Mock Multi-Modality and Interactive Media Proposal for Museum and Welcome Center
Below will be images and text that explains the steps I took to create a mock proposal for a museum and welcome center that were wanting to make their establishment more accessible and interactive. This was for an school assignment at Full Sail University.
My proposal for the Osceola County Welcome Center and Museum
My name is Ashley Argo, and I am an Instructional Designer. Below is my proposal and research and thoughts concerning interactivity, multimodality and how these could benefit the Welcome Center and Museum.
Answers to questions
What can be done with the existing displays to make them come to life for self-guided tourists and local visitors? Add interactive stations, or games, for anyone who wants to participate in them. Why? Fun experiences lead to investment, when then leads to finding meaning in the task. This certainly could lead to greater desire to learn and understand concepts and subjects.
How can the written narrative in the displays be conveyed simultaneously to visitors who only speak English or Spanish? Audio recordings of the text can be read aloud in either language. Multiple headphones could be made available and utilized if needed.
Without regard for budgetary constraints, what technologies could be utilized to make a self-guided tour more engaging than the current exhibits? Interactive stations that have iPads or similar devices where you can select which placard, or item, you would like to know more about. You could choose the language and watch a short interactive video about the item, or time in history. This would allow the user to navigate to items, or facts, that interest them, without having to go in any particular order. The visitors are in charge of their own learning structure. At the end of each video, a short one, or two question quiz, would follow the video in order to help them recall the information to increase the likelihood of the information making it from working memory, to long term memory. This audio-visual interactivity and modality have been shown to increase positive engagement and knowledge retention (Zhang, 2005).
What technologies/experiences could be used to make a self-guided tour more engaging than the current exhibits, but on a limited budget and with minimal revisions to the current displays? A video before they are let into the exhibit area. This way they are walked through, briefly, the history and major events of the area. This may decrease the cognitive load by essentially briefing them for what they were about to see. That way, at a glance, they may not even have to read every placard, in order to understand what they were looking at; they already saw a little bit and heard it on the video. This video could be in English or Spanish or subtitled.
The research
While researching on the topic of interactivity, I found a couple of articles that stood out in explaining why technology, and the interactivity that they can bring, are amazing tools to have for learning. The first point I would like to bring up is society’s reliance on technology. “The reason to consider users ‘technology dependence behavior is active and sustained status of technology usage which can be described as users’ cognitive engagement. Engagement can be represented by intrinsic interest, curiosity, focused attention, concentration and absorption in a task” (Fan et al., 2016). This tells me that in order to engage a learner, you have to learn about them and their generation to understand what’s important to them and what tools they are used to using in life. Use the technology they are using, and this may increase their engagement and intrinsic desire to learn.
“The statistically significant differences in the marks compared between the year before, implementing the learning objects, and the year after implementation show that the use of learning objects can have a positive influence in assessment results of students” (Keiller et al., 2022). This is a good example of adapting to new technology and then it making a difference for the new generation of students. For the sake of newer generations coming into learning facilities, we must be adaptable to technology and how we can use the technology to create interactive learning that they respond to.
“The concept of ‘interactivity’ has been gaining increasing interest as we are entering an ‘always-on’ society where people can interact anytime and anywhere” (Fan et al., 2016). I believe this is true, not only for schools and corporate trainings, but in museums. This tells me that using and understanding different modalities and technology, that the demographics for your establishment are using or interested in, is an important in learning, and will increase engagement and retention.
The proposal
Interactive Stations
Each exhibit will have a touch screen device, that show videos to teach about the item or person that that exhibit is presenting. In these learning module, video and audio would illustrate what the learner would need to know and even give a short quiz at the end to help solidify the new knowledge into their mind. The learner would have many options to choose from as to what specifically they would like to learn about from the current exhibit. This gives them the opportunity to personalize their learning tailor it to what interests them.
Audio
For those who may not speak English or Spanish, audio narration in your specified language is only a button away. Headphones can be provided for those that need them. The learner can carry the headphones with them from the start of the tour, and through Bluetooth technology, simply press the narration button at each exhibit they wish to learn about.
I understand there are budget constraints and not everyone has the means to afford such an undertaking. So, I would like to add as my third proposal a less expensive and less time-consuming route for elevating the learning in the museum.
Video
A video at the start of the tour or before the group is allowed into the exhibit area to guide themselves, would go over the main events and history of the county, demonstrate how some of the animals lived and what they sounded like, and take the learner on a virtual journey before stepping foot on the exhibit floor. Then, once they do, they will be prepared and prepped for what they are seeing in the displays. The video could be in Spanish or English or subtitles could be used if needed.
Interactivity, audio, and audio-visual, are all wonderful modalities to use together or separately. The increase learning and can promote intrinsic learning, which is perfect for self-guided tours.
References
Fan, L., Liu, X., Wang, B., & Wang, L. (2016). Interactivity, engagement, and technology dependence: Understanding users’ technology utilisation behaviour. Behaviour & Information Technology, 36(2), 113–124. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929x.2016.1199051
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Keiller, L., Alblas, A., Foiret, J. R., & Keiller, A. V. (2022). Interactive learning objects as a solution to challenges in basic medical science teaching. African Journal of Health Professions Education. Retrieved from https://web-s-ebscohost-com.oclc.fullsail.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=8&sid=28382ec5-42ed-441e-9848-74c0dcb15da1%40redis.
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