Western helps Museum London go digital

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By Adam Crymble
Thursday, April 10, 2008
In my day, all we had was a blackboard and a piece of chalk. At Museum London, the days of chalk have come to an end and the museum has gone digital, with the help of the Masters of Public History program at The University of Western Ontario.
 
 
Western Public History student Sarah Ferencz demonstrates the new Smartboard programming.
 
Arts-based programming at Museum London has been digital since September, using a technology known as Smartboard.
 
You may not have heard of it, but chances are your kids have. These computerized interactive blackboards, controlled with the touch of a finger, have popped up in classrooms across London in recent years. And with great success.
 
Now the museum hopes to transfer this success to Eldon House, the museum's historic home, which welcomes over 1,500 London area school children each year on fieldtrips. For this the museum has bought a second Smartboard.
 
Smartboards are changing the learning experience for today's students. Educators guide students through interactive puzzles, games and learning activities, using a medium that, to the students, can seem more like playing a video game than learning.
 
The museum's curator of education, Steve Mavers, has been impressed with the impact this technology has had on students taking arts-based tours at Museum London. “Students really like to get involved with it and it caters to a broad range of learning styles," he explains.
 
Students are encouraged to come up to the board and interact. New equipment such as this promotes active learning and challenges the hands-off stereotype many museums are fighting to overcome.
 
Mavers also likes that this technology isn't meant to replace educators, but to assist them. “It gives our interpreters another tool to do what they already do more effectively," he says.
 
But, before the tours could start at Eldon House, Mavers needed someone to design the games and activities for the Smartboard. For that, he turned to Western's Masters of Public History program.
 
The museum had worked with the program in the past and did not hesitate to approach Shelley McKellar, the professor who oversees the major group project her students complete each year.
 
McKellar believed Mavers' idea was a perfect fit for this year's project.
 
“This was a good opportunity for UWO Public History, as we had been moving the program towards more digital history." She stresses, “we're unique in Canada for our emphasis on digital history."
 
Eight months later, three Ontario curriculum-based modules are complete and will begin to bring London's history alive. McKellar and Mavers agree, Western students should be proud of what they have produced. Mavers asserts that “aesthetically [the programming] looks great" and the interactions created “go beyond our expectations."
 
McKellar emphasizes the importance of community involvement for Western students. “This was a win-win-win collaboration," she says.
 
The students get to show potential employers what they can do, the museum gains from the university's expertise and the London-area school children benefit from fun new interactive programming.  
 
The writer is an M.A. student at Western.  

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