provided $5 million per year for six years for the work of Vision Athena. Funds were used to set up distance learning equipment at schools, hospitals, and libraries with the governing board directing us to connect students for classes in math, science, and social studies. We provided the training and connectivity for this to happen while the organizations agreed to pay for their own network costs. While this was well and good, I had learned of a distance learning experience between an Indiana school and the Indianapolis Zoo. This concept resonated with me, and I convinced the board that we needed to include the cultural organizations in our community as content providers to provide tremendous benefits for the schools we served. This was the biggest challenge in the beginning, the switch from using the technology for what had always been done to using the technology in a novel way to engage children with the informal resources from which they could learn tremendously. It often felt that we were building the airplane as we were flying it!

After the initial six years, Ameritech gave us an additional $15 million and had, in the meantime, pulled fiber optics to all the schools the project served. After this period, Ameritech had achieved its goals with Vision Athena, but the project was far from over. Inquiries from outside the state came in, and non-Indiana museums and cultural organizations were interested in joining us. So, we decided that rather than fold up the project, we would change direction again, and in 2004 we changed our name to the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration. We began accepting content providers from beyond Indiana and created a website and a booking platform for teachers to find and reserve interactive videoconference programs. In order to support the educators, we required the content providers to provide national standards to their program descriptions. We placed pins on a world map for every connection we made outside of our state. Soon we were adding pins from other countries. CILC was on its way to being the international organization it is today with hundreds of content providers serving thousands of schools.

– Interview with Ruth Blankenbaker, former Executive Director of the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration

Synchronous technology progressed beyond codecs dependent on the use of expensive telephone lines in the late-1990s with the advent of Internet Protocol (IP) connectivity. The new connectivity protocol operated via the internet, allowing users to transfer audio and video content in real-time through a more manageable and affordable videoconferencing codec, or unit. With more feasible hardware, grants supported the build-up of educational networks around the world like the Vision Athena network in the late-1990s to early 2000s. These early networks could be found in countries like New Zealand, European nations, Canada, Turkey, South Korea, Australia, and some US states like Ohio, Wisconsin, Texas, Washington, Oregon, and Arkansas.⁵ They all strived to connect the higher education institutions, primary and secondary schools, and museums within their respective states or territories but quickly grew beyond their regional and national boundaries.

Figure 1.2 Vignette From Patty Dees, Former Distance Learning Director, Center for Puppetry Arts, About the Motivations, Challenges, and Success in the Establishing IVL Programs.

By 2009 a Wainhouse Research report estimated that an overall average of 30% of US primary and secondary schools had videoconference systems installed, many of which had made the transition to internet-based protocols.⁴ International networks followed a similar progression as the US; however, each country utilized different technologies based on funding guidelines, international jurisdiction, network availability, hardware, and intention for implementing IVL programs. By 2010, IP-based video calling was the new international norm and became a less incommodious investment to extend access to spaces of learning.

Figure 1.3 Map of the United States That Represents the Number of Primary and Secondary Schools With Videoconferencing Units Installed in 2009.

Source: Image provide by Wainhouse Research, 2009

The new millennium brought yet another advancement in synchronous distance learning with the development of desktop (or cloud-based) applications for videoconferencing platforms. This allowed anyone with an internet connection, webcam, and microphone to have the ability to participate in scheduling or joining a video call. Users began to favor web-based and desktop video calling applications rather than the high-end video codecs. This ushered in a plethora of new videoconferencing companies featuring a cloud-based solution. Ultimately, the use of videoconferencing units faded as the cloud-based videoconferencing platforms provided a similar quality of broadcast at a much lower cost.

Figures 1.4 & 1.5 Examples of an At-Home IVL Broadcast Environment Designed With Personal Furniture, Two Monitors, Webcam, Pop-Up Greenscreen, Borrowed Books and Container From Their Child.

Source: Images taken for publication by author, Allyson Mitchell.

As the need for larger videoconferencing units and bridging technology diminished, so did the educational networks that were initially necessary in coordinating the technology installation and managing connection between institutions. Only two of the original educational networks remain in the US, one currently named Connect to Texas and the other the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration, formerly Vision Athena. Similarly, there are several international educational networks driven by a similar mission such as Connected North based in Canada and Virtual Excursions, based in Australia. Those that remained are part of a global network that now primarily focuses on supporting the production and promotion of live Interactive Virtual Learning programs designed by cultural organizations for online communities of all ages.

It is important to recognize how the progression of these educational networks parallels the evolution in synchronous distance learning hardware and software. While these educational networks have lessened in number, they remained dependable organizations for the small group of virtual museum educators using videoconferencing technologies to extend institutional reach to a global audience. With technology progressing so quickly, virtual museum educators were able to gain professional development to learn more about advancements in hardware, software, and online pedagogy. This was especially true in the mid-2010s, when formal and informal spaces of learning that...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• List of boxes
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 The History and Practice of Interactive Virtual Learning in Museums
• 2 The Market and Audience for IVL in Museums
• 3 IVL Broadcast Environments Physical and Virtual Set-Ups
• 4 IVL Program Creation
• 5 Staffing and Scheduling
• 6 Marketing IVL Programs
• 7 Funding and Budgeting for the IVL Initiative
• 8 Connecting to Diverse Audiences
• 9 How Virtual Experiences Can Impact Learning
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index