A New Learning Environment The NeoMuseum/Children's Media Museum Prototype

The NeoMuseum in Yoshino, Japan is a prototype for a chidrens media museum, an experiment in collaborative research with the goal of creating a multimedia-based learning environment for children. The name NeoMuseurn reflects the goal of exploring new roles for childrens museums made possible by new educatlonal technologies. The purpose of the NeoMuseum is to design and develop socially shared electronic media envlronments for children that exploit constructivist models of interactive learning, and to develop methoddogies to account for and foster situations where children become active learners. This paper describes the Neo- Museum and the philosophy behind its development In the context of childrens learnlng and interactive media.