Define a Current Ecosystem: Informal Science Non-Profits

Challenge 1 of the Badges: New Currency for Professional Credentials MOOC

Our first assignment is to consider an industry or community of practice where badges could have a positive impact. As I'm currently working for an informal science non-profit and we are interested in developing a digital badge eco-system, I have chosen to analyze this community of practice.

Describe the Ecosystem

Informal science non-profits include museums, university extension programs and independent non-profits. Not much currently connects these organizations aside from science museums which have their own conference and professional organizations. No organization provides the exact same programming as another and if they do provide similar programming, they are often in different regions. Some address a variety of age groups, other address only students, some only work with teachers and so on. For this particular exercise I'll think of one particular organization in describing stakeholders.

Roles of the Stakeholders

• Learning Providers - Often working on a small budget to provide much needed out-of-school STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) programs to students, teachers and adults. These programs can vary from after-school programs to lectures to hands-on interactive science days. Most programs are inquiry-based rather than lecture style.
• Job Seekers/Learners - Age range can be anywhere from toddlers to retirees, with many focusing on middle/high school learners. These learners often opt-in to the programs on their own so they are not "forced" to learn material as in more formalized programs.
• Employers - This can be a college (for our younger learners) or a science lab position or technology start-up. The possibilities for a STEM education are really endless. Most students in these programs are looking to enter college. Colleges would be looking for leadership skills and content knowledge of science, perhaps even lab experience at more competitive institutions. 

Personas of Learners

• Middle School Student - This learner often participates in informal science programming for the pursuit of their own interests in science. These students often look for hands-on activities and unique experiences outside of school programming.
• High School Student - This learner is starting to prepare for college and is looking for programs of interest to themselves, but also that can help on a college application. Students can also process higher level of information than the middle school student. These students are also exploring the fields of science that might be of interest to them for a career.
• Professional Scientist - Pursues information relevant to their field and often attends lectures. Possibly has more interest in applying science rather than learning additional information as they are already studying in their field. Younger scientists might be interested in learning new information or keeping abreast of ongoing research.
• Hobbyist - These are adults with no plans on using the information for work, but have a significant interest in science. Possibly have collections or dabble in some scientific work.

Before Badges

Take for example the high school student persona. This student is still in school, but perhaps has limited access to STEM education beyond the required coursework and no access to AP, IB, or other advanced coursework. The student pursues their high interest in STEM through an after-school program, but has no record or validation of the accomplishments made through this program, perhaps aside from a letter of recommendation from the group leader. 

Conclusion

There are certainly opportunities for a badge ecosystem within the Informal Science Non-profit community. The special experiences offered through these non-profits are often completely unique from anything these students experience in school. The ability to demonstrate content knowledge or experience from these programs would be of value, especially to the young learner.

Online Learning in Pursuit of Happiness

May marked two years since graduating with my Masters in Museum Studies. I'm finding it much harder to "deaccession the student" as I am continuously seeking out new learning opportunities. Or perhaps I've just deaccessioned to another institution - the internet. At present, I'm enrolled in two massive open online classes (or MOOCs for short) - one for work and one for personal interest. For work, I'm completing a course on Digital Badges through Course Sites. For my personal interest, I'm taking a class in Leadership through Canvas.net.

Over the course of the last few months, I've discovered that I have a passion for women's leadership and online learning. Thus my interest in these two online courses. I think there's an opportunity to combine these two interests as I pursue future educational and career opportunities. For example, at work, we'd like to branch out into providing digital badges and also work on developing a STEM program for girls. Increased educational opportunities have been linked to increased success for women.

At the same time, I'm leading two special groups through the meetup group I manage: STL Nerdy Girls. One group is working on The Happiness Project - a book written on maximizing happiness in your daily life. The other group is a Lean In group for the leaders of STL Nerdy Girls. Part of my Happiness Project is to explore my interests through online learning. My interest in the Lean In group is to explore women's leadership in a practical and supportive manner. I hope to compare my experiences in the Lean In group to my experiences in the LeaderMOOC, as well as share those resources from my LeaderMOOC with the STL Nerdy Girls.

For the next few months, I'll be blogging my responses to assignments in my MOOCs and talking about the future of online learning in the context of museums, feminism and informal education. In addition, I'll focus on how my Happiness Project and Lean In Groups are going.

Museum Event Planning: Top 5 Mistakes

For the past few years, I have been involved in the full process of planning educational events - everything from the inception of an idea to RSVPs to implementation. I've also attended quite a few museum events - always on the lookout to see something new and interesting. Along the way, I have made these mistakes and I've also seen others make these mistakes. Hopefully, you can learn from our mistakes to ensure that your programs run smoothly and effectively.

Mistake #1
Not providing contact information on marketing materials.

It may be an event free and open to the public, but there are many reasons to provide contact information. The local newspaper may see your flyer and want to write a story on your cool event. Someone might want to bring a large group to the event and want more information on if large groups are even allowed. I would urge you to not just include a website either, unless your website clearly shows a direct email or phone number. It's best to include a direct line to someone who can answer questions about the program.

Mistake #2
Not informing key stakeholders of the event.

Working the reception desk of a museum provides great perspective on visitor interaction. I can't tell you how many times a visitor would ask me about an event I didn't know about. I wish I could tell you it was because I was oblivious. More often than not it was because the event had been marketed to the public, but no one had thought to let the front desk know the event was going on. That can make you wonder who else might have been forgotten - custodial, security, your key market?

Mistake #3
Not providing information for medium to large groups.

As someone who runs a fairly successful Meetup group (over 500 members), I have a tough time determining which events we can attend with a larger group and which ones we need to limit. If your event is space limited and you don't provide that information, you could easily wind up with far more people than your event can accomodate.

Mistake #4
Not having a policy for special circumstances.

As non-profits, many of our programs are cost-effective for participants. However, not everyone can even afford a $5 charge. If a person calls asking for special circumstances, it's important to have a policy in place. Perhaps that particular event doesn't have much wiggle room in terms of cost, but your department might be willing to absorb part of the cost. Or perhaps you have a scholarship fund. Whatever the case may be, let staff know the policy in advance so you can avoid the hassle of calling someone back.

Mistake #5
Not providing confirmation as soon as possible.

At my current position, we're in the process of converting to a new software that allows us to send confirmation emails as soon as someone registers for an event. In the meantime, we deal with a number of emails on a weekly, if not daily basis, of people asking if they've been confirmed for an event or not. This is especially difficult when we have such events that have different prices based on first come first serve policy. It's important that people know they're confirmed for an event so they're not left in confusion.

This is obviously not a comprehensive list of the mistakes in planning an event, but they seem to be fairly common in the non-profit community. Can you think of any other mistakes often made by non-profits in planning events?

Museum Gallery Carts Article

Gallery Cart at the Chicago History Museum

Today, I came across an article in Legacy Magazine talking about the Chicago History Museum's gallery carts. It goes into far more description about their process and results. Check it out if you are interested in creating your own gallery carts.

Museum Gallery Carts: Ubiquitous Yet Overlooked

Last year at the Association of Midwest Museums conference, I attended a fantastic session on Gallery Carts. It started off with exploring what we as a group thought of museum gallery carts. Everyone had a response because, well, many museums have gallery carts. 

Photo: Maryland Pink and Green
Art Cart at the Walters Art Museum

At the session, which included a presentation by the Chicago History Museum and a zoo (I unfortunately do not recall the name of this zoo), I was really inspired by the different directions each institution had taken. The Chicago History Museum had redesigned their gallery carts to interact with students, while the zoo had maintained their carts for all visitors. Yet both had transformed their carts from plain, grey boring to exciting, colorful and inviting, reflecting the theme of their institution or specific activity at the cart.

After the session, I attempted to do some investigation into gallery carts. I saw gallery carts everywhere. There were many at the museum I was currently working for and there were others scattered across the many museums I visited. Yet, there was almost no literature on these carts. These carts are known by many names and I tried many variations with little success. The one article (Here Come the Touch Carts) I was able to locate was written in 1976 and can be found by a quick search of Curator. Though it is informative, many things have changed since 1976.

There's plenty of new (as in since 1976) literature out on how visitors learn in museums, what they learn, if they learn at all. Also, the recent trends in museums are toward participation of visitors, creativity and technology. As for gallery carts, the one trend some carts already use is creativity. As you can see in the Art Cart at the Walters Art Museum, visitors are encouraged to create art while at the museum. While it might not be the most creative enterprise on the museum's part, you can't deny that the visitors are at least exploring their creativity.

Since that session in July of last year, I've been thinking a lot about gallery carts and their purpose in museums. What audience should we be designing carts for? Does it depend on the museum? Should carts only talk about one subject or idea or theme? Or should they be multi-purpose and allow facilitators to change out the activities as needed? There are many questions currently unanswered by the museum field.

This summer, I'm going to be thinking quite a bit about gallery carts. Some volunteers and interns will be working on redesigning the gallery carts at my current institution. I'll try to provide some updates throughout the process, thinking about how our museum needs gallery carts to function while bringing in some museum educational theory. 

In the meantime, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Maybe you have an answer to my questions above. Or maybe you have questions of your own. 

I'd possibly like to write a paper on gallery carts based on my experiences this summer. If you're working on a gallery cart project in the near future, it would be great if we could collaborate. Comments are appreciated!