Describes a unit on local history developed through the classification of projectile points which may be gathered on a field trip or viewed at a local museum. Suggestions for starting the unit and illustrating the nomenclature of projectile points are provided. (JM)

The annual Detroit public school's art exhibitions, held for the past 46 years at the Detroit Institute of Arts, are part of a long and lively tradition of cooperation between the museum and the city schools. The program is described. (RM)

The use of the museum as an educational institution can be traced as far back as 500 B.C. in Babylon, but the highest evolution of its role, as opposed to that of "artifacts storehouse," is in the American system of museum management today. (MB)

Article described Project "Turn-On," which took place at the Cloisters in New York City, designed to introduce children and teachers in District 6 in upper Manhattan to the beautiful and unusual "neighborhood" museum that became the focal point for active learning in many areas. (Author/RK)

The new Milwaukee Art Center provides 90,000 square feet of undifferentiated exhibition space on three main levels, each interconnected with a vertical circulation spine. (Author/MLF)

The Sixth Floor museum in Dallas, Texas, is dedicated to the memory of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The museum's success as a learning/instructional environment may be explained through a theory of learning and instructional design based on three components: authentic presence, collective design, and sacred connection. "Authentic…

This paper describes the collaborative work between an art historian/curator and a visual artist exploring the often trouble relationship between artists and curators. The common idea emerging from both perspectives was that of the museum, both as an image and an institution. The paper examines the history of the museum as an institution and how…

This paper discusses how museums, adventure programs, and discovery activities can become an intrinsically differentiated gifted curriculum for gifted learners. Museums and adventure programs are a forum for meaningful learning activities. The contextual characteristics of effectively designed settings for learning activities can, if the…

This is the proceedings of the seventh annual Museums and the Web conference which took place March 19-22, 2003. MW2003 was the premier international venue to review the state of the Web in arts, culture, and heritage. The formal program consisted of two plenary sessions, eighteen parallel sessions, 35 museum project demonstrations, dozens of…

Using the same data, which could come from local databases or external sources, such as the Web, virtual museum designers can build different hyperspaces. It is possible that visitors would find some of them more useful than others. Virtual museums designers should be equipped with a tool by which various hyperspaces for virtual museums can be…

This paper explores issues of social context and interaction between digital and physical museum visitors, using as a focus of discussion the "City" project, itself set within a larger interdisciplinary project called "Equator." The paper looks at collaborative environments that span different media, in particular handheld…

MiLE (Milano Lugano Evaluation Method) is an innovative method for evaluating the quality and usability of hypermedia applications. In short, an inspection with MiLE requires the following steps: (1) selection of the relevant portion of the application; (2) selection of the abstract tasks that are relevant for the intended user scenarios; (3)…

As museums and educators struggle with the challenges of presenting their material in a digital format, many overlook the application that has spearheaded the development of virtual reality for the average consumer: 3D realtime game engines. These 3D game engines offer greater versatility, usability, maturity, simulation, and codebase than most…

Since the World Wide Web became in 1994 the first new mass medium since television, online learning design has evolved at Internet speed, taking in less than a decade what it took exhibit design over a century to develop in sophistication. Although virtual exhibits consisting of pictures and text are still common, educational Web designers…

Continuous, formative evaluation, from inception to completion, with rapid revisions, was key to the successful development of Kids Design Network(KDN) by the DuPage Children's Museum (DCM). Although a thorough evaluation plan was developed at the beginning of the project, it soon became apparent that additional strategies were necessary to insure…