The Changing Role of Museum Educators: A Conversation

For some months now museum educator, consultant, and blogger Rebecca Herz and I have been exchanging thoughts on the roles and future of museum educators, mostly by email.슠 But weve also been talking about making our conversations more public.슠 Rebeccas recent thoughtful post, What Does a Museum Educator Do? (And Do We Need Them?)슠offers, I…

Museum Educators Next, Part, Part V : Bringing Informal Education to the Classroom

  In a series of posts over the past year on next steps for museum educators, I’ve expressed disappointment at the over-identification슠of museum learning resources and experiences with the methods of formal education – too many lesson plans, tests and reading assignments–all of which are fine in themselves but not our forte. One promising trend슠in슠…

Museum Educators Next, Part III: Incorporating Visitor Voices

In my first two posts regarding what’s next for museum educators (September 17슠and October 1) I promised to take a look at some of the skills educators should be cultivating슠so that they can슠contribute more effectively to the museum’s role as an슠informal space for learning and engagement.슠슠It happens that I’ve been talking with Allison Wickens,슠an energetic…

Museum Educators-What’s Next? Part I

The Summer 2012 issue of the Journal of Museum Education contains a variety of interesting articles that assess recent practice in museum education and explore potential directions for the field.슠 This in a context that슠 is both worrying and exciting: an uncertain economy; a shifting cultural landscape; debates about museum authority; the explosion of digital…

Sharing Critical Authority in a User-Generated World

Im currently reading a terrific book, Letting Go? Sharing Historical Authority in a User-Generated World, edited by Bill Adair, Benjamin Filene, and Laura Koloski.슠 Although this book is about history museums, a number of articles, especially ones by Nina Simon, Participatory Design and the Future of Museums, and Kathy McLean, Whose Questions, Whose Conversations? made…

Confessions of a Formal Education Enabler

I have been thinking for some time about museums propensity to imitate and reinforce the environments and methods of formal education. I think they need to refocus on what they do best: 슠create informal environments for learning (very broadly defined) and enjoyment. Importing a Classroom Mentality I entered the museum field from the classroom슠over 30…