Modes of Engagement: Comparing 'real' and 'virtual' platforms for Holocaust learning

该项目通过互动式虚拟展览考察用户参与度，探索摄影在调解公众对大屠杀的理解中的作用。它建立在人权委员会资助的项目“摄影作为国家社会主义的政治实践”（2018-21）的成功基础上，该项目探讨了目前公众对大屠杀的理解在多大程度上受到片面依赖肇事者制作的图像的影响。这笔后续资金使我们能够确定数字干预是否可以帮助观众更批判性地观看大屠杀照片。我们在国家大屠杀中心和博物馆（NHCM）的团队和工作人员合作创建了一个虚拟的在线版本，我们的全国巡回展览“眼睛作为证人：记录大屠杀”，开创了将该项目的见解转化为数字论坛的方法，既扩大了我们的干预范围，又为学习者提供了新的模式，让他们了解照片在理解暴行历史中的重要性。除了复制实体展览的核心元素外，在线版本还添加了专门设计的虚拟教学空间：一个前厅和一个反思室，用户可以在展览开始和结束时参与其中。这些扩展了展览的内容，使用户更充分地参与到历史照片的角色中，并在NHCM教育团队成员缺席的情况下提高教学功能。这个项目包括与各种团体密切合作，以评估虚拟展览的影响：学校将提供主要合作伙伴来测试该计划，我们也将与与社区团体接触的慈善机构密切合作。这将在英国进行，并与我们在美国和德国的国际合作伙伴合作。我们的项目是开创性的，将博物馆观众研究的定性方法（问卷调查和访谈）与数字人文学科方法的创新相结合，包括虚拟展览中的凝视和运动跟踪，数字记录参观者对交互式屏幕上的照片的选择，并邀请参与者以文本形式回答虚拟展览中提出的问题。由此产生的证据将展示我们的干预措施对不同人口统计数据的影响，使博物馆能够在数字策展和教育策略的未来发展中充分利用我们的研究，以有效和合乎道德的方式吸引目标受众，以照片描述暴行和迫害受害者。他们还将支持教师和教育工作者提高新一代的视觉素养。这笔拨款将使我们能够：-与我们的博物馆和国际合作伙伴合作设计参观者问卷和采访问题，同时借鉴“背景”中概述的现有学术和实践-开发额外的资源，以支持教师围绕虚拟展览构建课堂讨论-组织虚拟展览在英国，美国和德国的国际试验，协调用户问卷，与教师进行在线和面对面的访谈和焦点小组-分析上述结果，结合从虚拟展览和互动活动中收集的电子数据，得出一个全面的评估，解决“目标”中概述的所有问题-在团队会议上与所有参与合作伙伴分享结果，并利用这些结果为未来制定具体建议，包括但不限于：将交互式和沉浸式技术引入尚未使用的博物馆-与博物馆教育工作者和教师合作，开发新的方法和教学法，以加强教育环境中数字工具的使用

This project examines user engagement with an interactive, virtual exhibition that explores the role of photography in mediating the public understanding of the Holocaust. It builds on the success of the AHRC funded project 'Photography as Political Practice in National Socialism' (2018-21), which has explored the extent to which public understanding of the Holocaust is currently compromised by a one-sided reliance on perpetrator-made images. This follow-on funding allows us to ascertain whether a digital intervention can help audiences to view photographs of the Holocaust more critically. Our team and staff at the National Holocaust Centre and Museum (NHCM) have collaborated to create a virtual online version of our national touring exhibition 'The Eye as Witness: Recording the Holocaust', to pioneer methods for translating the project's insights into a digital forum, both extending the reach of our intervention and offering new modes for engaging learners with the importance of photographs in understanding histories of atrocity. In addition to reproducing the core elements of the physical exhibition, the online version supplements them with specially designed virtual pedagogical spaces: an antechamber and a reflection room which users engage with at the beginning and end of the exhibition. These expand on the exhibition's content to engage the user more fully with the role of historical photographs, and to sharpen the pedagogical function in the absence a member of the NHCM's educational team. This project comprises working closely with various groups to assess the impact of the virtual exhibition: schools will provide the primary partners for testing the program, and we will also work closely with charities who engage with community groups. This will take place both in the UK and in collaboration with our international partners in the United States and Germany. Our project is ground-breaking in combining established qualitative methods of museum audience research (questionnaires and interviews) with innovations from digital humanities approaches, including gaze and movement tracking in the virtual exhibition, digitally recording choices visitors make about photographs on interactive screens, and inviting participants to respond textually to questions posed in the virtual exhibition. The resulting evidence will demonstrate the effects of our interventions on different demographics, empowering museums to make optimal use of our research for future developments in digital curatorial and educational strategy to engage target audiences effectively and ethically with photographic depictions of atrocity and victims of persecution. They will also support teachers and educators to improve the visual literacy of a new generation.This grant would enable us to:- Design visitor questionnaires and interview questions collaboratively with our museum and international partners, whilst drawing on existing scholarship and practice as outlined in 'Context'- Develop additional resources to support teachers in framing the classroom discussion around the virtual exhibition- Organise international trials of the virtual exhibition in the United Kingdom, United States and Germany, coordinating the user questionnaires, interviews and focus groups with teachers both online and in person- Analyse the outcomes of the above, in conjunction with the data gathered electronically from the virtual exhibition and the interactive activities, to arrive at a holistic assessment that addresses all questions outlined in the 'Objectives'- Share the outcomes with all participating partners in team meetings and use them to develop concrete recommendations for the future, including, but not confined to, the introduction of interactive and immersive technologies to museums where they have not yet been used- Work with museum educators and teachers to develop new approaches and pedagogies to enhance the use of digital tools in educational settings