1. ‘Online Cultural Consumers and Museums’
Kings College, London
14 November 2013
Communicating the Museum Learning Experience Online:
Reflections on young people’s use of social and mobile
technologies in a school trip
Koula Charitonos
Institute of Educational Technology
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koula.charitonos@open.ac.uk

2. © AustralianMuseum
Source: http://australianmuseum.net.au/image/Museums-are-the-best/
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3. Motivation
• Strong interest in gaining an understanding on how best to support
school trips to museums
• Observation 1: School trips are an important means of introducing
young people to museum collections and may have a long-term learning
impact and influence perceptions
• Observation 2: Gap between an experience that one has during a visit to
a museum as a leisure activity and during a school trip
• Observation 3: Museums can be complex spaces for children/young
people (i.e. museums are filled with diverse artefacts, too much
information and use of highly intellectual language)
• Observation 4: On-going problem for museums (and schools)3 is how to
support and develop interpretation skills in young people

4. Horizon Report 2012: Museum Edition
• People expect to be able to work, learn, study, and connect with
their social networks wherever and whenever they want
• The abundance of resources and relationships made easily
accessible via the Internet is increasingly challenging us to revisit
our roles as educators
• Collection-related rich media are becoming increasingly valuable
assets in digital interpretation
•
(In. Johnson, L. et al., 2013. The NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Museum Edition, Austin: Texas: New Media
Consortium)
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5. In: Digital Culture: How arts and cultural organisations in England
use technology;
ACE, AHRC, Nesta (2013) Digital R&D Fund for the Arts Report
“the majority of cultural organisations regard digital technologies as
essential to marketing, preserving and archiving, and operations”
•growing audience size
•reaching new audiences
•increasing engagement
Learning?
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6. PhD Thesis: An investigation into the use of social and
mobile technologies in school trips to museums
• investigate how social and mobile technologies shape young
people’s practices and learning processes and facilitate making
meaning for learners, in and across settings
Focus on:
• incorporate new tools to pedagogical practices
• a research design to allow a learner to switch between different timescales
and different contexts i.e. offline/online; individual/social; and
formal/informal
• user-generated content (i.e. online posts, pictures, video)
• peer-led communication (face-to-face, online) (esp. social aspects of
interpretation)
• embedding reflective practices in encounters with objects (with Twitter)
• value the use of resources that are generated by learners themselves
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7. Research Question
How does the use of social and mobile technologies by
young people before, during and after a school visit to a
museum contribute to a student’s learning trajectory and
facilitate meaning making processes?
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8. Why
?
• most popular micro-blogging service
• research has shown that it can be used as an educational
tool (Elavsky et al. 2011, Junco et al. 2010)
• synchronous and asynchronous attributes
• simple interface (web and iPhone application)
• updates in users’ status in UK can be carried out using
SMS
• not a ‘distractive’ technology (?)
• popular among museums
11
© Guardian 9.3.2010

9. Study:’Fight and Protest for your rights’
• Museum of London
• Year 9 History class (n=29)
• KS3 Scheme of Work ‘Equality and Beliefs’ (‘Civil Rights’)
• Pre- and Post-visit Classroom activities
© Museum of London
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10. Design: Trajectory of class activities
ACTIVITY CLASSROOM/
SETTING
ICT SUITE
OBJECT
E-LEARNING
MUSEUM STUDIO/MUS
EUM
CLASSROOM/ INTERVIEW
ICT SUITE
ROOM
BUS
Communication
Communication
Create a
within, between and
Communication
Reflect on the
within the
short clip to
beyond institutions
upload pictures
within the institution activities and the
institution
reflect on
(face-to-face and
start presentation
(face-to-face and
overall
(face-to-face
the
online)
online)
experience
and online)
experience
TOOLS/R
ESOURC
ES
pen/paper
PCs
online platforms
iPhones
MoL website
textbooks
images
PEOPLE
individual/
in groups
exhibits
labels
iPhones
Twitter/tweets
PCs
iPhones/camera
images
pen/pencil
online platforms
recorder
(Twitter/Vuvox)
worksheet
museum map
in groups
in groups
time
Flip
camera
online platforms
(Twitter/Vuvox)
images (from
museum)
tweets
paper
post-its
iPhones
pen/paper
recorder
Twitter-stream
pen/paper
meaning maps
individual
individual/
in groups
individual
(diagram adopted by Steier & Pierroux, 2011)
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11. Data collected
Pre - visit
Visit
pre-test questionnaires
observation (notes,
pictures, video)
entry meaning maps
online posts on Twitter
online posts on Twitter
pictures/video by
participants
observation (notes,
video)
Post - visit
post-test questionnaires
exit meaning maps
online posts on Twitter
individual videos (bus)
group audio files
classroom observation
worksheets
video collages on Vuvox
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interviews

12. Pre -Visit: Live communication between institutions
• Logistics
– MoL trial twitter account @MoLtrial
– Social Media Manager at the MoL in Q&A
– students in school’s ICT suite
– #MoLtrial
• Objectives:
–introduce the students into new forms of
communication with the museum/new channels of
communication (i.e. YouTube, Website, Twitter)
–achieve a gradual familiarisation of the participants
with the Museum of London
–prime the students for the museum experience
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13. Pre -Visit: Live communication between institutions
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14. Pre -Visit: What do the participants say?
Interviews (n=7 students)
Q: What did you think of our communication with the museum curator
over Twitter before the visit?
Preparation for the visit
“I thought it was really good, because, you haven’t been
there before and you get to ask questions about what is it
like, what is it gonna teach us, and he answered back to us
straight away. So I thought that was a good idea, coz you
get to know about the museum before you get there and so
you know what you like, going to learn, sort of what is going
to be like...” [interview, Maria]
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15. Pre -Visit: What do the participants say?
‘Bringing an expert’ in the classroom
“...is good to have contact with someone of higher
knowledge and not just the teacher’s opinion...It’s good to
see someone else, not random, but someone else that
knows their subject perfectly and see their views on what
you’ve said” [interview, Kevin]
“He could give you the points first hand, he knows what it is,
he works for the museum [...] he knew what he was talking
about [...]” [interview, Neil]
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16. Pre -Visit: What do the participants say?
Preference for synchronous type of communication
“The essence is that museums are big and like, they are
unapproachable, while Twitter it made them more
approachable and like friendly [...] Twitter made it a bit more
like approachable and like...and it was easy to ask stuff [...] If
it was just, like, email, then I"d have thought a bit, like...you
know when you are emailing someone, but it"s not instant
messaging or anything, so it"s like...kind of thing that you are
talking to a wall sometimes...” [interview, Nana]
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17. Pre -Visit: What do the participants say?
Teacher
‘interesting’, ‘different’, ‘useful’ and ‘really valuable’
“it was a really good introduction to them [students] going
there [museum]”
“They found it exciting because it was live...they were doing
it at the same time and they were able to talk to someone
who wasn"t there (...) than just having me there talking to
them!
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18. Visit: Museum of London
• Visit Logistics
– 8 groups in threes/fours
– worksheet
– recorder with a microphone
– iPhones (3G/3GS)
– Twitter/TweetDeck and specific
hashtags
• Learning Objectives:
– Investigate an inquiry
– Select and interpret objects
– Communicate knowledge and understanding to an audience
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19. 19
Charitonos, Koula; Blake, Canan; Scanlon, Eileen and Jones, Ann (2012).
Museum learning via social and mobile technologies: (How) can online interactions enhance the visitor experience? British
Journal of Educational Technology, 43(5) pp. 802–819.

20. Visit: Interview Data
Past visits
“Normally when you go to museums,
you just go to the museum, go
around and you’re thinking ‘it’s
boring’ and spend so little time in
each place is, like, really felt
puzzled...” (Neil)
“ It was boring, really boring...we
didn’t have much freedom, you were
not allowed to go anywhere, to touch
anything, to interact...” (Sara)
This visit
“...it was a lot more enjoyable
because it was really focused
and you could actually learn
about something...” (Neil)
“...compared to this museum you
could learn in your own pace and
you own way, more personal
learning...and it was good to get
your point across...” (Sara)
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“[...]We were really into it...with that everyone stayed on
target...” (Maria)

21. Visit: Interview Data
• (Invisible) Interaction among participants
“when we saw the tweet about the carriage...we
wanted to go and find it!” (Kevin)
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22. Visit: Interview Data
• (Invisible) Interaction among participants
“You know about the Black Panther? Cos when we were at the
museum I tried to find it, I couldn’t find it...and then I saw the pictures
and ‘Ohhhh, that’s what it is!’ So, then I learnt about this thing” (Nana)
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23. Visit: Interview Data
• creation of an ‘opinion space
“you answered some things on
iPhone and other people got to
read it, so they would (faithful)
your opinion and (faithful)
the difference... (Maria)
“I like that...cos you go to see
other people’s opinions...I mean,
like, if you look at something, as
I look at something, I see
different things, so you can
see how they interpret it.”
(Nana)
“...some people don’t have the confidence to put the hand up and talk
about what they’ve seen. With the technology...I saw a lot of people
write down some really good ideas and maybe the use of
technology could help them get their point across” (Sara)
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24. Visit: Interview Data
• creation of an ‘inter-connected space’
[..] I like the fact that you were
staying in touch with
everyone, even though they
We were in groups, but I was
feeling connected with other
groups, so we were all
were not there...People tweeting
about what they were seeing and
you kinda know what is
there, without being
there...”(Nana)
sharing ideas over
internet...we were really into
it...” (Maria)
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25. Visit: Interview Data
• ‘archival’ space
“Without technology you wouldn’t
have remembered it and looking
back at them when you can” (Sara)
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26. Visit: Interview Data
• Q. “Looking back at the tweets, do you see any value having
them?
• “Yeah, you see a lot of people what they thought about
different things and some bits are just comments on what
other people have put, but a lot of [name of a student]
were very detailed as well, and it really, I think that
helped me to go and find the places [...] I think at one
point the people were just saying, like, especially with the
carriage, they didn’t really READ [emphasizes] the
information that was on the [part of it, label?] they were
just putting “Oh, look there’s a carriage”.But I think, like,
other people were like “Oh, no, no, no, actually if you
read it it says this and then “Oh, then I’ll go and look at
that again [...]”
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27. Interview Data
“I remember we split into groups of three and we were
going around and we were looking at different artefacts in
the museum...and putting on twitter about what we thought
and where it would be for other people to (comment and
come and look), what we thought it would be interesting
and emmm...what we thought other people would be
interested in”
[Interview, Kevin asked to recall the visit ]
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28. Interview Data
• Q. ‘Has the use of technologies made you feel any differently or
strongly about looking at objects?’
• “Yes, it’s made me a look at something a lot differently. I
think it made me read more of the [labels] that go with it
and more of what was around [...] You see something
else in the corner of your eye and it will make you go
‘Oh, I could see something good out there and I could
put it on twitter and then it will (out of sudden) make you
read more around the museum...”
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29. Interview Data
• Do you think you behaved differently during this visit than you
normally behave in school visits?
• “I think we did, because we were trying to think of things
we could put up on Twitter [...] we were trying to think of
what we could put on and we couldn’t think of what we
wanted to say [...]”
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30. Findings
• Social and mobile technologies may be used in school
visits:
• for bringing ‘experts’ in the classroom
• for collecting questions and customising a trip
• for engaging students to participate and share their
experiences
• for facilitating interaction and negotiation of meaning
• for enhancing the social dynamics of the visit and creating
a collective experience
• for documenting, archiving and extending the experience
beyond settings and groups
• for enjoying the visit
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31. Findings
• Perceived aim of visit: finding objects that are interesting and
appealing to other students - acknowledgement of an audience
• Popular activity: Posing by exhibits and taking pictures
• Selections based on: personal interests; prior-knowledge;
serendipitous browsing; the social environment; distributing
content
• Use of tweets and pictures to resource and communicate their
meaning making in this trip
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32. Reflection
• How effective user-generated content is for museum learning? How young
people can engage with it effectively and efficiently, so that quality content –
and its curation – becomes a valuable resource?
• How does this shift in learning practices for students (e.g. creating, sharing
and curating multimodal content, performing to an audience, and peerreviewing) bring new ways to ‘read’ and interpret objects into play?
• Technologies should not be introduced to a learning space without
adequate attention paid to how users shape practices associated with
them
• Museum learning needs to function and integrate young people’s
increasingly visual, not text based, digital environments and practices.
• Opt for applications that students are familiar with and may become
ubiquitous part of the setting for the primacy of the object and aesthetic
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encounter to be preserved

33. Thank you!
Thank you!
Thank you!
koula.charitonos@open.ac.uk
@ch_koula
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