Visitors' Interpretive Strategies at Wolverhampton Art Gallery

Making Meaning in Art Museums is one of two research projects on the theme of art museums and interpretive communities. The first was published as Making Meaning 1:Visitors' Interpretive Strategies at Wolverhampton Art Gallery (RCMG 2001). Making Meaning in Art Museums 2 is the second of two research projects on the theme of art museums and interpretive communities. The Long Gallery at the Nottingham Castle Museum and Art Gallery was selected as the research site for this second study. Both studies have explored the ways in which visitors talked about their experience of a visit to the art museum-both what they said about the paintings and the whole of the visit.The research questions on which this project is based are: What interpretive strategies and repertories are deployed by art museum visitors? Can distinct interpretive communities be identified? What are the implications for the communication policies within art museums? This research is an ethnographic study, using qualitative methods.This research project was funded through a grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Boar

A study of the importance of cultural factors in the user interaction with, and the design of, interactive science and technology exhibits in museums

This research investigates the cultural factors affecting the use of interactive science exhibits including interactive science and technology exhibits (ISTEs) by visitors to science museums worldwide. Visitors bring differing characteristics and experiences to bear upon the task of using these exhibits. These affect the nature and quality of their interaction with the exhibits. This research has focused on the cultural issues, and has defined them using 10 distinct and coherent ‘dimensions’. This has been achieved by extensive review of relevant earlier research work and building on this with experimental studies with visitors and interviews with science museum experts in the UK and Thailand. Interactive science exhibits now take many forms, and therefore for scientific investigation of their use it is essential to classify them in a form which promotes research validity and reliability. This research has developed a new classification of interactive science exhibits into four classes based upon the user’s perception, cognition and the nature of the interaction. The classes are: (1) simple interaction with direct understanding; (2) simple interaction with complex understanding; (3) multiple interactions with direct understanding; and (4) multiple interactions with complex understanding. This classification was used in experimental studies of interaction with exhibits at science museums. The research methods used mixed methods of quantitative and qualitative research through three separate studies. The data collection methods were: interviews, questionnaires, and video recording observation. The findings were that not only language issues and conceptual understanding are important factors, but other cultural factors were also inter-related and affect visitors’ learning through ISTEs

Assessment and change : using verbal analysis to update criteria in the technical communication service course

Assessment is the discussion, research, and analysis of information, concluding with a value of the information discussed. This project is a qualitative analysis of a Technical Communication service course assessment calibration session held in May 2005, which was recorded. After transcribing the discussion, I am using NVivo, a data coding and modeling program, to analyze the terms, categories, concepts, processes, and abstract ideas. In addition, the paper looks at how the current paradigm for technical service courses is shifting toward electronic writing and document design. The conclusion applies the results to the ongoing curriculum and criteria assessment in English 352

Philosophical foundations of the Death and Anti-Death discussion

Perhaps there has been no greater opportunity than in this “VOLUME FIFTEEN of our Death And Anti-Death set of anthologies” to write about how might think about life and how to avoid death. There are two reasons to discuss “life”, the first being enhancing our understanding of who we are and why we may be here in the Universe. The second is more practical: how humans meet the physical challenges brought about by the way they have interacted with their environment. Many persons discussing “life” beg the question about what “life” is. Surely, when one discusses how to overcome its opposite, death, they are not referring to another “living” thing such as a plant. There seems to be a commonality, though, and it is this commonality is one needing elaboration. It ostensibly seems to be the boundary condition separating what is completely passive (inert) from what attempts to maintain its integrity, as well as fulfilling other conditions we think “life” has. In our present discussion, there will be a reminder that it by no means has been unequivocally established what life really is by placing quotes around the word, namely, “life”. Consider it a tag representing a bundle of philosophical ideas that will be unpacked in this paper

Spartan Daily, November 22, 2004

Volume 123, Issue 59https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/10063/thumbnail.jp

A small interactive science centre as a learning environment for students with severe learning difficulties: an exploration of pedagogy

This study explores the use of a small interactive science centre as a learning environment for students with severe learning difficulties and is based on extensive video footage of nine students between the ages of six and nineteen. Participants were filmed across two academic years during visits to the science centre, and in their school or college, both in their usual classes and in follow-up sessions designed by the researcher. All participants were from educational provisions designated as being for students with severe learning difficulties. Analysis based on grounded theory strategy (Glaser and Strauss 1967, Strauss and Corbin 1998) was used to explore the complexities of a learning situation that did not appear to have been studied in this way before. Systematic coding and categorisation of video data was supplemented by semi-structured interviews with the students' teachers, using video material to stimulate recall. These interviews provided a separate viewpoint for triangulation purposes and, with the video analysis, suggested an unusually high degree of independent and focused activity on the part of the students during visits to the science centre. Results have confirmed the very high level of engagement and independent activity remarked on by the teachers, both in the science centre and when a similar environment was created in school or college. The use of grounded theory techniques has permitted the formation of hypotheses, grounded in the data, and small-scale sequential and quantitative analysis has made it possible to further explore a number of these relating to pedagogical factors within the environment; notably input mode (whether this was language-based or multi-sensory) and the importance of choice and control. Implications for debates concerning teaching methods and learning environments and indirectly for those concerning the provision of more inclusive environments are discussed

Augmented hands-on: an evaluation of the impact of augmented reality technology on informal science learning behavior

This evaluative comparison study was designed to determine the extent to which the application of augmented reality technology increases realization of a hands-on exhibit device\u27s intent and how augmented reality technology might influence family learning behaviors and facilitate the integration of the experiential and interpretive aspects of an informal science learning experience. The study was conducted at The Franklin Institute Science Museum during the summer of 2010. Twenty families interacted with an exhibit device called Be the Path in both its traditional hands-on condition and a novel augmented condition. While the sample size was too small to generate statistically significant differences between conditions, the resultant qualitative analysis of the family learning behaviors suggested that the families who encountered Be the Path in its augmented hands-on condition played longer and at a higher level of quality than those who encountered the hands-on device without augmentation. All of the families who experienced Be the Path in its augmented condition surpassed the families who experienced the non-augmented device on at least one measure. Furthermore, many of the families who encountered the augmented reality surpassed their counterparts in the non-augmented device group on two or more measures. These positive findings suggest that additional investigation is warranted in order to deepen understanding of augmented reality technology\u27s potential to influence family learning behaviors around hands-on exhibit devices in ways that could create and support the development of skills needed to maximize the impact of informal learning--in science museums and elsewhere