Unconference Session: Social media in museum education

State-of-the-art: Museums use social media mostly for marketing reasons and PR. In many institutions social media (social networks, sharing platforms, blogs, wikis etc.) is treated as an information tool, not as a dialogue oriented and participatory media tool. There are a few institutions using holistic social media concepts to guarantee participation, personalization, communication, networking, exchange and transparency.

Social media in museum education: For museum education social media can be used to ensure learning opportunities for online visitors and as an integral part of an educational project (on-line or blended). Social media offers a flexible, user-friendly and open use of all kind of museum related content. But in fact, social media for museum education is still rarely utilized.

Examples of social media in museum education (in note form):

- Museum of Modern Art, NY: apps with access to online community content

- Klassik Stiftung Weimar: usage of wiki software to generate new content about special topics

- Smithsonian American Art Museum: flickr - Fill the gap! activity

- Brooklyn Museum, NY: A crowd-curated exhibition (a holistic concept)

etc.

Ideas for the use of social media in museum education (in note form):

- wiki softwrare for groups to collect, share and distribute knowledge about a special topic

- create a facebook profile for your mascot that can be used for children and schools to answer questions and to supplement the real site visit with information and further content

- let visitors create their own online exhbition and let them share it and use it for their next real museum's visit

etc.

Conclusion: "Learning by doing" (participation, personalization, communication, networking, exchange and transparency included) could be a holistic concept for museum education with the support of social media.