Mobile phones have been steadily gaining appreciation among the museum community as a versatile tool. The new generation of mobile phones allows museums to imagine a whole new range of applications, including audiovisual personal tours and live-feed broadcasting. Personal tours using mobile phones are appealing to museum educators since patrons…

Japanese mobile phones are increasingly being used as multimedia players. In response to this, some museums in Japan have introduced mobile phone audiovisual guides. This paper presents a trial run of a cross-institutional mobile phone audiovisual guide tour at Ueno Zoological Gardens and the National Science Museum in Tokyo, Japan.…

Developers of museum service systems want to know what users think about their systems and they often design questionnaires to capture users' opinions. However, there are usually serious gaps between what developers want to know and what the users really think about the system. The present research aims to develop a questionnaire that takes into…

While opinions from the general public are certainly important, opinions from the museum staff are also necessary to improve user service systems. this article introduces two groups of museum staff who have evaluated the usability of mobile guidance systems in Japanese museums. One group is the research team who used the PDA system in the National…

Portable terminals such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and mobile phones are very convenient because it is possible to use them anytime and anywhere. Portable devices can be used for efficiently supplying various modes of information ranging from text and images to and audio and movies at the user's discretion. This mode of information…

Today museum educators are playing expanded roles that contribute to institutional change. At the heart of museum education are the core values of accessibility, relevancy, and inclusiveness, which are critical for developing the museum's civic engagement endeavors. As educators practice these values in their work and pursue community engagement…

The field of museum education has advanced and adapted over the years to meet the changing needs of audiences as determined by new research, national policy, and international events. Educators from Chicago's Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum provide insight into a (somewhat) typical museum education department, especially geared for readers…

This article presents research relating to how science museum educators perceive their roles, identity, and practice. This qualitative study examines: (1) what brings museum educators to and sustains them in their profession; (2) how museum educators view their roles and work; and (3) what knowledge, skills, and attitudes museum educators identify…

Museum education and progressive education both arose at the same historical period, approximately a century ago, and share not only a common history but also common features. Both emphasize pedagogy based on experience, interaction with objects, and inquiry. They also share a social vision of serving the entire society, including underserved…

Museum education is a field of practice that is guided effectively by traditions of practice addressing museums' purposes and expected audiences, and rarely explicitly refers to the numerous models of curriculum theory that are available to guide educational practice in the school setting. But curriculum models can be useful both for describing…

This article examines how curriculum studies can inform training and development programs for museum teachers (docents, interpreters, guides, gallery educators, and so on). It focuses on the results of a year-long study done with eight museum teachers in three Canadian informal learning settings. A key aim of this research was to examine the…

This essay begins by considering museum studies in relationship to curriculum studies and new museology. The author notes that traditional museum and school learning modes have focused more on measurement than meaning, while curriculum studies and new museology urge a broader exploration of the social purposes of education. Drawing on the work of…

Informal and formal educators are scrutinizing particular representations of the world more often and asking whose voices are being heard and which interpretations concur or challenge learners' life worlds. Curriculum theory has emerged as a significant partner to theorize museum education practice to address ethics, equity, and accountability.…

Over the last two decades, the role of education in museums has shifted from being the purview of a specific set of individuals charged with creating programs and activities for school children and other visitors to being the central purpose of our institutions. This new paradigm distributes education responsibilities across the museum. Given this…

Public history is inherently pedagogical. How it is enacted has implications for civic life now and in the future. A democratic society requires forms of public history beyond those that provide recognition and affirmation of existing identities and values. A museum-based public history is needed that fosters on-going work of repair and…