The Secret Lives of Digital Museum Resources and Collections: Teaching Practice and Interactions with the Smithsonian's Learning Lab

合作项目“博物馆的秘密生活”旨在进一步了解博物馆数字学习平台如何使教育从业者在实践中激活数字化博物馆物品的教学潜力。这项研究将通过对教育工作者使用学习实验室的深入案例研究来解决这个关键问题。学习实验室是一个数字平台，可以访问来自史密森尼博物馆、主要研究中心、国家动物园和其他来源的数百万资源，用户可以通过这个平台创建具有广泛互动功能（如测验、注释和分类活动）的学习收藏。该平台在其范围、内容、定制工具、专业发展的持续促进、作为一个明确为学习设计的平台和作为开放教育资源的地位（在使用时完全免费）方面都是独一无二的。该项目旨在了解教育工作者在特定环境下如何体验学习实验室的设计和功能，以及对博物馆和学校的数字平台开发和教学实践的潜在影响。该研究将探索学习过程、结果和学生参与的类型，这些都是由平台的教育用户随着时间的推移所促进的，以及平台、博物馆教育实践和教师方法之间的复杂影响。通过更好地了解平台在实践中的使用体验，研究结果将有助于网站的持续发展和对用户的潜在支持机制。将采用混合方法；主要的重点将放在定性方法上，并使用定量分析来调查与博物馆资源和藏品的使用有关的趋势。研究方法将包括对学习实验室数据的统计分析，对将学习实验室作为实践一部分的教育工作者进行的在线调查，对史密森尼工作人员的焦点小组/访谈，以及对使用该平台的教师进行深入的定性研究。深入的定性研究将旨在更好地了解教师如何将平台的独特功能作为其实践的一部分，调查如何将博物馆物品和收藏品翻译和解释为教育用途。通过这些方法，本研究将探索利用博物馆数字学习平台进行基于实物和藏品的学习的独特能力和局限性，并将反思如何通过意识到这些不断发展的观点来为博物馆实践和数字平台设计提供信息。

The collaborative project 'The Secret Lives of Museums' aims to further understand how museum digital learning platforms enable educational practitioners to activate the pedagogical potential of digitised museum objects in their practice.The research will address this key question through an in-depth case study of educators' uses of the Learning Lab, a digital platform providing access to millions of resources from the Smithsonian's museums, major research centres, the National Zoo and other sources, with which users can create learning collections with a wide range of interactive features (such as quizzes, annotations and sorting activities). The platform is unique in its scope, content, tools for customisation, ongoing facilitation of professional development, continuing evolution as a platform explicitly designed for learning and status as an open educational resource which is completely free at the point of use. This project aims to develop understanding of how the Learning Lab's design and features are experienced by educators in particular contexts and the potential implications for digital platform development and pedagogical practices in museums and schools.The research will explore learning processes, outcomes and types of student engagement facilitated by the platform's educator-users over time and the complex impacts between the platform, museum educational practices and teachers' approaches. Through better understanding experiences of the platform's use in practice, the findings will contribute to the ongoing development of both the site and potential support mechanisms for its users.A mixed methods approach will be adopted; the main emphasis will be on qualitative methods, with quantitative analysis used to investigate trends relating to the use of museum resources and collections. Research methods will include statistical analysis of Learning Lab data, an online survey for educators who have used the Learning Lab as part of their practice, focus groups/interviews with Smithsonian staff, and in-depth qualitative research with teachers using the platform. The in-depth qualitative research will aim to better understand how teachers are using the unique features of the platform as part of their practice, investigating how museum objects and collections are translated and interpreted for educational use.Through these approaches, the research will explore the unique capacities and limitations associated with object- and collections-based learning using museum digital learning platforms, and will reflect on how museum practices and digital platform design can be informed by awareness of these evolving perspectives.