Assembly has moved

The Museums Australia Education National Network Blog is now part of the MANEXUS ning.  Over the next few weeks we will migrate the important material from the blog to the MA EDNN ning blog as a record for the future.  So please go along and join the manexus ning and the ed network group.

http://manexus.ning.com/group/maeducationnationalnetwork

Sydney Crochet Coral Reef

Image courtesy of Institute for figuring

Not long ago I wrote about the Museum presenting the Sydney Crochet Coral Reef</a> as part of Ultimo Science Festival in August.

Well the Institches Collective will be in the museum this Sunday March 29 from 3-5pm running a workshop.  Wether you are an experienced crocheter who wants to be part of this global phenomena or an inexperienced crocheter, the workshop will cater for you.

To take part simply turn up at the Powerhouse on Sunday, normal Museum entry applies but this will also let you come back to workshops each month and into the exhibition in August.

All workshop participants will have the opportunity to submit completed coral pieces for possible inclusion in the exhibition.

Future workshops

April 26, May 31, June 29, July 30
3-5pm
Powerhouse Museum
Free with Museum entry

August 8th
Exhibition 10-2pm
Workshop 12-2pm
Powerhouse Discovery Centre
Cost:  TBC

Bursary reports – melbourne learning seminar

5 March 2009 at 3:45 am On behalf of Amanda Coleman

Learning Oppotunities and Museum Seminar Some time ago, in the deep dark past. I attended a seminar in Melbourne. A fellow college, Gabrielle and myself, were the resipricants of a Bursary funding us to attend the Learning Opportunities and Museum seminar down in Melbourne in September 2008. It was a fantastic opportunity that I am very gratefully for. Thinking back on the seminar I remember many inspiring talks. It is hard to comment on all of them so I will mention a few.

I felt very inspired by many presenters and how they think abstractedly to make museums a appealing, challenging and assessable for all, particularly school learners.

My most lingering thoughts from the seminar (and I have had a bit of time to reflect) were the discussions on how to tackle the vast sea of the World Wide Web, blogs and the internet. How these could be used to enhance the experiences of museum goers. On a personal level I have a great fear of the CYBER world and I am overwhelmed by the enormous possibilities.

Brett McLennan gave an insight into how today we have “Twitchers”. A generation of learners learning in a new way. He talked about how “twitcher” work on many levels at once, with quick responses. In the past we have learned slowly and cumulatively. These two types of learning may be at conflict. Brett mentioned the use of websites to help with continuing learning after the museum experience.

Angelino Russo added that as educator we can be a great help to teacher by using blogs allowing our resources to be accessed before or after the visits to add to the overall experience. Projects like Andy Braid’s from Tasmanian Museum were an inspiring example how blogs are an essential part of his ice.e.mystery program, linking Tasmania to the other side of the world.

Dr Lynda Kelly, from Australian Museum Sydney, spoke passionately about the need for blogs and the internet. She backs this up with survey evidence showing that people who attend museums are also logging on. I personal am trying harder to embrace all the possibilities of these connective mediums.

My only problem now is not the know how, not my fear as I have conquered that (yes I have a face book page!) but my lack of time to explore all the inspiring possibilities. This may explain why it has taken so long to add to a blog! Thanks to the speakers, organisers and to IMAGE for allowing me to attend the seminar.

I am a new educator and have learnt and been inspired. I now am scanning for new seminar possibilities for this year. Amanda

Bursary report 2 melbourne seminar

Submitted on 2009/03/05 at 3:45am  on behalf of Amanda Coleman

Learning Opportunities and Museum Seminar

Thinking back on the seminar I remember many inspiring talks. It is hard to comment on all of them so I will mention a few. I felt very inspired by many presenters and how they think abstractedly to make museums a appealing, challenging and assessable for all, particularly school learners.

My most lingering thoughts from the seminar (and I have had a bit of time to reflect) were the discussions on how to tackle the vast sea of the World Wide Web, blogs and the internet. How these could be used to enhance the experiences of museum goers. On a personal level I have a great fear of the CYBER world and I am overwhelmed by the enormous possibilities.

Projects like Andy Braid’s from Tasmanian Museum were an inspiring example how blogs are an essential part of his ice.e.mystery program, linking Tasmania to the other side of the world.

I personal am trying harder to embrace all the possibilities of these connective mediums. My only problem now is not the know how, not my fear as I have conquered that (yes I have a face book page!) but my lack of time to explore all the inspiring possibilities. This may explain why it has taken so long to add to a blog!

Thanks to the speakers, organisers and to IMAGE .
Amanda

National Curriculum and Museums workshop

Invitation to Workshop

Museums and the developing National Curriculum: Making our voice heard

Responding to the National Curriculum Board’s framework papers

for History and Science

 

The Education SIG of Museums Australia has asked David Arnold, Manager, Education, at the National Museum of Australia, to lead a team of people to investigate how we can engage with the national curriculum development process.  David has been working with Louise Zarmati (Macquarie University) and Marie Wood, (National Office, MA) to establish strong museums sector relations with the NCB. Many of you were at the Melbourne symposium of Museums Australia Victoria on learning in museums and will have heard David and Louise discuss the impact a National Curriculum will have on the museums sector.

 

Since then, several MA members have taken part in the workshops organised by the NCB to discuss the development of the four key curriculum areas, history, english, mathematics and the sciences.  The revised draft framework documents are due for release in mid November, so we invite you, as museum educators, to help us develop a formal submission to the Board in response to these draft documents. Our aim is to identify how museums can contribute to best practice national curriculum outcomes, especially in the areas of history and the sciences.

 

To this end, I am excited to invite you to be part of the discussion.  The National Museum will host a forum of educators from cultural institutions and other relevant interested parties in Canberra on December 9^th from 10am to 3pm (program attached). 

 

I realise this is short notice, and only one location, but hope as many of you as possible will join us.  To register for the day please contact Marie Wood at Museums Australia – details overleaf.  If you are unable to attend, feel free to forward your thoughts on the National Curriculum process and museum involvement in response to the documents to me at derekw@phm.gov.au or David at d.arnold@nma.gov.au

 

Remember that this is a key point in the development of the curriculum that will be taught to young Australians in the future and will have a significant impact on where they will learn, and the manner in which they learn. 

 

Museums hold a special place in education – we are the custodians of the collections of significance, the Australian story that underpins so many aspects of curriculum, knowledge, process and skills development in students.  We are also sources of motivation, international context and social connection for many of the outcomes contained within curriculum documents around Australia.

 

I hope to see you in Canberra

 

Kindest regards

Derek Williamson

President Museums Australia Education SIG

 

To register for the Workshop, contact

Marie Wood, MA National Office

02 62732437

networks@museumsaustralia.org.au

 

For information regarding the release of the draft curriculum documents, see

www.ncb.org.au

Locating learning seminar presentations

If you look down the side of the screen you will find a list of pages for this blog.  One of these http://maeg.textdriven.com/?page_id=149 has the presentations from the Melbourne seminar.  Ont he page you will find links to people’s slide presentations, while on attached pages you will find any papers pasted.

Hopefully this will make the process a little easier.

Learning Opportunities – A Tassie perspective

Well what a fantastic conference this proved to be. The wealth of innovative and creative projects going on around the country is truly inspiring. And the research that points out some of the future directions that our ‘industry’ is going in is equally revealing. I think the short sharp nature of the program gave us all great exposure to the plethora of activity around the country. I’d like to reiterate my thanks to the National Museum Australia for the bursary that allowed me to attend from Tassie.

Some thoughts on some aspect of the conference: The challenge that the conveners must have had in allocating the presentation to the four themes was apparent especially in the ‘offsite’ session. I really enjoyed the sessions from the presenters on the day but got to wondering if what we have termed ‘offsite’ is really being sidelined by the ‘on-line’ environment? What has happened to the real offsite programs? What’s the latest on the ‘museum in the box’, the old ‘Musbus’, those outreach programs that museums used to take into the regions? Where are the programs that reach into the community but aren’t on-line? Are they happening, are they successful, what’s new in that world?

Whilst it was really encouraging to see programs such as that run by the Art Gallery of NSW that brought regional students into Sydney after first going to the regions, I wonder how much of this type of activity has gone by the wayside due to costs, and whether museum professionals see anything worrying in such programs’ demise? I think many of us would agree that we can’t replace on-line the benefits of direct experiences with the objects that comes from either visits to the exhibitions or with objects out on loan (usually part of teaching collections). But I truly wonder if we are all taking the easy option in a tight budgetary world when we resort to imagining the on-line environment will meet those same needs as real ‘offsite’ programs do (or did!). Not sure what all this means for a library however –couldn’t get much more off-site than some of the places I’ve taken library books!

Of course I’m not being down on the on-line story, after all my presentation was all about collaborative polar e-books as a tool of engagement (see http: //iem.tmag.tas.gov.au), and I recognize the on-line environment is another avenue for extending the learning spaces of students and all visitors for that matter. On this front the presentation from the ACMI folks, Brett and Vincent got me thinking. As someone who hasn’t play ‘a game’ since triggering all those free credits on the space invaders consoles (remember how you used to be able to use a gas sparker to shock the machine into giving free credit?) I was intrigued by the learning potential of the internet game environment. Watch this space it seems, since only one person in the audience appeared to use such games in their educational programs. See Lynda Kelly’s blog summary of Brett’s presentation on the ‘twitch’ response for some future program design issues.

On another note I enjoyed Lyn Beasley’s comments in her “School students are people too!” presentation and heard the collective groan from the audience as so many of us in the educational field felt the issue’s resonance in our respective organizations. This will only get more significant with the ‘Education revolution’ as museums play a bigger role in formal education, have more school visitors and clash with those in our organisations who would wish to keep the museum/art gallery a hallowed sanctuary of quiet contemplation (and yes we need to maintain this aspect somewhere in our broad charter, but…!). As Lyn said the research shows that what students remember most of their visits are social circumstances rather than content, and getting growled at by staff or other adult visitors isn’t such a great memory to leave with! How about Lyn bundle up her presentation and workshop she runs at the NMA and send out the “Convert your workplace’ training package!

I could ramble on forever, I encourage anyone who didn’t get to Melbourne (and those that did) to down load the papers/ presentations when they come on–line and rekindle your enthusiasm for a profession going places.

Andy Baird, Manager: Centre for Learning and Discovery, Tasmanian Museum and Art gallery

Lynda Kelly on the learning in museums

Lynda Kelly, who presented at the third day of the recent Melbourne symposium, has posted her thoughts on the presentations from the morning. If anyone else has some comments feel free to make them here.

Learning Opportunities Seminar snapshot

Learning Opportunities Seminar – Key issues Onsite, Offsite, Online & Events
Melbourrne 15-17 September 2008
presented by envi -education network victoria in partnership with Museums Australia (Victoria)
5 host museums:

• City Museum at Old Treasury
• Melbourne Museum
• State Library of Victoria
• Australian Centre for the Moving Image
• National Gallery of Victoria

8 Site Visits:

• Heide Museum of Modern Art
• Immigration Museum
• Old Melbourne Gaol, Crime & Justice Experience
• Shrine of Remembrance
• The Johnston Collection
• Koorie Heritage Trust
• Jewish Museum of Australia
• Australian Centre for Contemporary Art

44 presentations: 17 invited speakers, 19 short papers, 11 showcase selections
2 meetings: MA education network general meeting & committee meeting
3 evening events: Welcome Reception, Seminar Dinner & Art Deco 1910-1939 Event
85 delegates from 52 museums and cultural organisations with representation from all States, ACT & NZ
Supported by History Council of Victoria & National Museum of Australia

Presentations from the Seminar will be posted on the blog
ian watts, seminar convenor

A Depression story in the National Archives

This post is an excerpt from a paper I’m writing about findability of National Archives of Australia collection items for the 2008 Australian Society of Archivists conference. The idea is that anyone’s description of a record could be put to work in the service of findability. So the following is an example of a description, of a single page from a single file (of 220 pages) from a single series (of 13,749 files) from the National Archives collection (of around 45,000 series). (You can see why findability is an issue for us!)

In February 1934, Victor Fitzgibbon wrote a note to the Secretary of the Department of the Interior. The Department had provided him with four weeks’ work so that he could leave Canberra with his family. Having saved enough in that time to buy and recondition a truck, Mr Fitzgibbon sought a grant to register the vehicle for three months.

Victor Fitzgibbon’s request to the Department of the Interior for a grant to register his truck for three months so he could leave Canberra with his family.
National Archives of Australia: A659, 1939/1/16561

This note – the raw record – was used the same day it was written. CS Daley, the Assistant Secretary of the Civic Branch of the Department of the Interior, inserted Mr Fitzgibbon’s handwritten page into a typewriter to make his recommendation, which was to approve the grant ‘as a debit to the Alleviation of Distress, on the grounds that his continued residence in Canberra would be a greater burden to the Alleviation of Distress than the amount requested’. The Secretary of the Department must have been away, because he then added a further annotation: ‘In view of urgency, take action as proposed and resubmit for covering approval on Secretary’s return. CSD, 16.2.34′.

Another annotation suggests that the grant was issued four days later, and HC Brown, Secretary of the Department, noted his approval about a week after that.

In this first phase of the record’s life, it has served its purpose as attestation – to the need for the grant; and as documentation – of the Assistant Secretary’s recommendation for approval, and on what grounds; of the funds’ disbursal; and of the belated approval for such.

By reading the other documents in the file that relate to Mr Fitzgibbon, a fuller picture of the situation is revealed. It was the tail end of the Depression. Victor Fitzgibbon had arrived in Canberra after 1929, so he was ineligible for the rations available to other residents in similarly difficult circumstances. He was living at Ainslie married camp, with his pregnant wife and infant child. Several months prior to writing the letter described here, he had agreed to leave the Territory by mid-January if he was unable to find work. From the Department of the Interior’s point of view, the Fitzgibbon family had received special treatment up to that time, on account of the young child and Mrs Fitzgibbon’s pregnancy. In fact, one document notes that several years prior to this time, Victor Fitzgibbon’s father had been granted transport to go to Melbourne in 1929, and that he had returned ‘unannounced’ with Victor and his family.

Probably, the Department was keen to see the back of the Fitzgibbons, its sympathy having expired. The final instalment in the archival story is a small note pinned to the letter. ‘CD’ (presumably the Assistant Secretary, CS Daley) states ‘Has Fitzgerald [sic] actually left on the vehicle.’ Another hand has written ‘Please verify from police.’ A final note states ‘Fitzgibbon left Canberra Thursday last 22.2.34 – destination unknown’.

You can also see this record in Vrroom – virtual reading room.