I’m thrilled to be the latest writer featured in the “Meet a Museum Blogger” series on Jamie Glavic’s Museum Minute blog. In it, I give some background on why I started this blog, and how grateful I am to the online community of museum professionals for sharing your thoughts, experiences, and opinions in a public forum.
During last week’s broadcast of The Kojo Nnamdi Show, art critic Tyler Green referenced a question that’s been floating around museums for nearly two decades: “Well, if people can see the images online, will they need to come to the museum?” It’s okay to groan if you’ve heard this one before. Green’s answer: We’ve seen an increase in attendance since museums have started putting their collections online, therefore these efforts—at least indirectly—have encouraged more people to visit and see art firsthand for themselves. So why won’t this question die?
Today’s post is a great example of how Twitter has changed (and vastly improved) my information gathering about technology projects. I recently put out a call for information about how museums are handling the various tasks associated with tablets—everything from where you store them securely to how you charge them and synch the content on all of them at the same time. I was also interested in reviews of iPad cases that incorporate a mechanism (e.g., strap or handle) for one-handed operation and for showing the screen to others (e.g., a small group of students in a gallery).
A Storify roundup of highlights from this year’s American Alliance of Museums Meeting in Baltimore.
A woman struggles to keep her eyes open and her mind alert during a tour of an art museum. A woman’s eyes grow wide and light up as she makes a personal connection with a sculpture in that same museum. Why the difference? According to a new ad from AT&T, it’s an HTC phone running Facebook Home (an app that fills the home screen with a steady stream of Facebook posts) that makes all the difference.
The story of this woman’s museum experience caught my attention. But I’m an art lover, a museum educator, and a social media geek. What does the rest of the (perhaps less-invested) world think of this TV commercial? I turned to the social Web to find out.
Today’s Museums & Mobile event (the sixth in a series of online conferences) featured case studies from museums around the globe and some excellent food for thought. Here are my 6 key takeaways.
What outcomes are you hoping to achieve with social media?
Are your social media practices engaging online communities to their greatest potential?
How do you know if you are achieving your goals?
How can you take your social media initiatives to the next level?
These four key questions were explored during the “Engaging Visitors with Social Media” workshop I presented at the IMLS WebWise Conference (March 6, 2013).
Social media practitioners from local museums and arts organizations gathered during Social Media Week DC for a lively discussion about the value of social media to our institutions. You can find a full recap, including presentation slides, in the Storify archive.
Last week I had the pleasure of organizing an event for Social Media Week DC with three experts in social media and learning. Fahad Hassan, Joan Le, and Darren Milligan represented a diverse perspectives on the topic: Fahad from the edtech provider community, Joan from her view as a high school science teacher using social media extensively with her teenage students, and Darren from the view of museums and other organizations creating resources and experiences for educators to use in their teaching. We were joined by a chatty group made up of roughly half educators and half people looking to reach and serve educators.
You can find a full recap, including presentation slides and video, in the Storify archive.
On Digital Learning Day (February 6, 2013), the Verizon Foundation and its partners hosted a Twitter chat for educators and learning organizations to share ideas and best practices, ask questions, and learn about the latest digital tools and tech-based resources available. I created a Storify archive of the highlights of the discussion that I found most relevant to museum educators looking to support teachers and learning through technology.
