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Day 2: SPEAKERS

Thematic Papers Session 5B – Future Classroom

Thematic Papers Session 5B – Future Classroom

Session Time: 2.00pm
Venue: River Room, Level 2

Playing with Heritage: Location-based Games to Bridge the Gap between Museums and GenZ

Mrs Frederike van Ouwerkerk
Senior Lecturer, Researcher Professorship Digital Transformation in Cultural Tourism, Breda University of Applied Sciences

Since the notion of Pokémon Go, people understood the impact of mobile devices and augmented reality to engage in location-based (LB) gameplay. Though, many more of such games have been developed since, they are mainly focusing on the gameplay and virtual environment as opposed to providing a vehicle to explore creative ways to engage with the real world. Mapping the possibilities of LB gaming in culture, a creative integration of this technology provides valuable opportunities to improve cultural heritage dissemination and understanding in the context of cultural tourism among younger target audiences.

The Professorship of Digital Transformation in Cultural Tourism of Breda University of Applied Sciences does research on those valuable opportunities. In this project the leading research objective was on how an engaging playful experience along the cultural heritage of St Martin, patron saint of Utrecht, can be curated using objects in museums, monuments and open-source data from platforms like Europeana, Google Art & Culture, OpenStreet Map or ArcGIS into an immersive story for young audiences. We cooperated together with the Sint Maarten Utrecht Foundation, to realise a first location-based game concept and prototype for the (intangible) heritage sites of St Martin in Utrecht. The project used the concept of crowdsourcing, as users can co-create and add new information about the visited cultural heritage site such as videos or pictures, and so actively curate and moderate the game content. AI is incorporated in order to avoid that visitors could add any rubbish. More importantly, with the digital means, long-shared values conveyed by Saint Martin, such as sharing, mercy and equality are communicated. A first concept of this app has been developed during the low-code hackathon of Europeana and will be further developed and scaled up to other cities and cultural heritage sites based on a feasibility study.

Virtual Explorations: Transforming Museum-Based Learning in the Digital Realm

Ms Vatsala Veerasamy
Senior Manager, Outreach & Education, Indian Heritage Centre, National Heritage Board
Ms Vijayalakshmi Balankrishnan
Manager, Outreach & Education, Indian Heritage Centre, National Heritage Board

In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, museums worldwide faced unprecedented challenges in providing engaging and immersive educational experiences for students.

This paper will offer a compelling narrative on the Indian Heritage Centre’s (IHC) successful adaptation from the onsite Museum-Based Learning to a virtual option during the pandemic. By leveraging the potential of virtual environments, the Centre reimagined its Museum-Based Learning programme ‘Sights and Sounds of Little India’, ensuring that students could continue their educational journey despite physical limitations.

Drawing on the theme of “Museums: Shaping the Future of Education,” we showcase the transformative potential of virtual Museum-Based Learning and explore the impact on student engagement, critical thinking, and cross-cultural understanding. By blurring the lines between education and entertainment, the Indian Heritage Centre has successfully created an experiential journey that sparks curiosity, fosters empathy, and cultivates a lifelong appreciation for cultural heritage.

Through a seamless integration of multimedia content, virtual tours and expert-led interactive sessions, the Indian Heritage Centre has effectively recreated the magic of onsite museum experiences in the virtual realm.

The paper will also discuss the challenges encountered and lessons learned during the transition, addressing key considerations such as technological infrastructure, content adaptation, and effective online facilitation. By sharing our experiences, IHC hopes to inspire other museums to harness the untapped potential of virtual Museum-Based Learning, ensuring the continued enrichment of students’ education, even in times of crisis.

CHIMEI Museum – Shaping the Future of Education by Being a Fun and Engaging Resource

Ms Sheryl Lai
International Affairs Specialist, CHIMEI Museum

Located in the Southern Taiwan city of Tainan, CHIMEI Museum is a private museum founded by CHIMEI Corp Founder Wen-Long Shi. The museum houses a comprehensive collection from Fine Arts, Musical Instruments, Arms and Armours to Natural History and Fossils. Chimei Museum’s founding essence has always been ‘to promote appreciation of music and appreciation of art’, it is our goal to strive to reach out to audiences via a variety of fun, cultural, and educational games, festivities, onsite and online courses.

One of CHIMEI Museum’s most famous collection is its string violin collection, currently housed the largest systematic collection in the world and nearly 200 of them were on loan to accredited musicians and talented Taiwanese students persuing higher education overseas. The museum regularly organises 8 to 10 concerts yearly and hosts roughly 35 small performances, such as flash mobs, at its lobby annually. The concerts are not simply performances of music pieces but with guided listening to help audiences to have better understanding of each of the pieces of music they are about to enjoy.

Real-Life Games, location-based games, is a collaboration with Clubon Creativity that incorporated our museum collection into a physical game with series of clues for participants to solve the mysteries through storylines it portrayed. The first game, The Myth of Allegories, was launched in 2019. The second game Posterity of God Pan was launched in 2021, and The Carnival of Doomsday in 2022.

The most popular event at the museum is the annual Christmas Weekend. This thematic event originated with the 2018 King’s Day Event aimed to bring awareness to the communities about other cultures as well as to celebrate the artist’s national events at the time of our Special Exhibition, The Beauties of Simplicity: Henk Helmantel. A sole exhibition of a Dutch contemporary artist Henk Helmantel. The festival later evolved into a two-weekend annual event not only hosts Christmas markets but also programmed with our most current special exhibition theme to bring unfamiliar cultures to the communities. A Four full-day programmes that are designed to be both entertaining and informative.

This presentation will share a few examples of CHIMEI Museum’s practices in shaping the future of education by being fun and engaging resources to the locals.

Scenario Room Programme: Historical Roleplaying for Humanities Learning and Student Leadership – to Spark Dialogue on Values

Ms Pearl Wee
Manager (Curatorial & Engagement), Founders’ Memorial, National Heritage Board

How can we get the youth of a nation to understand the foundations on which their nation is built? How can the idea of founding values, founding leaders, and citizenship dispositions come alive to students, and not be seen as a dry history or civics lesson, or government “propaganda”?

The Scenario Room Valued-Based Leadership Programme immerses students in pivotal moments in Singapore’s nation-building years and gets students to role-play characters. It enables them to confront the difficult challenges, complexities, and decisions that shaped Singapore’s foundations. Through guided discussions, students are challenged to exercise imagination, reflect, and have dialogue on the values and principles that guided decision-making in pivotal moments in history, and their continued relevance for contemporary Singapore society.

This flagship education programme of Singapore’s upcoming Founders’ Memorial introduces an innovative approach for students to experience Singapore’s history in a highly engaging, immersive, and personal way. It serves as a collaborative platform for educators and museums, enriching students’ learning – not only in humanities learning and content outcomes, but also in student development such as leadership development and civic education. In addition, when applied to students from different social and educational backgrounds, the programme helped to build cross-understanding and friendships.

Conversation Matters: Building Connections for Learning at the National Museum of Singapore

Ms Lock Hui Qi
Manager, Curatorial & Programmes, National Museum of Singapore, National Heritage Board

How do we design museum programmes that are inclusive, without demanding that those who are in the minority assimilate? How do we offer the museum as a safe space and platform for our audiences to explore Singapore’s history and heritage without feeling excluded?

The National Museum of Singapore seeks to be a museum for the people that inspires audiences with stories of Singapore and the world. In the past five years, it has been exploring initiatives to connect with audiences of different backgrounds, abilities and needs at the museum.

Through the case studies of a school cohort learning journey – Artefactually Speaking: Museum-based Learning for Secondary two students – as well as programmes for children with additional needs and seniors, including seniors with dementia, this paper seeks to explore the value of conversations in museum education.

Conversations matter; by de-emphasising factual information while encouraging stories and the sharing of personal experiences, educators can speak on the level of their audience and help to make connections between museum displays and their own lives. Conversational museum programmes also have the potential of creating safe spaces that bring together diverse people and allow them to hear and learn from one another.

Public Consultation. Time for the Results: “You Told Us…”

Mrs Stéphanie Masuy
Head of Education, Ixelles Museum, Brussels

In the midst of expansion and renovation work, the Musée d’Ixelles is more than ever keen to forge links with the public and to offer them a central role in its redevelopment with a view to its planned reopening in 2025. In this context, the Ixelles Museum has organised a major public consultation campaign in 2021 and 2022 with a view to involving visitors in the conceptualisation of the “museum of tomorrow”. Nearly 2,000 people took part in one of the three stages of this consultation: an online survey, a forum meeting and focus groups to question the public less familiar with the institution. What are the main lessons to be learned from such a consultation? What are the pitfalls and potentials? And how can the voice of the visitors shape the future of mediation? As the results of this process are publicly presented, we invite you to take a look at these two years of meetings, discussions and passionate cogitations.