Updates
It Has Begun! Project Kickoff Meeting, Nov 12–14
The Smithsonian team is excited to announce that the building of the Learning Lab has begun. We had two great teams in Washington this past week: Navigation North Navigation North was one of the teams that the Smithsonian worked with in 2012 to conduct the formative research and iterative prototyping that lead us to where we are today. We are very relieved to have them ...
Quick Note on Digital
One of the primary goals driving our work with the Learning Lab is to make Smithsonian-authored digital learning resources more useful to teachers by making them easier to adapt and build upon. But we also want to empower the Lab’s users to do the same: to create new resources and share them so that other users can build upon their work. We really like digital: New media are variable in as much as, unlike the fixed text of a...
What We Have Learned So Far: Literature Review
In the Spring of 2012, as part of the formative research for the Learning Lab, SCLDA conducted a literature review to address this question: How will museums in general, and the Smithsonian in particular, adapt to and remain relevant in the digital age with search, social, mobile components, and instructional tools for learning. A literature review is simply an investigation (in this case a systematic review) of the scho...
What We Have Learned So Far: Thinking Partners
It's an intriguing question that you've most likely heard before or perhaps even asked yourself at one point or another, “If you could invite any six guests, dead or alive, to your dinner party, whom would you invite?" Typical responses range from world leaders, to famous athletes, influential authors, or A-list celebrities. It's an entertaining exercise that helps outsiders learn a little more about the respondent—what are their ...
Students Get Their Hands on the Prototype
For a couple of days in early October, researchers from SCLDA travelled to California to work with our collaborators, Navigation North, and two schools in Chico, California to better understand how young folks (these were 6th graders), especially those in a classroom, might access and use the digital assets of the Smithsonian. We had a great time, learned a lot, and are very thankful to the principals, teachers, and students who off...
