Download - New tools for new museums
“New tools for new museums”
Giulia Bebi, Flaviano Fanfani
“Terza Cultura” Soc. Coop. Spin off Unifi, Innovative Start up
University of Florence Natural History Museum
Modena, Aula Magna Palazzo dell’Università 6-7 Dicembre 2013
Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia Dipartimento di Ingegneria “Enzo Ferrari” ICOM UMAC European Academic Heritage Network Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena
Libri di testo? Forse sì, forse no … Parliamone! Milano, 29 settembre 2011, Centro Congressi FAST
Since 2006, the Natural History Museum has built a network of
relationships and partnerships, some with unusual partners for
museums (i.e. bus company, shopping center). This has led to build a
series of offers and opportunities open to a very different audience of
adults, families and schools.
Partnership
Most of these are activities
carried with “traditional” tools
(conferences, guided tours,
laboratories, exhibits and so on)
Libri di testo? Forse sì, forse no … Parliamone! Milano, 29 settembre 2011, Centro Congressi FAST
MuseoBus: a bus that a network of 6
museums provide for free for pupils in
order to visit one of them
Between science and
art. Conferences in
collaboration with
Superintendence of
Cultural Heritage
Some exemples…
Chirotour: an educational
interactive tour in Italy, with
theatrical setting (caves,
houses, bats and bat-boxes)
and activities for families.
Libri di testo? Forse sì, forse no … Parliamone! Milano, 29 settembre 2011, Centro Congressi FAST
From 2009 onwards, using problem-solving strategies, we have placed
an emphasis on active participation.
In particular, multimedia games (using Web 2.0 technology) were
designed in order to achieve higher goals and bridge the gap
between the world of museums and schools and institutions.
The birth of new kind of Educational Tools
This starting point has led to two creative collaborations,
one between the Natural History Museum of Florence and
the Regione Toscana: the MUSEsplorandO Project (The
Garden of Wonder and Explorers of Time).
The other is the Giglio & Fiorenza Games Project, a
joint effort of the Natural History Museum and
Portaleragazzi.it, an educational website sponsored
by Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze.
Libri di testo? Forse sì, forse no … Parliamone! Milano, 29 settembre 2011, Centro Congressi FAST
Libri di testo? Forse sì, forse no … Parliamone! Milano, 29 settembre 2011, Centro Congressi FAST
How we worked
MUSEUM STAFF
Regione Toscana NETRIBE Group
School
Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze SIDEWAYS Group
Experimentation
The Garden of Wonder
Let’s have a look…
It ‘s a 3-D, multiplayer, online
educational game. This
game allows players/learners
to design, build, manage, and
develop a botanical garden,
recovering green space
surrounded by a western city.
Recuperating green space
allows the inhabitants of the
virtual city to increase the
level of welfare, according to
the principles of sustainable
development that constitute
the basis for a stable, mature
relationship between us and
nature.
On first access the player
choose a character to play with,
his/her dress, and his/her
nickname.
Then it begins the designing
phase of the Garden. Many
different tools are available for
planning spaces
Player must then study the
plants chosen (their
characteristics, where they come
from, the care they need), and
perform the correct actions to
plant them and follow them
during the different seasons.
But how to get information? There is
a tool immediately useful:
The “Book of plants”.
Its consultation will help player to
see which plants will be available
and their characteristics
How to get the plants? The
multiplayer platform is just the
“Market of plants”. Players will be
able to buy and / or swap them
with other players that they’ll
meet, using the chat.
Slowly the Garden comes to life,
the player can add more plants as
well as facilities to offer to virtual
museum visitors (such as dining
outlets, laboratories and
greenhouses)
Finally, each player will have its own
Blog (Diary of the Garden), where to
collect and exhibit the various
phases of the work.
The player will see its project come to life,
even if "virtually“…
A game without a fixed point of arrival but
infinitely playable, continually changing
and redesigning the Garden form time to
time
Explorers of Time
Let’s have a look (2)…
It’s 2-D, online, multiplayer
game . Immersed in ancient
times, classes playing this
game get in touch with the
world of fossils. They do their
research, after which they
recover the fossils, using their
findings to create their own
museum exhibition. Eighteen
different scenarios are
provided to give students,
interacting with each other,
the opportunity to create an
original Museum of
Paleontology.
The first step, again, is to
choose a character to play
with, his/her dress, and
his/her nickname.
Then, the player enters the
museum and has to go to
look for the studio/library
to begin his adventure
Within the studio/ library,
the player must find a
key to open a box
containing old fossils
Once the old box is
opened the player hase to
choose one fossil. Using
the computer (in the menu
on the right) it has to find
the information on the
fossil and deduce the
continent from which it
comes.
The player then moves
to the excavation area.
The steps of the work
will reproduce the real
ones. Then, he/she’ll go
back to the museum
Back at the museum the
player enters the studio
and go to the computer
to study the findings
Correctly answering the
questions posed by the
computer, player will be able to
identify the set of fossils
excavated and to which Era
they belong. In case of difficulty
he can use the "Catalogue of
Living Beings", a set of cards
describing all the major
features of the 180 animals that
are in the game.
With the “lift of the time”
then player will travel in
one of the rooms in which
a diorama can be set up.
He/she’ll have to be
careful to choose the
right Era and the right
continent
With the reconstructions of the
animals he/she will then create the
diorama. Each animal can be
magnified and rotated. The player
can place even more subjects of to
the same animal in order to give the
idea of the pack.
The more players participate, the
more halls of the museum will be
set up. The museum will be
complteted when 18 player will
work on it at the same time
(multiplayer stage). Each player
can then visit each of the rooms
created by other players and
interact with them through chat
Giglio & Fiorenza Games
Giglio & Fiorenza are two characters who, along with Filo, lead pupils to
discover the world of museums, with specific regard to natural history
museums. The tools developed for the project are both traditional and
multimedials
A video, "A museum to understand the nature",
introduces the children to the knowledge of the
“museum’s world”
The deck of cards
allows children to
step into the
shoes of a
museum staff
struggling with an
exhibition to be
studied (based on
the findings and
the services
available)
Giglio & Fiorenza Games
Simple, online, flash-games complete the project and allows pupils to
play toghter, and reflect, on the theme chosen by the teachers
Just an exemple…FaceGame
The game, currently used in the classroom from three years, is really a useful tool for a project on human biodiversity.
Young children have fun mixing the elements that constitute a human face: the overall shape, the eyes, mouth, nose, and hair.
Students get a “hands-on”, understanding how diversity is appearance because of all the different possibilities in combining features; no two people can ever look alike.
Libri di testo? Forse sì, forse no … Parliamone! Milano, 29 settembre 2011, Centro Congressi FAST
What about……
Enjoyment, Inspiration, Creativity? Action, Behaviour, Progression? Knowledge and Understanding? Attitude and values? Skills?
When we started these projects, we were convinced that we would be able to thoroughly analyze the results and evaluate the success by following these guidelines but…
Libri di testo? Forse sì, forse no … Parliamone! Milano, 29 settembre 2011, Centro Congressi FAST
Difficulties
Presently, the Museum of Natural History
does not have sufficient human and
financial resources to undertake a relevant
evaluation programm of these Projects
(questionnaires for teachers, for museum
staff etc..)
Tools and games are used exclusively by the children whose
classes have adhered to these projects.
Libri di testo? Forse sì, forse no … Parliamone! Milano, 29 settembre 2011, Centro Congressi FAST
Can we tell something?
Inspiration to make something creative
Designing and making
Enabling to work with peers in new ways
Sharing of experiences
Media education
Gained facts about museum
ICT skills Thinking skills
Feel more positive about museum
Undertaking new activities
We’ve managed both Projects and these are the outcomes
the theachers referred to us…
Libri di testo? Forse sì, forse no … Parliamone! Milano, 29 settembre 2011, Centro Congressi FAST
What about….future?
We hope that these tools will been soon available to all
whereas, because today they are used exclusively by
the children whose classes have adhered to these
projects.
It would be desirable to extend the use of these games
to all different types of public museum.
Thinking about future developments, the games could
be transformed in Apps for new tools, like Tablets.
Libri di testo? Forse sì, forse no … Parliamone! Milano, 29 settembre 2011, Centro Congressi FAST
Thank you for your attention
Thanks to:
•Organisational and
scientific coordination and
secretary
•Regione Toscana
•PortaleRagazzi .it
Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia Dipartimento di Ingegneria “Enzo Ferrari” ICOM UMAC European Academic Heritage Network Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena