Open Forum

Hi everyone,

As I posted in my introduction, I am the administrator of the Educator Resource Center at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. I would love some of your ideas on what a resource center for educators should look like in the 21st century. Right now we are very traditional in our resources: books, CDs DVDs on shelves, poster kits and large art connection trunks. The museum has recently hired a Chief Information Officer and we are just beginning to compose our technology goals. I would love to know what your museums are doing to reach out to educators. What works for you and your patrons? And what do see developing over the next few years.

Right now I feel heavily invested in purging resources that have seen little use in recent years. Our space is limited and we want to use our space wisely in ways that are relevant to educators today. The resource center was developed about ten years ago, but without a focus towards the fast developing world of technology.

Our patrons are traditional classroom educators as well as homeschool parents, community group leaders, Sunday school teachers, master gardeners, social service advocates, health care professionals and private tutors. They work in educational or training settings and want to make connections to our collection. Most of our patrons are within a few hours driving distance; but we want to explore the possibilities of an online presence.

I welcome all ideas and input.

-------------------------------------------
Joanne Suther
Administrator Educator Resource Center
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Kansas City MO
-------------------------------------------

Joanne,

What a great opportunity you are taking to reimagine the Nelson Atkin's Art Museums resource center for educators. Reaching out to and gathering ideas from museum folks about what a future-oriented resource center for educators might be is a great start. I think one of the greatest challenges will be imagining what is possible in a resource center that gets well beyond an image driven by the classroom and school and also not being limited by what feels most pressing to educators at this moment.

Be sure to find lots of ways to expand your thinking. Look into the literature on "learning cities" and Elizabeth Merritt's work on future trends in education. Bring together some folks from in-and-out of your museum including from a variety of learning settings to imagine possible futures for serving educators who are active across a range of learning environments. Asking educators what they want is important; I believe they will have even richer input with great questions shaped by out-of the box thinking. One exercise I do with museum staff around learning in their museums is to ask them about their view of the learner they intend to serve, in this case, the educators-classroom, homeschooling parents, community group leaders and Sunday school teachers, etc. Articulating this image surfaces lots of assumptions and opportunities. Planning for this image of the learner-educator fills in a range qualities your users you want to serve and can guide many decisions. This is a great opportunity for experimenting! Wishing you and your team great good luck, and have fun.

Be well,

Jeanne  

-------------------------------------------
Jeanne Vergeront
Minneapolis MN
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Original Message:
Sent: 12-20-2014 12:52 PM
From: Joanne Suther
Subject: Resource Centers in the 21st Century.

Hi everyone,

As I posted in my introduction, I am the administrator of the Educator Resource Center at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. I would love some of your ideas on what a resource center for educators should look like in the 21st century. Right now we are very traditional in our resources: books, CDs DVDs on shelves, poster kits and large art connection trunks. The museum has recently hired a Chief Information Officer and we are just beginning to compose our technology goals. I would love to know what your museums are doing to reach out to educators. What works for you and your patrons? And what do see developing over the next few years.

Right now I feel heavily invested in purging resources that have seen little use in recent years. Our space is limited and we want to use our space wisely in ways that are relevant to educators today. The resource center was developed about ten years ago, but without a focus towards the fast developing world of technology.

Our patrons are traditional classroom educators as well as homeschool parents, community group leaders, Sunday school teachers, master gardeners, social service advocates, health care professionals and private tutors. They work in educational or training settings and want to make connections to our collection. Most of our patrons are within a few hours driving distance; but we want to explore the possibilities of an online presence.

I welcome all ideas and input.

-------------------------------------------
Joanne Suther
Administrator Educator Resource Center
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Kansas City MO
-------------------------------------------

Joanne,

This is a great opportunity indeed. 

As Jeanne has mentioned thinking about your current patron's needs is a great place to start. Also, reaching out to non-traditional audiences like people with Alzeimer's or Dementia, PTSD, or Autism will strengthen your impact and help make this resource center an integral and highly valued community-wide center for learning and research. This may in turn attract funding from unconventional sources. Programs such as the Liverpool Museum's House of Memories are a great example of this. 

http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/learning/projects/house-of-memories/
http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/about/mediacentre/2014/dementia-app-wins-top-award.aspx
http://ccn.upenn.edu/chatterjee/anjan_pdfs/Chancellor_ArtTherapy_AD_JAD.pdf 

Additionally, looking at the accessible and inclusive information delivery technologies and innovative ways to provide the information will widen your reach at the same time as fulfilling the museum's obligations for accessibility and inclusivity. 

Greater access can be achieved by providing the same information in alternative formats e.g. accessible pdfs downloadable from your website, captioned video, digital tablet, Braille, Large Print, tactile drawings, audio description and at different levels of complexity. A great resource is the Universal Design for Learning website http://www.cast.org/udl/.


Good luck,

-Ruth


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Ruth Super
Institute for Human Centered Design
Boston MA
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Original Message:
Sent: 12-23-2014 11:15 AM
From: Jeanne Vergeront
Subject: Resource Centers in the 21st Century.

Joanne,

What a great opportunity you are taking to reimagine the Nelson Atkin's Art Museums resource center for educators. Reaching out to and gathering ideas from museum folks about what a future-oriented resource center for educators might be is a great start. I think one of the greatest challenges will be imagining what is possible in a resource center that gets well beyond an image driven by the classroom and school and also not being limited by what feels most pressing to educators at this moment.

Be sure to find lots of ways to expand your thinking. Look into the literature on "learning cities" and Elizabeth Merritt's work on future trends in education. Bring together some folks from in-and-out of your museum including from a variety of learning settings to imagine possible futures for serving educators who are active across a range of learning environments. Asking educators what they want is important; I believe they will have even richer input with great questions shaped by out-of the box thinking. One exercise I do with museum staff around learning in their museums is to ask them about their view of the learner they intend to serve, in this case, the educators-classroom, homeschooling parents, community group leaders and Sunday school teachers, etc. Articulating this image surfaces lots of assumptions and opportunities. Planning for this image of the learner-educator fills in a range qualities your users you want to serve and can guide many decisions. This is a great opportunity for experimenting! Wishing you and your team great good luck, and have fun.

Be well,

Jeanne  

-------------------------------------------
Jeanne Vergeront
Minneapolis MN
-------------------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: 12-20-2014 12:52 PM
From: Joanne Suther
Subject: Resource Centers in the 21st Century.

Hi everyone,

As I posted in my introduction, I am the administrator of the Educator Resource Center at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. I would love some of your ideas on what a resource center for educators should look like in the 21st century. Right now we are very traditional in our resources: books, CDs DVDs on shelves, poster kits and large art connection trunks. The museum has recently hired a Chief Information Officer and we are just beginning to compose our technology goals. I would love to know what your museums are doing to reach out to educators. What works for you and your patrons? And what do see developing over the next few years.

Right now I feel heavily invested in purging resources that have seen little use in recent years. Our space is limited and we want to use our space wisely in ways that are relevant to educators today. The resource center was developed about ten years ago, but without a focus towards the fast developing world of technology.

Our patrons are traditional classroom educators as well as homeschool parents, community group leaders, Sunday school teachers, master gardeners, social service advocates, health care professionals and private tutors. They work in educational or training settings and want to make connections to our collection. Most of our patrons are within a few hours driving distance; but we want to explore the possibilities of an online presence.

I welcome all ideas and input.

-------------------------------------------
Joanne Suther
Administrator Educator Resource Center
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Kansas City MO
-------------------------------------------