One activity that we do every now and again during interpreter training
is an exercise called Fact or Fiction.   Management collects all the
myths that are floating around and creates a worksheet that includes the
myths as well as some information that is true.  During the training,
guides work as teams on the worksheet and then the group discusses what
is fact and what is fiction and how to use the truth interpretively. 

________________________________
Dina Rose Friedman
Site Director, Sunnyside Restoration
 
Historic Hudson Valley
150 White Plains Road
Tarrytown, NY 10591
(914) 591-8763 Ext. 13


>>> Aaron Preston <[log in to unmask]> 4/30/2010 11:04 AM >>>
I am forming a new volunteer training course.  Below is a general
description of one minor problem I have dealt with at a former museum. 
Any thoughts on ways to guard against this?  I never want to ask the
docent to be the expert, that is the job of the staff, however, I would 
interested in hearing others opinions on this...  

Though some volunteers are "lifelong learners," after the course is
over, volunteers  tend to know only so much as is necessary to deal with
the tours for which they are responsible and the questions the tours
typically stimulate.  Once a volunteer has worked at an institution for
a while s/he tends to “get comfortable” and the volunteer is less
provoked to learn about the subject matter on his or her own.   This can
result in a kind of patch-work tour, a version complete with largely
accurate information taught in the training class, mixed with popular
myth, and even misinformation.  Over time, I feel the information in the
structured training classes can become distorted like a big game of
telephone.

​

Aaron Preston

Education Director
Cherokee Strip Regional
Heritage Center
507 S. 4th St.
Enid, Oklahoma
73701

(580) 237-1907 ext. 226
[log in to unmask] 

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