Museums, learning and communication
What new possibilities and challenges does digital technology create for the way in which museums communicate knowledge?
What possibilities do digital technology and social media create for children, young people and the public’s experience and learning in and from museums?
Photo: Anthony Perritano
This field of study focuses on how museums build relationships with children and young people, schoolchildren, families and knowledge communities outside the museums. Digital media have a strong impact on society’s expectations to the museums, the public’s experience of museums and the museums' contributions towards learning and their role as institutions of knowledge. This area of research looks at the interaction between museum, school, home and different groups in society, and studies the ways in which new technologies present both possibilities for and challenges to communicating the museums’ collections and areas of knowledge in exhibitions and in digital arenas outside the museum buildings.
Examples of questions that are raised in connection with this approach to museums are:
- What is the relationship between technological innovations for collective memory and memories, identities and formation of opinions in museums?
- How are conventional approaches to and practices in curatorship and educational dissemination in museums redefined and changed, and what role does new technology play in this connection?
- How can empirical studies of new forms of museum visits, activities and learning be undertaken and which theoretical concepts ought to be developed to achieve an analytic system that can capture this?
Department of Education at the Faculty of Educational Sciences is a leading research environment in the field of museums, learning and communication. The Department together with the Faculty has its own infrastructure for conducting research into the future use of digital technology for the purposes of dissemination, collection and organisation in museums.
- CULTURAL HERITAGE MEDIASCAPES: Innovation in Knowledge and Mediation Practices (2015-2019)
- CONTACT: Communicating Organizations in Networks of Art and Cultural Heritage Technologies (2009-2013)
- MIRACLE: Mixed Reality Interactions across Contexts of Learning (2010-2014)
- OBSERVE (VisiTracker) (2013-2014)
- GIDDER (2007-2009)
- Inquiry and ICT in University Museums (2011)
Related study programmes and courses
Studies in the design and use of digital tools in learning and communication in formal and informal settings are offered as part of the Master Program Kommunikasjon, design og læring at the Faculty of Educational Sciences. Several courses are offered in English. Related subjects and study programs at other UiO faculties:
- Faculty of Humanities: Cultural Studies and Museology (Norw.)
- Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences: Design and ICT (Norw.)