The Future of Museum Education

Originally posted on Medium. January 5, 2017.

2017! It has been a few days since it has officially become the new year, and it has been so far so good. Everyone around this time of year hopes to start accomplishing their new year’s resolutions and I am no exception. To start the new year, I am going to be fulfilling my resolutions to be a better person and a better professional. I always strive to be a better person but it is important to remind myself about the important things in life, and if we all strive to be better people I believe we can make the world a better place for the individuals we treat well. In addition to fulfilling personal resolutions for the new year, I have also been researching about the future of museum education and the trends of museums.

I read Trendswatch 2016 published by American Alliance of Museums Center for the Future of Museums. For each year, the American Alliance of Museums has written a guide for museums to help shape their futures based on cultural, political, and economic challenges by doing the following: monitoring cultural, technological, political, and economic trends that are significant for museums; assist with museums to share with their communities challenges that will be faced for decades to come; and builds connections between museums and other sectors in the country. Trendswatch 2016 is written about trends that occurred in 2015 to predict what may occur for 2016, and it discusses the future of jobs as well as the use of technology especially digital technology used in museums and the relationship between museums and identity. This report discusses the 2015 trends in five articles after introducing the guide as well as providing examples of how organizations could use the report.

The first article was written about labor continuing to be reshaped by technological, cultural, and economical changes in the United States; technological advances will continue to reshape the nature of work, culture, and our economy. The second article discusses the 25th anniversary of the American Disabilities Act being passed and hypothesizes what the next 25 years will be like for creating equity for all people in diverse states; advances in technology has allowed museums to expand the spectrum of human physical, sensory, and cognitive abilities. In the third article, it shares information about augmented reality and virtual reality technologies that hold promise and peril for museums and argues that if AR and VR experiences become widely accessible and affordable museums will need to sharpen their positions and value the proposition within their communities. The fourth article pointed out that museums have found themselves entangled in the struggle over representation, identity and material culture. The fifth article argues that it is important to remind ourselves to make us happy we need to measure how we feel rather than money by revealing that people as well as organizations are rebelling against the focus on finance to point out the government has fostered accumulation of wealth at the expense of health, sustainability, and wellbeing. If we redefine success to include not just cash, museums will have the capability to make sizable contributions to our communities.

While I read these articles, one question came to mind: What will Trendswatch 2017 look like when it is published? If I was writing about trends in Trendswatch 2017, I believe a lot of the trends introduced in the most current report would reveal they continue to develop in 2016 and then start discussing how museums would be effected by introducing the new presidential administration. Then I read about trends for museum education to help me foster and improve my knowledge of the field.

I read Building the Future of Education: Museums and the Learning Ecosystem, also published by the Center for the Future of Museums and published in September 2013, is a bunch of essays by educators, students, researchers, and reformers that explore how leaders from the worlds of education and museums to combine its assets to create ways to make education better for the future. Each essay reinforces the idea that it is important to help schools and education organizations see museums can tailor their educational programs to the needs of state and local curriculum standards. Also, the essays discuss possible futures for education including vibrant learning grid (all who care about learning create a personalized learning ecosystem to meet the needs of all learners) and a fractured landscape (families who have the time, money, and resources to customize or supplement their learning experience have access to learning that adapts to their needs). They also emphasize the need to allow students to work on projects that are related and adapted to the real world of museums, businesses, organizations and communities.

It is important to figure out the future of museums and museum education all staff members need to emphasize the significance museums have in our communities now. What do you think about where education is going in our country?