New tools for new museums

“New tools for new museums”

Giulia Bebi, Flaviano Fanfani

“Terza Cultura” Soc. Coop. Spin off Unifi, Innovative Start up

University of Florence Natural History Museum

Modena, Aula Magna Palazzo dell’Università 6-7 Dicembre 2013

Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia Dipartimento di Ingegneria “Enzo Ferrari” ICOM UMAC European Academic Heritage Network Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena

Libri di testo? Forse sì, forse no … Parliamone! Milano, 29 settembre 2011, Centro Congressi FAST

Since 2006, the Natural History Museum has built a network of

relationships and partnerships, some with unusual partners for

museums (i.e. bus company, shopping center). This has led to build a

series of offers and opportunities open to a very different audience of

adults, families and schools.

Partnership

Most of these are activities

carried with “traditional” tools

(conferences, guided tours,

laboratories, exhibits and so on)


MuseoBus: a bus that a network of 6

museums provide for free for pupils in

order to visit one of them

Between science and

art. Conferences in

collaboration with

Superintendence of

Cultural Heritage

Some exemples…

Chirotour: an educational

interactive tour in Italy, with

theatrical setting (caves,

houses, bats and bat-boxes)

and activities for families.


From 2009 onwards, using problem-solving strategies, we have placed

an emphasis on active participation.

In particular, multimedia games (using Web 2.0 technology) were

designed in order to achieve higher goals and bridge the gap

between the world of museums and schools and institutions.

The birth of new kind of Educational Tools

This starting point has led to two creative collaborations,

one between the Natural History Museum of Florence and

the Regione Toscana: the MUSEsplorandO Project (The

Garden of Wonder and Explorers of Time).

The other is the Giglio & Fiorenza Games Project, a

joint effort of the Natural History Museum and

Portaleragazzi.it, an educational website sponsored

by Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze.



How we worked

MUSEUM STAFF

Regione Toscana NETRIBE Group

School

Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze SIDEWAYS Group

Experimentation

The Garden of Wonder

Let’s have a look…

It ‘s a 3-D, multiplayer, online

educational game. This

game allows players/learners

to design, build, manage, and

develop a botanical garden,

recovering green space

surrounded by a western city.

Recuperating green space

allows the inhabitants of the

virtual city to increase the

level of welfare, according to

the principles of sustainable

development that constitute

the basis for a stable, mature

relationship between us and

nature.

On first access the player

choose a character to play with,

his/her dress, and his/her

nickname.

Then it begins the designing

phase of the Garden. Many

different tools are available for

planning spaces

Player must then study the

plants chosen (their

characteristics, where they come

from, the care they need), and

perform the correct actions to

plant them and follow them

during the different seasons.

But how to get information? There is

a tool immediately useful:

The “Book of plants”.

Its consultation will help player to

see which plants will be available

and their characteristics

How to get the plants? The

multiplayer platform is just the

“Market of plants”. Players will be

able to buy and / or swap them

with other players that they’ll

meet, using the chat.

Slowly the Garden comes to life,

the player can add more plants as

well as facilities to offer to virtual

museum visitors (such as dining

outlets, laboratories and

greenhouses)

Finally, each player will have its own

Blog (Diary of the Garden), where to

collect and exhibit the various

phases of the work.

The player will see its project come to life,

even if "virtually“…

A game without a fixed point of arrival but

infinitely playable, continually changing

and redesigning the Garden form time to

time

Explorers of Time

Let’s have a look (2)…

It’s 2-D, online, multiplayer

game . Immersed in ancient

times, classes playing this

game get in touch with the

world of fossils. They do their

research, after which they

recover the fossils, using their

findings to create their own

museum exhibition. Eighteen

different scenarios are

provided to give students,

interacting with each other,

the opportunity to create an

original Museum of

Paleontology.

The first step, again, is to

choose a character to play

with, his/her dress, and

his/her nickname.

Then, the player enters the

museum and has to go to

look for the studio/library

to begin his adventure

Within the studio/ library,

the player must find a

key to open a box

containing old fossils

Once the old box is

opened the player hase to

choose one fossil. Using

the computer (in the menu

on the right) it has to find

the information on the

fossil and deduce the

continent from which it

comes.

The player then moves

to the excavation area.

The steps of the work

will reproduce the real

ones. Then, he/she’ll go

back to the museum

Back at the museum the

player enters the studio

and go to the computer

to study the findings

Correctly answering the

questions posed by the

computer, player will be able to

identify the set of fossils

excavated and to which Era

they belong. In case of difficulty

he can use the "Catalogue of

Living Beings", a set of cards

describing all the major

features of the 180 animals that

are in the game.

With the “lift of the time”

then player will travel in

one of the rooms in which

a diorama can be set up.

He/she’ll have to be

careful to choose the

right Era and the right

continent

With the reconstructions of the

animals he/she will then create the

diorama. Each animal can be

magnified and rotated. The player

can place even more subjects of to

the same animal in order to give the

idea of the pack.

The more players participate, the

more halls of the museum will be

set up. The museum will be

complteted when 18 player will

work on it at the same time

(multiplayer stage). Each player

can then visit each of the rooms

created by other players and

interact with them through chat

Giglio & Fiorenza Games

Giglio & Fiorenza are two characters who, along with Filo, lead pupils to

discover the world of museums, with specific regard to natural history

museums. The tools developed for the project are both traditional and

multimedials

A video, "A museum to understand the nature",

introduces the children to the knowledge of the

“museum’s world”

The deck of cards

allows children to

step into the

shoes of a

museum staff

struggling with an

exhibition to be

studied (based on

the findings and

the services

available)

Giglio & Fiorenza Games

Simple, online, flash-games complete the project and allows pupils to

play toghter, and reflect, on the theme chosen by the teachers

Just an exemple…FaceGame

The game, currently used in the classroom from three years, is really a useful tool for a project on human biodiversity.

Young children have fun mixing the elements that constitute a human face: the overall shape, the eyes, mouth, nose, and hair.

Students get a “hands-on”, understanding how diversity is appearance because of all the different possibilities in combining features; no two people can ever look alike.


What about……

Enjoyment, Inspiration, Creativity? Action, Behaviour, Progression? Knowledge and Understanding? Attitude and values? Skills?

When we started these projects, we were convinced that we would be able to thoroughly analyze the results and evaluate the success by following these guidelines but…


Difficulties

Presently, the Museum of Natural History

does not have sufficient human and

financial resources to undertake a relevant

evaluation programm of these Projects

(questionnaires for teachers, for museum

staff etc..)

Tools and games are used exclusively by the children whose

classes have adhered to these projects.


Can we tell something?

Inspiration to make something creative

Designing and making

Enabling to work with peers in new ways

Sharing of experiences

Media education

Gained facts about museum

ICT skills Thinking skills

Feel more positive about museum

Undertaking new activities

We’ve managed both Projects and these are the outcomes

the theachers referred to us…


What about….future?

We hope that these tools will been soon available to all

whereas, because today they are used exclusively by

the children whose classes have adhered to these

projects.

It would be desirable to extend the use of these games

to all different types of public museum.

Thinking about future developments, the games could

be transformed in Apps for new tools, like Tablets.


Thank you for your attention

Thanks to:

•Organisational and

scientific coordination and

secretary

•Regione Toscana

•PortaleRagazzi .it

Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia Dipartimento di Ingegneria “Enzo Ferrari” ICOM UMAC European Academic Heritage Network Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena