Look Again
Posted by: Neil on: February 8, 2010
If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you’ll be aware that several members of the Learning Team have at different times worked with Ookls.
I was recently asked to write an article for Arts Professional magazine about our experiences of working with Ookls, which I share below. (Apologies by the way, for the rather stilted first paragraph – this was where the editor wielded the red pen most on my original article…)
Image, Using an OOKL in The Manchester Museum
Look again
New technology, when handled well, can aid interactive learning for schoolchildren in galleries, Neil Dymond-Green believes.
OOKL is a mobile phone with software that connects it to a website. Users can take pictures, write comments and record audio. The phone then uploads this content to a website. Users can manipulate image, text or voice recording into simple presentations or download them. They can read and ‘borrow’ fellow users’ content to supplement their own work. It sounds simple enough, so how does it work in practice?
The Manchester Museum has used OOKL with a range of age groups in primary and secondary schools.
One project made use of its two-way nature: a member of the secondary learning team captured images of exhibits along with information and questions, creating an interactive trail. The content, based on evidence for evolution and adaptation in animal life, was available both from the phones and from the website, giving the stimulus to extend the pupils’ research.
The second was a project with a class of 10 and 11 year olds. The aim was to give children an insight into how objects end up in museums, from taking part in a simulated archaeology dig and classifying and reporting on finds, through working with a curator to explore objects normally hidden in the museum stores and exploring conservation issues with a conservator. The process continued with children critiquing displays in galleries in both the Manchester Museum and the Whitworth Art Gallery. This culminated in the creation of ‘The Museum of Me’ – a museum of personal objects, where the children took full control of labelling, display and presenting the museum to visitors.
OOKL was an invaluable part of this process as the children could capture thoughts, ideas and analysis very quickly, supplementing writing and sketching. This was especially motivating for those more confident at verbalising ideas than writing them. The children also liked the idea that they could access their content from the website – one child independently Googled OOKL, worked out how to log in and explained it to classmates before I had a chance to. The children used the content in their final presentations on the project.
The technology has the ability to motivate pupils, support them in accessing museum and gallery collections, and extend and develop learning outside the classroom. There’s every reason to believe that this could work for other arts organisations as well. I’m sure we’ve only begun to unlock the potential of OOKL and look forward to exploring more ways to use new technology to aid learning.
We thank the following Schools for visiting The Manchester Museum between 1st and 5th February 2010
Posted by: Nora on: February 5, 2010
Image, The Manchester Museum by Night
Banks Lane Junior School
Bradley Green Primary
Breewood Middle School
Broadstone Primary
Grange Junior School
Longley Park 6th Form
New Moston Primary
Park Row Primary
Salford City College
St Charles Primary
St Marys Primary
St James Primary
St Saviours Primary
St Thomas of Canterbury Primary
The Manchester College
William Hulme Grammar
We hope all these Schools had a very enjoyable trip. If you were part of one of these visits, please feel free to comment below and let us know how your trip went.
KS2 Science Super Learning Days
Posted by: Menaka on: February 3, 2010
If you want to bring a large number of children (up to 100) and you are interested in exploring the Arctic habitat creatively using objects, why not consider one of our Arctic Super Learning Days.
These jam-packed days involve a carousel of activities for your pupils including a visit to ‘nanoq: flat out and bluesome’ a photographic exhibition by artists Bryndís Snæbjörnsdóttir and Mark Wilson, which uncovers the story of polar bears and their journey from the Arctic wilderness to the museums and stately homes of the UK.
Arctic Super Learning Days provide an opportunity for pupils to consider how living things survive in this harsh, unique and dramatic landscape. Pupils will go away with a better understanding of Arctic food webs, adaptations and the threats to this fragile ecosystem.
Cost: £6.50 per pupil for a full day session
Dates: Friday 12 March, Friday 19 March (these dates fall within National Science and Engineering Week)
To book, please contact our Bookings Coordinator on 0161 275 2630
LIMITED AVAILABILITY: this session is booked on a first come, first served basis. Book now to avoid disappointment!
Follow a Museum Day
Posted by: Louise on: February 1, 2010
Image, The Follow a Museum website
Today, Monday 1st February 2010, is the first ever Follow A Museum day.
So what is it all about and how did this come about?
In response to Bill Gates joining Twitter and gaining hundreds of thousands of followers within a 24hr period Jim Richardson of Museum Marketing came up with the idea to increase followers and awareness of Museum Twitter streams.
I’ve copied this from the Follow A Museum website;
‘Over one million people are following museums on Twitter.
What if each of these people told a friend about a museum that they enjoy following?
What if someone who hasn’t visited a museum for years was inspired to engage with art by Twitter?
What if more people used Twitter to tell museums what they think about their exhibitions?
Follow a museum day
On February 1st 2010 we want you to spread the word about museums on Twitter. ‘Just tell your followers about a museum you follow, or point them to our directory of museums on Twitter so that they can pick one for themselves.’
If you are already familiar with Twitter, and are signed up, all you need to do today is either flag up a Museum Twitter Stream that you follow, or the main website, and use the hashtag #followamuseum. Using the Hashtag will allow other Twitter users to find all these Museum related tweets and, if it becomes heavily used throughtout the day, may create a trending topic raising further awareness with all Twitter users.
It will be really interesting to see if followers to Museums increase and if this will be coupled with increased two way engagement, with Twitter users telling Museums what they think or about their recent experiences in certain venues.
I’ll be keeping my eye on the Museum Marketing blog and Tweeting some of my favourite Museum Twitter Streams, you can follow me @lsutherland and you can of course follow our Museum Twitter feed, overseen by Steve Devine, @McrMuseum. But most importantly, I’ll be trying to remember to use the hashtag #followamuseum
We thank the following Schools for visiting The Manchester Museum between 25th and 29th January 2010
Posted by: Nora on: January 29, 2010
Image, The entrance to The Manchester Museum
Beaconside Primary
Fixby Junior & Infants
Honley Junior School
Little Hoole Primary
Leasowes Primary
Malborough Road Primary School
Peak Forrest Primary
Salford City College
St Georges CE
St Lukes Primary
Johnson Fold Community Primary
We hope all these Schools had a very enjoyable trip. If you were part of one of these visits, please feel free to comment below and let us know how your trip went.
Darwin & Dads
Posted by: salmah123 on: January 27, 2010
Image, Some of the participants of the Darwin & Dad's project
During November last year myself and Anna Bunney (Curator of Public Programmes) began a short collaboration project between The Manchester Museum and a local ‘dads group’ based at Hulme Library. One of the core objectives of the project was to engage with a very specific target audience of dads including single dads, dads who may not live in the same house as their children or working dads who only spend time with their children at the weekends.
Running alongside The Museum’s Darwin Extravaganza, the ‘Darwin and Dads’ project began with an initial outreach visit to introduce ourselves and say hello to the group as well as to show off some of the objects from our collections (in this instance a wild rabbit and hedgehog). Although slightly reserved at first, the children did begin to engage with the objects and ask questions about where they came from and whether they were alive or not. The dads were also very enthusiastic and not only joined in themselves but through our support also encouraged the children to touch the objects and think about how they felt, the sounds they made and their habitats.
The group which meets on the first Saturday of the month, then arranged to attend the museum as part of our Big Saturday event in December – Polar Bear Day. Upon arrival the group was greeted by myself and Anna and taken on a brief tour of the museum before other members of the public arrived. We then went through all the activities that were available throughout the day and encouraged the group to go off and explore.
Image, Visitors in the exhibition 'Charles Darwin: evolution of a scientist'
In order to support the individual dads/parents I provided them with ‘adult prompt cards’ which included key questions, key vocabulary and a few simple activities designed to encourage them to communicate and interact with their children and the collections. Once they had taken part in the organised activities and had spent some time exploring the galleries independently, the group came together in the discovery centre to do a quick story and ‘songs and rhyme time’ which was led by the groups normal session facilitator. It was lovely to see the group feeling relaxed and comfortable enough to sit down on the floor with their children whilst surrounded by other members of the public and sing songs and rhymes, using puppets and instruments and most importantly making a good old racket! This was obviously a lot of fun so it wasn’t long before other members of the public and their children joined in too.
Due to the success of the visit and the positive feedback that the group offered we have since approached them about the possibility of extending the project and working in consultation with them on developing some ‘family backpack resources’ which could be used to support family visits on the various galleries in the museum. We are now due to meet with the group again in February to conduct a short consultation meeting regarding the type of resources they would find useful when visiting the museum on their own, any difficulties that they experienced on the last visit and suggestions on how we can make the collections more accessible to them in general. So far the project has proved to be great a success and has allowed for a high level of learning and development for all those involved. The dads and children appear to be benefiting from working alongside us and are having fun whilst gaining confidence in a new setting. We are now very excited to see where the next phase of this project will take us – so watch this space as I will keep you updated!!!
For more information about the Darwin and Dads project, please contact Salmah on 0161 306 1603 or salmah.akram@manchester.ac.uk.
Darwin’s Beagle Voyage – Pupil’s Pictures & Comments
Posted by: vicky07 on: January 25, 2010
Hello All and Happy New Year!
In November and December 09, the outreach team delivered 10 interactive Darwin outreach sessions to 272 Key Stage 2 pupils at 7 schools.
Thanks to all those we visited, for asking such interesting questions! And for sharing your follow up work with us.
Here are some of your pictures and comments below.
Thank You and Well Done!
Posted by Vicky Grant
We thank the following Schools for visiting The Manchester Museum between 18th and 22nd January 2010
Posted by: Nora on: January 22, 2010
Image, The Manchester Museum by Night
All Souls C of E Primary
Byron Primary School
Cheadle Hulme Junior School
Gatley Primary
Godley Primary
Hartley Brook Primary
Malborough Road Primary
Manchester College
Manchester Enterprise Academy
Millbrook Primary
Rosehill Primary
Sale Private Day Nursery Ltd
Salford City College
Stalyhill Primary
St James Primary
The Kings School
Yew Tree Primary
Wellfield Junior
We hope all these Schools had a very enjoyable trip. If you were part of one of these visits, please feel free to comment below and let us know how your trip went.
Who cares about factual accuracy?
Posted by: Pete Brown on: January 20, 2010
I’ve just been asked by heritage-key.com (an on-line journal about all things Ancient World) about whether as a museum educator I think there is value in ‘edutainment’, (also see this recent Independent article) with publishers and movie producers playing fast and loose with the facts, or whether traditional and more strait-laced methods are better.
Image, An archive image of The Manchester Museum. Is traditional always best?
As a long-standing advocate of ’stealth learning’ I’m all in favour of anything that stimulates people’s interest in a subject. I’ve lost count of the number of times young museum visitors have said, when asked what they’ve learned, that they were too busy enjoying themselves.
It’s true that new myths are created when artistic licence and factual accuracy come to blows but in my experience even young children understand that there is a difference between storytelling and reportage. They enjoy the thrill of mummies coming back to life while being completely aware that it doesn’t happen.
The real problem is in the subtle anomalies and inaccuracies that are harder to spot. Through our learning programme we encourage learners to be critical of all sources, including the museum and their teachers, when they are researching a subject. The more discriminating they are the less worrying ‘edutainment’ becomes. And finally… as we all know truth is often stranger and more fascinating than fiction so maybe it’s up to us to beat the dream weavers at their own game!
Bemrose School visit The Manchester Museum
Posted by: Alexa on: January 18, 2010
Here at The Manchester Museum, we often get schools and colleges from quite far away coming to see our collections and take part in the workshops and activities we run, and when we had a teacher, Joe Close, from Bemrose School in Derby ringing up and enquiring about workshops for her students, with the students finding us on google and wanting to visit, we were delighted to accommodate their request.
So, on Tuesday 15th December, a mixture of 37 Biology and Religious Studies students arrived at 10:30am to the museum, having left the school at 8am! The students from the different courses had different agendas for the visit. The religious studies students had to research for an essay comparing Evolution and Creationism, whereas the biology students were gathering information about Charles Darwin and his work for an upcoming exam in January.
Image, A visitor reading one of the Darwin newspapers from the exhibition
The students spent 45 minutes in the Charles Darwin: Evolution of the Scientist exhibition working in small teams to complete our Darwin self-guide worksheet before taking part in our Clippy Island: An investigation into Natural Selection activity. In Clippy Island, the students become a population of birds called ‘Springbeaks’ and take part in four seasons of breeding that allows the students to experience first hand how adaptations created by natural variations within a species can enable a population to change over time.
The students (and teachers) from Bemrose College seemed to enjoy their visit to The Manchester Museum. Feedback from the teachers included:
‘Excellent session, very creative and interactive’
‘The activity was kinaesthetic which was extremely engaging and effectively demonstrated natural selection’
The student’s feedback included the following comments
‘The Darwin exhibition was enchanting. I found it profound to observe Darwin’s work’
‘The activity got my brain thinking about evolution and was also enjoyable’
‘I enjoyed the museum and found some useful information about Darwin that will be useful for my revision’
Image, Students taking part in a recent Clippy Island workshop
Joe Close, and the students had planned that after leaving the museum at lunchtime so that they could spend the rest of the day in Manchester City Centre Christmas shopping, including a trip to Primark – as you can imagine, they were all excited about! We hope that the students from Bemrose College enjoyed their experience of Manchester (and the museum) and we hope to see them back here in the future.
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