The Indian fair is that rare example of a government program for Indians gone terribly right. Implemented by the Office of Indian Affairs on reservations in the early 1900s, Indian fairs allowed Native people to exhibit their crops, livestock, and domestic handiwork in competition for prizes much the same way whites did at their numerous county…

Museums are indeed very painful sites for Native people, as they are intimately tied to the colonization process. The museum world has changed significantly from the days when they were considered "ivory towers of exclusivity" to today when Indigenous people are actively involved in making museums more open and community-relevant sites. In this…

The state-administered grant program authorized under the "Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA)", enacted as Title II of the "Workforce Investment Act (WIA)" of 1998, is the major source of federal support for adult basic education and literacy education programs. When "AEFLA" was authorized in 1998,…

This article describes a 3-year study of school visits to four natural history museums and addresses the research agenda with regard to out-of-school learning. More specifically, the findings focus on the "process of learning" in museums. Comprehensive data collection allowed for an analysis of patterns of guided visits, the way the…

Heejung An describes the pedagogical framework underpinning the design of an interactive Web-based HTML coding tutorial geared for novice learners attending a technical college. The author discusses the ways in which the tutorial was designed to support the learners' initial stages of cognitive skill acquisition. Of primary interest are the three…

This article examines the role of intergenerational relationships in the lives of experienced poets and writers ("soldiers") and emerging poets and writers in what the author terms Participatory Literacy Communities (PLCs). Drawing from Wenger's (1998) concept of communities of practice, the author uses data from two examples of PLCs--Black…

This paper examines some of the dilemmas that accompany the emergence of the personal voice in scholarly work, by taking a close, grounded look at the way in which these unfolded in a specific academic course. As part of the course, entitled "A cultural approach to the life cycle", students were asked to participate in a group exhibition in which…

In this article, Joanna Dunlap, Jackie Dobrovolny, and David Young describe their approach to the design of a real-world learning experience that prepares online graduate students to work as e-learning designers and specialists. Using Kolb's model of experiential learning to support their instructional design decisions, Dunlap, Dobrovolny, and…

A Water Celebration is a free one- to three-day event to entertain and educate communities about the importance of water. Celebrations organized for school children include classroom activities, exhibit areas, contests, games, and teacher networking opportunities. Celebrations for adults range from water conservation conventions to forums on wise…

This research paper advocates that there is no apparent common language among museum exhibit literature that will facilitate those wishing to develop a display. The development process of a display is the same, regardless of the items on display. To address this problem of a common terminology, the recommendations need to be developed for a model…

This sourcebook prepares students for a visit to the "Prehistoric Journey" exhibit at the Denver Museum of Natural History. The exhibit opened October 23, 1995, and offered a dramatic exploration of 3.5 billion years of life on Earth. Dioramas and "enviroramas" depict seven critical points in life's history. In addition to the chronological…

The major research question addressed by the "Exhibit Development Survey 1986" was whether major American museums were using the instructional development process to develop their exhibits. Approximately 24% of all major American museums representing a broad cross section of museum types responded to the survey. Their responses indicate that the…

Analyzes the "plaqueasos" (Chicano graffiti) in the Los Angeles area for the content, lettering skill involved, social and artistic implications, and possible educational applications. Includes description of a graffiti exhibition and related activities at the Downey Museum of Art, Downey, California. (ED)

Descriptions of 93 museum collections and exhibit centers in the United States and Canada are provided. Entries are grouped into four categories: (1) air and space, (2) natural history, (3) science and technology, and (4) special topics museums. Within each category the museums have in turn been broken down into major ones (which have lengthy…

This catalog was designed to accompany an exhibition to celebrate the bicentennials of the Northwest Ordinance and the U.S. Constitution. The exhibition, a collaborative and cooperative effort of 15 midwest organizations, including 9 universities, 3 scholarly libraries, and 3 historical societies, displayed original historical materials in the…