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-What’s Next? Part II The Need for Internal Transformation

My first post슠 on this topic promised to examine some of the reasons for museum educations over-identification with formal education.슠 A number of folks have offered thoughtful comments, both on this blog site and on various museum educator groups on LinkedIn.슠 I took away three sets of ideas from these comments. 슷슠슠슠슠슠슠슠 Some writers feel…

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…

Museum transformation – who has the clout?

The museum social media networks have been buzzing lately with discussions about the nature and role of museums in the 21st century. Inspired by tweets and posts by Nina Simon and Robert Stein among others, museum folks on social media have been contributing to substantive슠conversations about the key questions museums should be asking and the…