Learning with Objects

06

FEBRUARY

LEARNING WITH OBJECTS

Reading No. 1

Education Collections in Museum Collections

Curator: The Museum Journal

Shane J. MacFarlane & Eileen Johnson

Reading No. 2

Staying Essential: Articulating the Value of Object Based Learning

University Museums and Collections Journal

Helen Chatterjee

Reading No. 3

From Living to Virtual: Learning from Museum Objects

Curator: The Museum Journal

Catherine Eberbach & Kevin Crowley

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IN CLASS ACTIVITY:

Object Study

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CLASS LECTURE NOTES:

Review notes from this week's class lecture

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Reflecting on the Gordon Highlanders Museum

Reading No. 1

Education Collections as Museum Collections

Shane J. MacFarlane & Eileen Johnson

"Real knowing occurs through experience and much of what we learn through experience cannot be conveyed in words"

Change in museums as collection-protection to more engaged with public education

Education collections are a widely used tool that provides visitors with an opportunity to interact with real museum objects

Education collections used for public consumption doesn’t mean they should be disposable or unrelated to displayed/protected objects

Abundant information is often available for preventative conservation relating to permanent collections, but not to education collections.

Management methods over collections policies and procedures allows museums to gain control over the collection and provides an understanding of their collection.

Management methods for educational object collections:

1. Collection theme: defines the purpose of a collection and provides boundaries—categories like subject matter, geographical location, or time period

2. Identification: serves as a baseline for interpretative purposes. Objects conforming to scope of collection while those not conforming are considered for deaccession

3. Cleaning: objects are cleaned using cleaning procedures and standards that apply to each specific item

4. Stabilization: ensuring the object is in good working order and remedying if in need

5. Cataloguing: collection objects provided with unique catalogue number. Use both inherent and attribute data to establish identity.

6. Housing and Storage: education collection objects placed into 2 categories—Education Objects & Replacement Objects

Education Objects: available for immediate public use
Replacement Objects: used to replace education object if one is broken, lost, destroyed

7. Inventory: provides a detailed account of the objects in the collection, baseline for interpretation, and assessment of conservation needs

8. Gap Analysis: surveyed the scope of the collection for current objects to create a storyline/central theme—identified gaps/holes in collection

Reading no1

Reading No2

Reading No. 2

Staying Essential: Articulating the Value of Object Based Learning

Helen Chatterjee

Lifelong learning process is "more than the acquisition of knowledge"

Re-thinking what university museums can do and how we can make ourselves essential to our host institution

Objects – enhance and disseminate subject specific knowledge—acquisition of practical, observational, inspirational skills

Exploring the value and role of touch in object handling:

1. history of touch

2. new technologies for exploring object interpretation

3. touch, memory and reminiscence

4. therapeutic approaches to touch

5. knowledge transfer in object handling—disadvantaged or underrepresented groups

Therapeutic potential of museum loan boxes to hospital loan patients

Provide medical students:
Communication skills
Methods of assessing wellbeing
Research techniques

Arts in therapeutic settings for PATIENTS can:

Reduce stress
Reduce depression/anxiety
Reduce blood pressure
Reduce pain intensity
Reduce need for meds
Reduce length of stay
Improve mental health

Asking questions during handling session:

1. Why have you chosen that object?

2. What do you think that object is?

3. What does the object feel like?

4. Can you think of any experience that might relate to this object?

5. Where do you think it comes from?

6. What material do you think it’s made out of?

Exposure to these objects resulted in an overall improvement in patient’s perception of their general wellbeing and health

Arts in therapeutic setting for STAFF can:

Improve morale and job satisfaction
Improve job retention
Increase communication and awareness
Reduce stress
Increase observational skills

Reading No. 3

From Living to Virtual: Learning from Museum Objects

Journal: Environmental Education Research

Catherine Eberbach & Kevin Crowley

"...authenticy is imparted both by the uniqueness of the object, and by the connection with the humans who give it significance"

An object’s authenticity is less essential to learning in comparison to its potential to support visitor participation

**Authenticity should include real living plants and animals as well as virtual and digital objects, which are often neglected

Museum learning is socially mediated—learn from observing, listening, talking with other visitors

“As visitors engage with museum objects and with one another, they interpret their experiences in ways that extend their knowledge about, interest in, and personal connection to the subject matter at hand.”

Museum objects are important in supporting dialogue and learning.

Visitor conversation is a critical mechanism for learning in museums

Examining how families used different types of explanation

Model and virtual plants supported more process explanations than did the living plants.

Families used more “what” process explanations with the model than the living, but used a similar number of “how” explanations with living and model plants.

Reading No 3

CLASS LECTURE NOTES

Relationship between learning and the way space is divided in museums. Way to think about how people learn and informal learning. Some people interact in all three categories.

1. Dreamers (unidentified/mystery object)—object trolley—some people enjoy not knowing, how was it made, how did it come into collection, who would have used it?

2. Deliberators (order/sort objects)

3. Decider (Find the right answer) want to know at the end that they’ve answered questions. Not challenging people to come up with own ideas, will instead want to know something concrete when they leave

4.Doers (practical activity)

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Hierarchy of how people think and learn

1. Remember (bottom)—Recognizing and recalling facts

2. Understand—Understanding what the facts mean (understanding who, what, why, biography)

3. Apply—Applying the facts, rules, concepts, and ideas (consciously building on knowledge and understanding of the visitor)

4. Analyze—Breaking down information into component parts (help people think about questions that they haven’t’ already come with..opportunity to question)

5. Evaluate—Judging the value of information or ideas (nature of evidence you’re looking at—does it make a difference if you know who created something)

6. Create—Combining parts to make a new whole (exploring something new, understanding, applying, and analyzing….visitors learn something new AND maybe you will too!)

Drawing to Learn

Shaaron Ainsworth

Drawing to enhance engagement (drawing in-situ inside a display)

Drawing to learn to represent

Drawing to reason in science

Drawing as a learning strategy

Drawing to communicate

Drawing provides a deeper understanding of things

Architecture

Engineering

Archeology

Math

Science

Various objects from the University's collection were provided for groups to observe and speculate. Each team member selected an object and was provided a few questions to spur thinking:

What do you know for certain?

What reasonable guesses can you make?

What questions would you like to have answered?

After a period of time studying the object we were instructed to cover the object and draw it from memory. Upon comparing initial drawings with the objects, it became clear that not every detail was captured, and a more in-depth drawing was necessary to understand the complete workings and characteristics of these objects.

After more detailed drawings, some of the unanswered questioned may have been answered as inner workings of the objects emerged, so too did their meanings.

In addition to observation and drawing, each group was provided with a local census during which these items would have existed and stories about the objects were imagined to correspond with individuals and families living in the past.

This activity:

Illustrated the importance of drawing to learn
Provided understanding of variety of learning methods
Involved the collaborative nature of learning (social interaction)
Engaged creativity and imagination
Involved critical thinking and analysis
Each step of the activity drew upon the previous to provide a layered experience