Barbara,
 
You pose an interesting question. I have been faced with this same
discussion many times.  We have some people here that insist we "force"
visitors to enter an exhibit from one particular direction so "they can
make sense of it". (Isn't there some kind of museum handbook which talks
about "the left hand rule" or something like that, where as visitors upon
entering a gallery tend to turn one way or another.) To this end we have
configured all kinds of "fish traps" to get people to go a certain way.
Well, wouldn't you know it, people, like salmon, go upstream anyway!
 
Since I work at an interactive museum - Flandrau Science Center, I am
certainly more interested in the random mode you spoke of. In this
way people are driven by their own personal curiousity and not forced to
conform.
 
Your point is well taken. The linear method does encourage a kind of
uniformity of outcome, something that makes educators very comfortable.
This is a lot like what school does. I view places like mine to be quite
different than school and with a different purpose. I see us as a window
on the world. We take whats out there and provide another way of looking
at it. The world, as you know, is far from linear.
 
On the other side of this argument, if you need to tell a story it must
be pieced together in a linear fashion. I will add that there is no one
right way to design an exhibit. Each time you start one you almost have
to re-invent the process.
 
Joe Ruggiero
Flandrau Science Center
University of Arizona, Tucson