New Technologies for Learning in Museums: An Interdisciplinary Research Project

The research project "Learning in the museum: the role of digital media" examines the learning potentials of digital media in science and technology museum exhibitions. The overarching research theme takes two developments into account: first, the incorporation of recent trends to collocate digital media and objects in museum exhibitions, and second, the increasingly important role attributed to museums as places of life-long learning. These two strands and the possibilities to combine them are examined in an effort to enhance our understanding of learning opportunities in museum exhibitions. In doing so, the research takes into account psychological models of learning, the complex nature of museum exhibitions as information environments, the various presentational modes that are used in exhibition designs as well as the possible contributions of digital media.