'Allen, Nancy, Mark Christal, and Don Perrot. “Native American Schools Move into the New Millennium.” Educational Leadership 56.7 (1999): 71–74. Print.' This article discusses the 4Directions project NMAI did at the George Gustav Heye Center, working with students from tribal schools to create a virtual tour. After completing the project the collaborators reflected on their process and made suggestions for future work in this area. This is relevant because it demonstrates their use of design-based research methodology.
Allen, Nancy, Paul E. Resta, and Mark Christal. “Technology and Tradition: The Role of Technology in Native American Schools.” TechTrends: Linking Research & Practice to Improve Learning 46.2 (2002): 50–55. This article, written three years after the article in Educational Leadership, shows the researchers continued reflection and refinement of their process. The authors suggest elements for a model of virtual reality exhibit design that engages students and teachers with museums.
Bergamasco, Massimo, et al. "Multimodal interaction for the World Wide Web." Toronto: Archives & Museum Informatics, 2007. 22 July 2012. This article is relevant because it discusses virtual exhibits and the limitations for interaction over the web. The authors talk about “artwork creation by means of interaction” in the context of cultural heritage materials, which directly relates to the NMAI’s Native Networks effort. This also describes the collaboration that is needed to produce a virtual reality Lacrosse exhibit at the George Gustave Heye Center.
Devine, Jim. “Partnerships for Progress: Electronic Access and Museum Resources in the Classroom”. Museum Informatics: People, Information, and Technology in Museums. New York: Routledge, 2008. Print. Routledge Studies in Library and Information Science, p. 195-213. This article was about using IT to increase access to museum collections in the classroom. The author encouraged involving teachers in the development of resources for students, which supports the NMAI mission to include the appropriate communities in the development of exhibits. As well as developers, the end-users are needed during the design process.
“Design-Based Research: An Emerging Paradigm for Educational Inquiry.” Educational Researcher 32.1 (2003): 5–8.This theory, which focuses on the design of educational environments, translates directly in to the museum’s practice of self-assessment with community input. It is particularly fitting for talking about the design of an education center within the museum. Since the museum has already taken steps in this direction, it makes sense to continue their push in to educational reform.
Dicker, E. "The Impact of Blogs and Other Social Media on the Life of a Curator." Museums and the Web 2010: Proceedings. Denver: Archives & Museum Informatics, 2010. 22 July 2012. The NMAI has a blog that has multiple contributors, and the posts are categorized so that the director’s narrative thread can be isolated. There are a few posts a year from Kevin Glover about on his travel for the museum and the launching of new exhibits or materials.
Economou, Maria. “A World of Interactive Exhibits”. Museum Informatics: People, Information, and Technology in Museums. New York: Routledge, 2008. Print. Routledge Studies in Library and Information Science, p. 137-156. This article identified the different ways that museum exhibits are functionally interactive. The NMAI makes heavy use of information kiosks, which is the first type of application Economou discusses. She goes on to describe the use of virtual reality to show an exhibit on the ancient Olympic games; this example inspired the move from suggesting a dance exhibit to a sports exhibit in this paper.
Galani, Areti. “Blurring Boundaries for Museum Visitors”. Museum Informatics: People, Information, and Technology in Museums. New York: Routledge, 2008. Print. Routledge Studies in Library and Information Science, p. 157-177. This article discussed the use of technology to enhance museum visits, both online and in person. The author questions whether technology encourages or discourages socializing in the museum and, reviewing The Mack Room, sheds light on the amount of time that is wasted while users learn to use devices and navigate systems for the first time.
'Ho, Caroline M. L., Mark Evan Nelson, and Wolfgang Müeller-Wittig. “Design and Implementation of a Student-generated Virtual Museum in a Language Curriculum to Enhance Collaborative Multimodal Meaning-making.” Computers & Education 57.1 (2011): 1083–1097.' This article discusses an attempt to involve students in the creation of a virtual reality museum experience. The authors discuss the challenges of working with technology in the classroom and coordinating with classroom teachers and make suggestions for future collaborative projects of this nature.
Lissonnet, S. and L. Nevile. "A Forum for Indigenous Culture Building and Preservation." Museums and the Web 2007: Proceedings. Toronto: Archives and Museum Informatics, 2007. 22 July 2012. This article highlights the need for technological expertise to be developed within indigenous communities. The authors, working to preserve Quinkan culture in Australia, propose ways that tech experts can create vehicles for nonexperts to deposit information in to a digital repository. Another interesting discussion was the idea of “digital repatriation”, giving tribal communities access to digital surrogates for objects in museums’ collections.
Mann, S. and K. Russell. "Protecting Treasures: Engaging Communities and Recreating Narratives." Museums and the Web 2010: Proceedings. Toronto: Archives and Museum Informatics, 2010. 22 July 2012. This report was particularly relevant because it focuses on an attempt to build a virtual reality environment for a game with Maori contributors. A pleasant side effect was the creation of a new environment for storytelling that captivated community interest. This supports the potential uses of a virtual environment created for a thematic Lacrosse exhibit, from gameplay to archiving cultural heritage.
Marty, Paul F. “Interactive Technologies”. Museum Informatics: People, Information, and Technology in Museums. New York: Routledge, 2008. Print. Routledge Studies in Library and Information Science, p. 131-136. The author addresses the question of how much value is added to the museum visit with the use of devices such as mobile phones and audio tours. The end of the article states that the first step to design is evaluation, which supports the use of design-based research as a theoretical framework for examining the work done with IT at NMAI. Marty states that interactives fail when they are based on incomplete knowledge of what visitors want.
National Museum of the American Indian (U.S.). “The changing presentation of the American Indian' : museums and native cultures.” Washington, D.C.; Seattle: National Museum of the American Indian' ; University of Washington Press, 2000. Print. This book is a companion text to a conference with the same name held in 1995 following the opening of the first NMAI facility in New York City. This conference was the entry point in to the first cycle of design-based research, laying the groundwork for the development of the facility on the National Mall.
'---. “The Native universe and museums in the twenty-first century' : the significance of the National Museum of the American Indian.” Washington, D.C.: National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, 2005. Print. This book is a companion text to a conference of the same name, which was held by the NMAI during the inaugural year of the DC facility. This is an example of the museum metacognitively reflecting on their work over the past decade, recognizing that their design choices are not static, and improving their models and theory based on research.
National Museum of the American Indian, Four Directions Project, and Bureau of Indian Affairs. “4Directions/NMAI Virtual Tour”. 2000. Web. 23 May 2012. This online interactive exhibit is an example of NMAI’s early attempt to engage information technology and students from native communities in the design-process for exhibits. The site is dated, employing frames, but the videos could easily be repurposed for the 21st century. This project served as the foundation for the project done in DC a decade later with native Floridian students.
Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. “Home.” National Museum of the American Indian. 2012. Web. 23 July 2012.This homepage provides access to almost every element of the online offerings the Smithsonian has. Designed as a starting point, it is essentially the front door to the virtual museum.
“Standards/Curriculum - Social Studies - New York City Department of Education.” Web. 12 June 2012. This site contains the PDF documents which teachers in New York refer to when developing lesson plans for Social Studies. Reviewing these standards proves that teachers need to be involved in the development and expansion of the Haudenosaunee education center. To help students achieve the benchmarks set by the Department of Education, museums could easily refer to the standards many teachers are trying to fulfill with trips to the museum.
The Design-Based Research Collective. “Design-Based Research: An Emerging Paradigm for Educational Inquiry.” Educational Researcher 32.1 (2003): 5–8. This article explains the theoretical framework being used to discuss the NMAI in this paper. The cycle of design-enactment-analysis-redesign is explained, which reflects the carefully consideration which has gone in to IT exhibit development thus far at the museum. The article posits that over time theory, design, practice, and measurement become increasingly aligned. This supports the idea that the museum is ready for a third cycle, engaging metacognitive methods to develop an interactive exhibit for the next “grand opening”, the enhanced education center at the George Gustav Heye Center in New York City.
Thornton, Timothy, Jeremy V. Ernst, and Aaron C. Clark. “Augmented Reality as a Visual and Spatial Learning Tool in Technology Education.” Technology & Engineering Teacher 71.8 (2012): 18–21. Print. These authors state that augmented reality is going to be the main user interface in the 21st century, which supports the suggestion that the museum move in this direction for their next interactive and/or online exhibition project. The authors also offer solutions for software teachers can download that is user-friendly and inexpensive.
“Weedon Island Kiosk.” Web. 24 May 2012. This virtual tour is proof that the museum refined their design in their second cycle (re: design-based research). The museum focused on one school and helped students develop an interactive exhibit with objects from their ancestral communities and geographical lands. The design of the site also shows improvement, it uses flash instead of frames and features more mature colors, fonts, and interactions.
Wikipedia contributors. “National Museum of the American Indian Act.” Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 11 June 2012. Web. 11 June 2012. This Wikipedia page explains the reasoning behind the opening of the NMAI, the Smithsonian’s first culturally-specific museum. The focus on repatriation that this law has brought about is evident in the amount of space devoted to that topic, as opposed to the amount of space devoted to the passing of the act in Congress and the purpose of the museum.
Wunder, Susan. “Learning to Teach for Historical Understanding: Preservice Teachers at a Hands-on Museum.” The Social Studies (Washington, D.C.) 93.4 (2002): 159–163. This article is about student teachers engaging in the development of interactive educational exhibit experiences for students visiting the museum on class field trips. This article posits the idea that when teachers spend time in museums while they are training for the career, they are better prepared to take their future students on museum trips. It also supports the idea that teachers need to be consulted during the development of exhibitions that are going to be used as teaching tools. While the project was analog, not digital, it still offered powerful qualitative commentary that demonstrates the teachers’ engagement. It is suggested that professional development in museums is valuable to educators and leads to a more resourceful teacher and engaging learning experiences.