ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
*****************************************************************************

Chuck

Interesting result:

According to Rajani, “Fundamentally, the problem was that you
don’t want visitors to a hands-on science museum to have one hand limited by
holding a device.”

A number of years Alan Friedman at the New York Hall of Science developed an
audio tour for our hands on exhibits an solved this problem by suggesting
you press pause, release the device (it could be hung from the neck with a
strap), do the activity and when finished press pause again to continue the
tour. The description then picked up with a discussion of what the visitor
should have seen and done. So there really should be no limitation if the
visitor has proper instructions.

Martin

Martin Weiss, PhD
Senior Scientist
New York Hall of Science
mweiss at nyscience.org
cell   347-460-1858
desk 718 595 9156

On Tue, Oct 4, 2011 at 4:38 PM, Chuck Howarth <[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
> institutions.
>
> *****************************************************************************
>
> Hi, Paul.  The Exploratorium did a research project on that topic several
> years ago using PDA's.  We at Gyroscope included a summary in a report we
> wrote about technology in museums.  Here's an excerpt:
>
> Evaluation of the project showed mixed results. Visitors enjoyed using the
> devices and many were willing to
> commit the time to try out the suggested activities at the exhibits. At the
> same time, however, the devices were
> shown to cause social isolation and to interfere with visitors’ use of the
> exhibits. Rakhi Rajani, a researcher
> with HP Labs in Palo Alto, a partner in the proof-of-concept studies,
> indicated that the video screen was
> distracting, the devices were cumbersome and the small screens not
> compelling, and there were problems with
> training visitors in how to use the devices. According to Rajani,
> “Fundamentally, the problem was that you
> don’t want visitors to a hands-on science museum to have one hand limited
> by holding a device.”
>
>
> The excerpt is from a report titled Museums in Transition, available at
> http://www.gyroscopeinc.com/articles/MuseumsInTransition.pdf
>
> Chuck
>
> >
> > To clarify, my interest is in how to utilize apps in a hands-on museum
>  setting (specifically a science museum) in which we are also asking
> visitors to actively/physically engage in exhibits.  Currently developed
> apps for the most part in museums are being used as a high tech variation of
> the "audio tour".
> >
>
> Chuck Howarth, Vice President
> ____________________________________
>
> G Y R O S C O P E I N C
> 283 Fourth Street, Suite 201
> Oakland, CA 94607
>
> tele:   510.986.0111
> web:  www.gyroscopeinc.com
> blog:  http://museums-now.blogspot.com
> ____________________________________
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

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