Trends in Museum Education: Technology
While some museums have looked at technology with a skeptical and weary eye, others are embracing the shift and are creating unique experiences that encourage a young and emerging generation of museum-goers.
For those institutions more open and willing to experiment with the role of technology at their venues, technology can present a myriad of new opportunities for curators to create unique, never-before seen experiences in museums.
Regardless of opinion, it’s clear that technology in museums are not only here to stay but will be the future for many exhibits. Here are some of the most current and engaging technology trends in museum education today.
Self-guided Tour Trends in Museum Education
While self-guided audio tours have been around for quite some time, the emergence of several interactive apps that can be accessed via phone or tablet are changing the ways that people learn about exhibits.
Apps can provide both video and audio tours of an exhibit and highlight certain features of the museum that visitors couldn’t get without a guide. Detailed information and educational materials can be found through the digital interfaces, thus providing visitors with pages of pictures, text, historical background and videos that you simply couldn’t fit into a small information plaque usually found beside an exhibit item.
Augmented Reality Trends in Museum Education
Beyond self-guided tours, app developers have found more fun and technologically creative ways to engage visitors in museums. Augmented reality trends are changing the ways visitors interact with the exhibits and the people around them.
Apps like Actionbound allow users to create their own personalized tours, scavenger hunts, missions, and other educational games that can be shared with friends in museums. Teachers can create games prior to taking their classes to museums, provide each student with a device that hosts the app, and let their class off to race for all the items in a museum.
Here some exciting ways that augmented reality trends are enhancing museum education:
- QR code scanning to learn about exhibit items and objects
- Motion/gesture technology to interact with parts of an exhibit
- Fun and educational quizzes that can accompany a tour
- Apps that utilize photo-taking to engage visitors with exhibits and galleries
- Augmented reality screens that bring visitors into the action and fun
Virtual Reality Trends in Museum Education
Unlike Augmented reality trends that rely on enhancing experiences in the real world, virtual reality looks to complete transform guests’ surroundings and take them on adventures never thought possible before.
VR trends are blowing up in nearly every industry, but the museum world has a unique opportunity to capitalize on a technology that compliments much of the industry’s subject matter.
As a supplement to educating visitors on how the dinosaurs lived, museums can give their guests the unique opportunity of actually visiting the Mesozoic Era and seeing, first-hand, how these creatures interacted with each other.
What better way is there to follow up a school lesson on the predators of the prehistoric world than to introduce students to those very creatures in the virtual world?
Guests can meet canonized historic figures, stroll through ancient cities, embark on thrilling adventures through the arctic, and endure some of the most inhabited regions of the earth, all from the comfortable setting of your museum.
From science and history to art and geography, virtual reality is creating new and exciting ways for students to learn, live, and remember the experiences they share with technology.
3D Printing Trends in Museum Education
3D printers and scanners are allowing museums to bring back artifacts that have been lost to the test of time. Replicas of ancient artifacts, tools, and antiquated items of history are now making their way into museums across the world.
Scanners are also allowing visitors to view digital replicas of artifacts that would be otherwise too fragile or worn down for exposure. Additionally, museums can create unique experiences like the digital unravelling of real mummies to showcase to their guests.
Having the most current and up-to-date technology trends in museum education can play a huge role in revitalizing your museum, increasing memberships, and galvanizing a new wave of creativity in your curating team. The best way to compliment your technological-driven exhibits is by implementing the most advanced ticketing technology. ACME Ticketing provides you with easy-to-manage cloud-based servers, a comprehensive CRM, and a simple interface that anyone could navigate. Build memberships with confidence and sign up for your ACME demo today.