>Too often, also, we tend to think of new technologies in terms of
>the end user, the visitor.
 
Come again?
 
A multitude of consultants, independent producers, and techno-wizzards are
promoting various electronic "exhibitry" to museums of all sizes.
 
Most of these firms and individuals possess some knowledge of the media they
are promoting. Very few seem to understand formal or informal learning
methods. As a result, the types of computer exhibits that end up in front of
vistors are equivalent to automatic teller machines, or are chocked full of
snazzy navigation icons that go nowhere, or recapitulate the obvious.
 
The problem becomes compounded by museum people who buy this stuff and put it
on exhibit without accurately considering the net effect of the new exhibit
on the learning experience of visitors to the museum.
 
The access of the software developer (or the subscriber to museum-l) to World
Wide Web or Gopher probably already exists. But museum visitors are not
hyper-linked objects. You have to actually go down and talk to them...
 
Kevin Coffee
AMNH