Slides from presentation at iSay event "The Shape of Things"

1. VGC and museum learning
Giasemi Vavoula
University of Leicester
gv18@le.ac.uk

2. Learning
 Historically accounts of learning evolved:
 Behaviourist accounts: teacher has active, direct role
and controls pace, sequence and content.
 Cognitive accounts: cognitive structures constructed by
individual learner
• Trivial constructivism: construction of „correct‟ representations
• Radical constructivism: knowledge in the construction
• Postmodern constructivism: knowledge in the social, not in the
individual

3. Learning
 Piaget‟s socio-cognitive conflict theory
 Contradiction between current understanding and
(social) experience in the world  disequilibrium 
person questions beliefs and tries out new ideas.
 Vygotsky‟s socio-cultural theory
 Learning and development take place in dynamic socio-
culturally shaped contexts; are mediated by tools and
signs; and lead to the internalisation of social
interactions.

4. Learning
 Social-constructivist learning:
 The appropriation of socially derived forms of
knowledge that are not simply internalised over time
but are also transformed in idiosyncratic ways in the
appropriation process (Palinscar 1998)
 Occurs through processes of interaction, negotiation,
and collaboration (ibid)

5. Social Constructivism
 What it means for education (Palinscar 1998):
 Active students, explaining ideas to one
another, discussing disagreements, cooperating to solve
complex problems
 Teachers participate in the design and facilitation of
these activities
 Assessment is dynamic, providing prospective measure
of performance, indicating developing abilities, and
predicting future individual performance

6. Social Constructivism
 Resonance with museum learning / visitor studies literature
 Visitors‟ social agenda: motivations to attend to both social and
exhibit contexts (McManus 1987)
 Social interaction facilitates experiential learning by helping learner
become conscious of and reflect upon experience (Litwak 1992)
 Visitors actively negotiate exhibit meaning through talk with
companions (Silverman 1990)
 Cohesive, intimate visitor groups read more (labels) and talk more at
exhibits (McManus 1988)
 “Museum communications [are not] made to an individual … They are
made to distinctive groups of people and the behaviour of these
groups affects the individuals within them” (McManus 1988, p.43)
 “Designers are a part of the communication situation at exhibits and
… a part of a social situation in which people pass and construct
messages to each other” (ibid p.40)

7. cognitive
engagement academic
non-academic
Theorising
deep learning
Applying
Relating
Explaining
Describing
surface learning
Note-taking
Memorising teaching
Learner Learner method
passive active
“Good teaching is getting most students to use the higher
cognitive level processes that the more academic students
use spontaneously” (p. 58) (Biggs 1999)

8. Pedagogy 2.0
 “[allows] learners … the freedom to decide how to engage
in personally meaningful learning through
connection, collaboration and shared knowledge building”
(McLoughlin & Lee)
 Changing conceptions and forms of:
 Content
 Curriculum
 Communication
 Process
 Resources
 Scaffolds
 Tasks

9. Critical success factors
 To enable significant pedagogical change through
Web 2.0 integration (Cochrane 2012):
Pedagogical integration of technology into course
and assessment
Lecturer modelling of pedagogical use of tools
Create supportive learning community
Appropriate choice of technology
Technological and pedagogical support
Sustained interaction that facilitates
ontological shifts for all involved, including
reconceptualising the roles of
teachers, learners and technology

10. emotional, sensory-perceptual,
cognitive engagement focused (Falk et al.
2010), goal-oriented (Bitgood
engage
Interpreting
2010), expert visitor (Simon
Synthesising 2010)
un-focused (Falk et al.
Analysing 2010), stimulus-oriented
(Bitgood 2010), casual visitor
Discussing
focus
(Simon 2010)
Touching
Taking photos
Looking/
Capture
listening visitor
Visitor Visitor experience
passive active
Good visitor experiences get most visitors to use the higher
engagement level processes that the more focused visitors
use spontaneously

11. Visitor Generated Content (What)
(Who) (How) (Where) (When) Media Type
Individual Author / create On- Before Text Keywords/tags
(web)site
Group - self- Expand / Off- During Photos/images News/events
organised augment / edit (web)site
Group - Discover / share … After Video Views/opinions
assigned
Event attendee Remix Irrespectively Audio Votes
Workshop Judge … Polls/rating Feedback
participant scales
Frequent Perform / do Code Knowledge/info
Invited Play Paper Advice
Friend … … Questions
Casual Real/virtual
objects
Stakeholder Messages
… Performance/
actions
Games
Context /
location
…

12. Conclusion
 Weave VGC into the fabric of visitors‟ social
context
 Scaffold and embed into visiting experience
 Align with visitors‟ and institutional social
agendas