This paper proposes how to enhance sharing knowledge among science communicators (SCs) in a museum. Our approach is to use SCROLL system to share learning log, which is defined as a digital record of what learners have learned in the daily life using ubiquitous technologies. One of the important skills of SCs is to create mutual communication with visitors and motivate them to know more. However, they have to acquire this skill from the daily experiences because this skill is not shared among SCs. Also, this skill is not easily taken over because the employment term of SCs is 5 years. In this situation, SCs registers learning logs into SCROLL and their activities are also recorded into video. They have a reflection session using learning logs and video in a week. Both interaction analysis by the expert and data analysis using SCROLL are combined.
Ubiquitous Learning Log (ULL) is defined as a digital record of
what learners have learned in the daily life using ubiquitous
technologies[
This paper describes how SCROLL can be used in a science
museum, called Miraikan in Tokyo. There are science
communicators in Miraikan so that they can link
scientists/engineers with the general public. When a SC
communicates with a visitors, just an explanation of the
technology is not good. One of the important skills of SCs is to
create mutual communication with visitors and motivate them to
know more. However, they have to acquire this skill from the
daily experiences because this skill is not shared among SCs. Also,
this skill is not easily taken over because the employment term of
SCs is 5 years [
Miraikan is the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Tokyo, which is a new type of science museum that links people directly with the new wisdom of the 21st century. At the heart of Miraikan's activities is cutting-edge science and technology. This is state-of-the-art knowledge and innovation, which Miraikan aims to share with the whole of society as part of an enriched human culture.
The role of science communicators in Miraikan is to link scientists/engineers with the general public. They create mutual communication between science and society through activities such as providing demonstrations and explanations on the exhibition floors, planning or producing media, events and exhibits as they investigate the trends behind cutting-edge science and technology research. Miraikan also conducts training programs for external personnel working as science communicators, in order to promote interactive communication between citizens, and scientists and engineers. There are about 50 SCs in Miraikan, who have a variety of background such as engineer, news reporter, and medical staff.
SC has a paper-memo, which includes visitor’s information such as date, place, gender, and the number of the group. Also it includes how to start the communication, and what was told with the visitors. These information is crucial to remind the context of the commutation. These items are stored in SCROLL as a learning log using mobile devices. In addition, the level of interactivity and the level of explanation are added. The higher the level of interactivity is, the better the interaction is. Using a mobile tablet or smartphone, SC inputs data shown in figure 1. SCs also can share the data as shown in figure 2 using SCROLL. Actually, the quiz function is not used in SCs. Instead of quiz, they have a reflection session per a week or so.
The interactions between a SC and visitors are recorded into video. In reflection meeting (fig 3), SCs discuss about the video with interaction analysts (IA) and engineers. Also the learning logs stored in SCROLL are referred in the reflection session at the same time. The IAs create the interaction scripts from the video in order to analyze the contents of the video (fig 4), and find important interactions and gestures. For example, IA pointed out that the standing point of the SC, check the availability of the next showcase, and management of time of visitors are very important at the beginning of the interaction with visitors. Especially, the beginning of interaction are highly significant to attract visitors and to make them want to know more. Therefore, the reflection meeting is essential to integrate the results from quantitative analysis using SCROLL and the results of qualitative (micro and content) analysis. 1. Standing position 2. Glance for the next showcase
3. Time management As of Jan 2014, 28 SCs have stored 580 data in SCROLL (figure 5). SC can analyze them by selecting an attribute of data such as the level of interactivity as shown in figure 6.
This paper describes a learning log system called SCROLL. This paper also proposes how to support science communicators in a science museum by using SCROLL, and shows the role of ULL to integrate the quantitative and qualitative analysis. In the future woks, we will conduct a long time evaluation in Miraikan in Tokyo and create a guideline for SCs.
This research work was supported by JST PRESTO, and the JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research No. 25282059, 25540091 and 21650225 from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports, and Culture in Japan.