Discovernet©: Building an Education Gateway

Australian Museums OnLine launched a new stream to its online presence this year with Discovernet©, an education gateway to Australian museums. This paper looks at the advantages of the gateway approach to providing educational content from cultural institutions to a broad web audience and the methodologies and technology employed in building Discovernet©. Discovernet© includes a fully searchable database of education resources, a museum locator, a Tales from Australian museums game and an interactive Make your own exhibition section where students learn the skills to select objects, write labels and compile an online exhibition. This paper looks at how museums can use emerging technology in innovative ways to reach new audiences in the education sector and offer new experiences to their virtual and real visitors.