Catching Up with Museums

I've been doing some contemplation about museums lately, inspired by the University of Leicester's Massively Open Online Course (called a 'MOOC' for short), Behind the Scenes at the 21st Century Museum offered via FutureLearn.  Okay, I'm always contemplating museums, but I'm doing more of it right now, primarily due to this course.

As many of you know, Leicester's museum studies programme is one of the oldest in the world, and probably the highest respected in English speaking countries.  Many of the most significant thinkers in museum studies are among its faculty and alumni.  It attracts a substantial number of museum professionals, working in the field, into its courses.  It's also my alma mater, and a pioneer in distance learning, so, since I am not in a position to be able to jump across the pond to do my PhD with them, this little MOOC is perfect for keeping me aprised of the latest goings-on in museum thinking.

Although it's really meant as an introductory course, many of the participants are museum professionals doing exactly what I'm doing, and as we are encouraged to share and discuss our thoughts at every possible opportunity, it feels very much like a conference.  Not the kind of conference where executive directors go and drink a lot and jaw in the lobby, but the kind where educated and experienced peers from across an industry share their case studies, offer lessons, bring learning tools, minds meet, and real professional development occurs.  That said, it also is an opportunity for museum pros to meet and gather thoughts and ideas from non-sector learners as the course is open to all, and there are plenty of folks participating who have no museum background whatsoever.  I can't speak for other MOOCs, but this course really feels like proper education, is thought-out, eye-opening, and meaningful. 

This course is particularly interesting to me, not just because I get to think about museums in a semi-structured environment, but because my museum, the Secrets of Radar, is currently re-examining its exhibits and looking at ways to reorganise them for a greater impact and more positive experience.  SoRM is an amazing gem of a museum, and it's absolutely brimming with information and cool, weird 'stuff', but it's not really what I would consider a super fun or engaging space.  Its displays have been geared to people with a basic knowledge of radio and electronics, and it struggles to be welcoming for families with younger children.  I love the depth of information, but it isn't intellectually accessible.  Nor is it emotionally accessible.  When it was founded, the philosophy behind the original didactic panels was to get the unknown, secret history of Canadian World War II radar veterans out, to tell as much of the story as possible in a limited space.  This was absolutely the priority of the veterans who created the museum.  Now, it's time to refresh the exhibits through which those veterans no longer lead tours, no longer sharing their personal anecdotes.  It falls to me and volunteers to put the human aspect into the museum, which is a second-hand experience due to the passing of those founding vets.  It's challenging, but the MOOC is helping me think about how to reinvent SoRM without messing with its original purpose, while creating an open, engaging, accessible centre for history and learning.

When the course is finished, I'm sure I'll have more to share.