Presenting the Evidence: Scottish Museums and e-learning
James Devine, University of Glasgow, Scotland
Emma Gibson, University of Glasgow, Scotland
Michelle Kane, University of Glasgow, Scotland
http://www.hunterian.gla.ac.uk/what_clicks/index.shtml

Session: Education Projects

This paper will present research currently underway in Scotland into the use and extent of multimedia resources being employed in the museums community in Scotland and their impact on users at remote locations. The paper will outline the project and provide an in-focus case study based on a visit and interviews conducted on the Isle of Barra in the Outer Hebridean Islands off the West Coast of Scotland. The Scottish "What Clicks?" project is led by Jim Devine, the Hunterian's Head of Multimedia, and will review existing and potential capability, human and technological, within the museum sector in Scotland, in the use of ICT to increase public access and resulting learning opportunities to collections. In addition, the project will produce recommendations outlining how the museum sector in Scotland can best realise the potential of ICT for e-learning. The World Wide Web and other digital means (e.g. CD ROM) offer Scottish museums the opportunity to increase access for a wide range of new audiences and to promote new learning styles. In particular, opportunities are created for study by those physically remote from museum collections - from primary and secondary schools through to community and special needs groups, to self-directed lifelong learners.