The Museum-Ed Blog 
The Docent Source Book Wiki
January 15th, 2007 by adminWe’ve had it in mind for some time to create a collaborative resource for the development of effective docents, (or gallery guides) and are thinking of it as kind of a test case for a larger museum educator handbook, building on thoughts many of us had in an earlier Museum-Ed blog about handbooks. The idea is to create an online, easily updatable resource for those who work with docents in the form of a “Wiki.” A Wiki is an online tool that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser. It is community driven and corrected.
We’d like to call the Wiki: The Visitor-Centered Docent: A Museum Docent Source Book
We envision a source book that will:
- allow the field to explore gallery teaching in these unique environments at a depth of rigor not possible with more general publications on museum education.
- serve as a pedagogical and organizational handbook and as a source of effective teaching methods to be used in the professional development of new and experienced docents.
- act as a tool for museum educators helping docents develop the vision and skills necessary for teaching museum visitors effectively.
So how do we begin? Some potential chapters and subheadings might be:
Docent Programs with subheadings for setting up a new docent program, docents as adult learners, planning for change
Audiences with subheadings for general, children, youth, teens, college, adults, families, seniors, teachers and special needs
Building Skills with subheadings for group management, questioning strategies, interdisciplinary learning, constructivist learning, learning styles, visual literacy, interpretive strategies
Collections with subheadings for art, history and science
Evaluation
Technology
Museum/School Collaborations
Tell us what you think of our list, and in the coming weeks, we’ll post chapter headings in a Wiki on Museum-Ed and ask experts and friends to write a few introductions for the chapters. Then, we’re hoping you’ll contribute case studies, examples from your own work that teach others about the topics we’ve defined as essential to teaching museum docents. We’re also hoping you’ll gather feedback from docents within your institutions who are representative of the ideas featured in the source book. In essence, we envision the source book to function much like talk@museum-ed.org, with ideas and examples contributed by you, but all organized and preserved around a central theme – museum docents.
July 31st, 2007 at 10:18 am
Did this idea ever go anywhere? I am just starting to learn about the potential of wikis and I think this is a great idea.
And maybe its the place to share a new resource: A website just appeared this summer from the Perpich Center for Arts Education (a state agency here in Minnesota) called Artful Online, that has many art-based thinking and discussion tools for educators. What’s interesting is that it draws from the world of dance ed, writing and literature ed, and visual art tools like VTS. In it, a “tool” for discussion called Critical Response is shared, with audio clip and training materials. Here at the Weisman, over at the Walker and at the MIA, too, we have been exploring Critical Response (and its relationship with our other strategies like VTS) for supporting critical thinking and in docent training.
What is significant about Critical response is the visible emphasis on prior knowledge/schema- what does it remind you of? It is very cool to add that to the discussion….
Here’s the link: http://opd.mpls.k12.mn.us/Critical_Response.html