The museum exhibit as an object of education: the potential of digital applications for teaching history and related disciplines
Abstract
The rapid development of information technology, the availability of information and visual material brings the question of why go to the museum when it is all available on our phones at any time. Nowadays, museum exhibitions can mainly offer the experience of encountering the past that the historical artefacts on display have hidden right inside them.
However, the authenticity of the exhibits goes hand in hand with their fragility. Using the examples of the digital educational apps historylab.cz and the Atlas of the Museum of the Working Class Movement, this paper will offer a way to enable users to appropriate the exhibited objects through their smartphone or laptop for the purpose of analysis and interpretation.
Based on exploratory learning and object-based learning approaches, the user actively explores the meaning and story of the historical artifact.