Education & Interpretation

Interpretive Planning for Small Museums

By American Alliance of Museums

Watch this recorded webinar to learn why interpretive planning is an important part of an organizational plan and what to consider in your planning process, including your museum’s education/interpretation philosophy, intended goals and …
Museums and Online Learning: a student’s perspective

By Elizabeth Merritt

Early 19th Century Gallery atCrystal Bridges Last December I visited Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, to brainstorm with their staff about museums and distance education. As Michael Edson has pointed out …
Building the Vibrant Learning Grid

By Elizabeth Merritt

Since publishing “Building the Future of Education: Museums and the Learning Ecosystem,” I’ve been on the prowl for examples of museums creating local “vibrant learning grids” by beginning to weave immersive, experiential learning into the …
Monday Musing: Mirror Mirror

By Elizabeth Merritt

Of course, the answer to that classic question (“who’s the fairest of them all?”) is supposed to be “you—of course. You look fabulous.” But whom can we trust to tell the truth, rather than just saying what we want to hear? When it comes to …
Tangible Things Online: A MOOC about the Study of Stuff

By Elizabeth Merritt

I’m keeping my eye on MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) because they provide a platform through which museums might increase their reach by orders of magnitude. Last year Lisa Mazzola blogged for CFM about MoMA’s dive into the realm of …
Building the Future of Education: A Call to Action

By Elizabeth Merritt

I’m pleased to announce the release of Building the Future of Education: Museums and the Learning Ecosystem. This report shares the great content and provocative ideas that bubbled up in a convening AAM co-organized with The Henry Ford …
The Coming Dementia Epidemic

By Elizabeth Merritt

Demographics are among the most stable of trends. Absent a change in immigration laws or a fatal pandemic, we can forecast the composition of the US population with a pretty high degree of accuracy. Working out the consequences of those …
Khan Academy & Cultural Understanding

By Elizabeth Merritt

Last Fall, CFM and The Henry Ford convened a group of educational practitioners, reformers and funders to explore how museums could become more deeply embedded in K-12 education. The report from that gathering–Building the Future of …
Big Data and the Holy Grail of Museum Metrics

By Elizabeth Merritt

One of the themes covered in CFM’s TrendsWatch 2014 report is the power of big data and data analytics. The ubiquity of internet-connected sensing devices and our relentless use of social media and online commerce generates 2.8 zettabytes …
Monday Musing: the Future of Education, Testing & the Common Core

By Elizabeth Merritt

Weekend before last I was in New Orleans, at the National School Boards Association conference. I was there to talk up the Alliances soon-to-be-released report “Building the Future of Education: Museums & the Learning …