The Latest from the Blog

The “e word”

If anyone doubts that there is a “War on Science” in the United States just read The Missing Link article from the Arkansas Times. A teacher at a “science education institution that serves several Arkansas public school districts” explained to the author of the article… Teachers at his facility are forbidden to use the ‘e-word’? (evolution) with the kids. They are permitted to use the word ‘adaptation’? but only to refer to a current characteristic of an organism, not as a product of evolutionary…

Museums on the Web Recap

Last week Museums on the Web Conference (MW) was held here in New Mexico right across the Rio Grande in downtown Albuquerque. We were glad for its proximity, because not only would we not have to travel far (really no travel at all), we were also able to invite the conferences attendees to celebrate our new studio in Corrales, New Mexico. It was very hectic in the studio in the weeks leading up to the conference — there was a lot of prep work…

Museums and the Web

A very busy week as we are facilitating, presenting, exhibiting, and soon will be partying at the Museums and the Web Conference. A few quick things to report. Museums and the Web has its own community site and participants are posting images to Flickr. Also, the Walker Art Center’s New Media Initiative Blog is covering a number of the sessions. Podcasting and blogging seem to be the big topics this year and I have had several very…

Museum Vodcasting

Here at Ideum we’ve been video podcasting since Apple released the video capable iPod last fall. We podcast a series of short videos we developed for NASA as part of the Traditions of the Sun site. In addition, we encoded a promotional video developed by the Museum of the African Diaspora, back when we redesigned their site late last year. Just this week, we created a podcast for the Tech Museum of Innovation. We’ve been working with them on the Understanding…

ReWriting the Science

Last night 60 Minutes aired a piece entitled, “ReWriting the Science” about NASA scientist Jim Hansen and the efforts of the Bush administration to silence him. I posted about this story back in January and February with links to articles in the New York Times and Washington Post. Ironically, all of the attention has helped Dr. Hansen get the word out that Climate Change is ‘real’ and that human activity is the likely culprit… “There’s no doubt about that,” says Hansen. “The…

Museum Blog Round up

The New Media Initiatives Blog at the Walker has posted their set of guidelines for blog authors. Essential reading for those museums considering jumping into the blogosphere. elearnspace has the latest on Web 2.0 a New Wave of Innovation for Teaching Learning an article in EDUCAUSE REVIEW. The Museum People’s Journal cites an article an article from the Chicagoist: Museum’s Aren’t Attracting Diverse Crowds. (No permalinks, so I linked directly to the article.) Assembly Looks at the Museum…

The Web 2.0 Build Up

At next week’s Museums and the Web Conference the theme is the Web 2.0. From the opening plenary to the closing, everyone is talking about it. The closing plenary is even called Museum 2.0 (which is the second time I’ve seen this term, :-)). I thought it might be interesting to chart the term “Web 2.0” in Technorati. Since February 1st, there have been roughly average of 1,000 posts with the term Web 2.0 compared to about 100 in March of last…

Curate-Your-Own Museum

A friend pointed out an article in the Washington Post about The Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum entitled, A Curate-Your-Own Museum Web Site. The so-called “online national design museum” promises to open the museum and its vast collection to visitors anywhere in the world. What’s more, if development can keep up with vision, the site will turn museumgoers into participants in a bold cultural experiment. Interactivity is the key. Cooper-Hewitt Director Paul Thompson describes “an open theater for ideas.” And John Maeda, a digital…

Museums and Web 2.0: Connectivism

Last week, I attended a roundtable discussion called “E-Learning in Museums” held by the Canadian Heritage Information Network in Ottawa. One of the other speakers, George Siemens gave an interesting presentation entitled, Connectivism: Museums as Learning Ecologies. For those of you in the museum field and in education, George’s blog elearnspace is a great resource, dating back to June 2002, practically ancient history as far as blogs are concerned. He also maintains a site on Connectivism, so if you’re interested in…

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