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Archives & Museum Informatics info @archimuse.com |
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Hands OnlineMartin Freeth, Science World Main
Session: Interactivity
Inspired by the Exploratorium, the Bristol Exploratory pioneered hands-on
science in Britain. At the time this was the only interactive kind of
public education about science. Of course, on television BBC Science
in London and the BBC Natural History Unit based in Bristol lead the
world in serious science and nature programmes, but theirs were all
passive entertainment. There were few links with traditional museums.
Now, with media convergence, interactivity is coming to Bristol in a
big way. In Science World, the Exploratory is embracing multimedia,
and in Wildscreen World, an electronic ARKive will make footage of endangered
species available throughout the world. Media convergence will turn
both traditional television and traditional education upside down by
linking the world and by giving people real choice through interactivity.
But how will this affect museums and science centres? Will there be
any point in coming to buildings? Will an on-line virtual world do just
as well? I shall suggest that a combination of real and virtual worlds
will be extremely powerful educationally. If museums keep ahead of the
frontier and recognise what they are good at, they will be the jam in
the sandwich: the sweet emotional experience which makes the intellectual
bread digestible! But it is not good enough just to tack web sites onto
museums and add internet cafes to science centres. I shall attempt to
present examples of combinations of real science, hands-on exhibits
and on-line and off-line interactive multimedia which are only just
now becoming possible. |
