New Worlds, New Visions: The Interactive Revolution in Museum Programming for the Classroom
Patricia Barbanell, Schenectady City Schools, USA
Ted Lind, Albany Institute of History and Art, USA
http://www.projectview.org

Demonstration: Demonstrations 1

Project VIEW (Virtual Informal Education Web - funded by a Federal Technology Innovation Challenge) is working with the Albany Institute of History and Art and over two dozen other major and regional museums to create innovative interactive museum resources and videoconference programs that enhance and expand K-12 curriculum delivery. With a mission that states 'The Future is Now', Project VIEW has presented a variety of challenges to its the Albany Institute and its other partner Museums regarding the Museums' educational and curatorial mission in the context of electronic media and digital interactions. Working in partnership, Museum educators and curators have joined teachers and school specialists to reach beyond the walls of both the Museums and the schools as they have extended museum collections into the electronic world of interactive point to point programming and content rich pre- and post- internet experiences. In the process, both Museums and Schools are finding it necessary to rethink the 'cannon' of how they fulfill their missions. The result is an emerging program development and delivery model that both broadens the interpretive arena of museums and expands the target audience for collections, while it reshapes the construct of how schools deliver education in the classroom to include new levels of interaction with museum content providers and collections. This session includes discussion Project VIEW's development and delivery model, plus a demonstration of content rich programs and collaboratively produced museum materials being created in Project VIEW.