Anna Pederson
LIS 490
Project Proposal
Project title: Integrating Web 2.0 Technology with Museum Educational Outreach
Programs
Team member(s): Anna Pederson
Idea Outline: A number of museums have already begun to integrate Web 2.0 technology into their website in order to attract a younger audience. However, these technologies have not yet been used with museum educational outreach programs. I would like to design a fictional collaborative project between a museum and a school that utilizes Web 2.0 technology. Since the new technology emphasizes personalization and interaction, it will help create an effective, exciting learning environment for students and teachers. I haven’t specifically decided which Web 2.0 technologies the project will use but the possibilities are many. I’d like students to be able to personalize online profiles and upload media – both methods that will encourage participation. As a part of the project students should also be able to create online galleries or exhibits related to the project theme. There is also potential for blogs, podcasts, and an RSS aggregator with relevant feeds. The project does not necessarily have to be limited to one school. In fact, the learning potential and participation will be greater if there is collaboration between at least several schools.
Plan : I hope to eventually develop a functioning prototype that will include a main page and at least several pages linked from the main page. The main page will contain a sampling of the main features of each site, including featured user profiles, recently added media, RSS feeds, and blog entries. The main site will also include a graphic link to the teachers’ part of the site. (I haven’t decided if I will develop this or not.) I plan to have a page that shows an example of a student profile, which will probably resemble a
MySpace or Facebook profile (albeit much more simple). There will also be a separate site featuring each of the different Web 2.0 technologies I plan to use.
Related projects: As far as I have been able to tell, there are no projects integrating Web
2.0 technology with educational outreach programs. There are many examples of educational projects, such as the Living Museum and Franklin Remixed . These projects are impressive but I think they could have been greatly improved with Web 2.0 technology. Viewing them as they are now, they do have educational value but they’re not very attractive to an audience that is used to social networking, blogs, etc. Science
Buzz and the teen site of the Walker Art Center are good examples of what can be done.
Web 2.0 technologies encourage students to interact with each other on an educational basis; it’s almost like the museums are tricking kids into learning. The best example I’ve found of a museum site utilizing Web 2.0 technology is the Unges Laboratorier for
Kunst . It offers a space for students to upload their own media art and receive feedback

from their peers. It encourages them to be creative and thoughtful, while still providing them with an opportunity to social with peers.
Design Rationale :
What am I trying to do?
I’m trying to create a website for school and museum collaboration projects that uses Web 2.0 technology. Using this technology will make the project more interesting for students (and outside audiences) and encourage participation with other students.
Outline of the way it is typically done now and what I don't like about it
School project sites are usually not very dynamic. They usually include slideshows or narrated exhibitions, and most of the sites aren’t updated very often.
Simply put, these sites are boring, both for students and outside audiences.
The particular effects I'm trying to have
I want to use technologies that will encourage students to learn, yet I have to balance that with educational material. I can’t go overboard with too many features; otherwise the site will end up too cluttered and students’ attention will be spread too thin.
I also want to create a site that visitors of the museum website will be interested in visiting.
The list of things that make this hard to do
My lack of technological expertise
Finding a balance between education and fun – how much is too much?
Deciding which technologies to use
Possibilities and opportunities
I have a feeling that DreamWeaver will be my best friend over the next month.
This will make creating a website much easier. WebTools will also be very useful in creating the Web 2.0 technologies I’ll need.
The one next thing I can do now to make progress
Start creating a site. Even if it’s complete trash, at least it will get my creative juices flowing and give me an idea of what not to do.

Menu bar
Featured profiles/exhibitions
Attractive, dynamic graphic that communicates the gist of the site
Recently added media
Recent blog postings
RSS feed
(related to subject)
Teacher’s corner (graphic link)
I used the main page for Unges Laboratorier for Kunst as inspiration for the main page for my project because it’s the best example I’ve found of Web 2.0 use in a museum web site. I tried to make the main content of the site accessible from the main page so users won’t have to navigate through 5+ pages to find what they want. It’s also important to have something new to offer every time a user logs on; that’s why I’ve added the spots for new media, blog postings, and an RSS feed.
Once I’ve developed my idea more and decided what technology I’m going to use, I can really start thinking about the layout of the site. I’m not completely pleased with the design I have now because it’s too similar to what other sites have already done.
It’s going to be difficult to find a balance between making the site attractive to teenagers and maintaining some kind of educational credibility. I don’t have much web or interface design experience, so this part will be a challenge. Luckily I have two teenage sisters that
I can use as guinea pigs for user testing. The next step is to look at different sites and decide which features have been successful and which haven’t.