Head of Online Education, Art Museum

Assistant Professor, College of Information

Senior Research Associate, Learning Research Firm

Director of Education, Science Institute

CEO and Director, New Media company USA

PhD. Student, University of South Australia
International Graduate School of Business

Museum Educator,
Cultural Heritage Museum

1) Have you had experience in working with museums/school partnerships and collaborations?

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes, The Institute has had numerous school partnerships over the years.

At the moment, the signature partnership is our new SLA which opened in September 2006. Right now, the first group of freshman are finishing their first year. The School District of XXX approached The Institute about partnering to develop a small high school dedicated to science leadership. The school will ultimately have about 500 students. It's a magnet school...students apply and are considered based on recommendations and expressed interest in science and technology (not necessarily on academic achievement.)

Yes

Yes, in a variety of forms, with direct collaborations, or mediated through a larger education agency.

Yes

2) If yes, how may projects have you worked on?

1 overall project with 12 schools to date, hopefully 15 schools by June 07

Depends on how you define museum/school partnerships. :-)  While working as a museum professional, I worked on at least half a dozen different museum/school collaborations, mostly online educational outreach type projects.  While working as a university professor, I have supervised two or three collaborations with local museums where university students worked with museum professionals (primarily on digitization projects).

Hard to remember, but perhaps    5-6.

Hmmm...it's hard to say how many. Over my 13 years, I can think of about 7 projects with which I've been involved, although to varying degrees.

Major one was Zoo project that one Best of the Web a few years ago. Did quite a bit of development for school and family connections there, including printout PDF activities.  I tend to do more of my “StoryKiosk” work which is based on a model of visitor storytelling, and when possible, I try to prepare a teacher resource for that (2 page printout activity).  I’m working with Productions on an installation at the National Archives in DC devoted exclusively to use by school groups, where groups have an experience in the archives and then prepare a media report that they all watch on big screen.

3 major programs involving a large number of individual schools

2

3) If yes, how may projects have you worked on?

Project leader/evaluator

With the museum/school projects, I was responsible for designing and developing the online tools used by the students in the projects.
With the university/museum projects, I supervised university students working with the museums.

 I was the researcher and/or evaluator so: convening focus groups, interviewing students and teachers, advising the museum, reviewing curriculums, testing curriculum and games, analyzing responses, working with the museum to improve.

I am somewhat involved with the SLA, although less so now than I was in the beginning. I participated in the planning for the school and, during the first few months, worked directly with the students one day a week.

During the mid-1990s, I was the director for a project that connected The Institute with a K-8 public school for about 4 years during which we developed and delivered professional development programs and projects that helped teacher learn how to use the Internet to support science inquiry. It was a whole-school change model funded by the National Science Foundation.

From 1998-2003, I co-directed a project, also funded by NSF, called the
Keystone Science KSN, which formed an alliance of schools and science teachers throughout Eastern XXX. We delivered professional development events and online curricular companions.

I've also been involved with the NSF Math Science Partnership project in the School District of XXX for the past four years. Before that,
I was involved with the Urban Systemic Initiative and Partnership
projects. I wasn't the director of any of these, but I played a part in
all of them, helping teachers use technology effectively in science
education.

I'm also responsible for the Educator Advisory Committee at The Institute which is a group of 25 teachers who meet with me 3 times a year to act as a focus group for us in our planning of exhibits and programs.

The Zoo was a 2-year project, National Archives an 8-month project. Storykiosk installations tend to be about 4-6 months from start to finish.
 

Project initiator, project manager, project supervisor

 In one project I trained teachers how to make an in-school and online exhibition with their students to explore their students' Jewish heritage and family histories.  The teachers provided us with feedback on the website that we are building for this purpose. 
In the second project I acted in a support role to facilitate the creation of an interfaith exhibition between one Jewish and one Muslim school. 

4) What is the average amount of time (days, weeks, and months) that you have devoted to developing a collaborative project (from inception to launch)?

Project planning and introductory workshop: approx 21 days over c. 6 months
Project implementation: 15 days over 10 months

Varies tremendously by project, especially since most projects continue to evolve after launch.
I'd say on average development takes around 3-4 months, but there's a large standard deviation!

 It varies widely depending on my role, but a median time of 5 weeks per year.

 That varies, of course, but I would say it averages to about half of my
time.

Highly variable, the larger ones took months, as there was usually grant funding process to establish the process.

By the end of the first project I mentioned I will have spent 1 1/2 years on the project.  I spent about 3 days on the second project.

5) On a scale of 1-5 (one being the least, 5 being the most), have these experiences been successful and have they met their goals?

4

I'd say most experiences have been a 4 out of 5. We've been very lucky with our collaborations.

4

Yes, all of the projects have been successful and have met their goals.
Certainly, some have been more successful than others, but we've never
really had a bad experience. (At least not during my 13 years there.)

But, it may be a smidge early to declare the SLA partnership as a full
success yet. It's going well, but there have certainly been bumps.

Awareness of constraints on teacher time
Ability to develop imaginative plans that students are excited about
Awareness of media capabilities, both high end and low end (PDFs are great and often underutilized)
Availability of time to make them work and to follow up

I would say 4/5 I think they often tend to meet predetermined goals only partially and often achieve results not expected which are equally or more valuable to the collaborators.  Most collaborations seem to involve a lot of mutual learning between schools and museums, which means original expectations and goals often change in the course of the project.

4

6) What are the 5 primary skill sets required in the creation of these collaborations?

• Project conceptualization and planning
• Scheduling and logistics
• Teaching with objects in the museum and with images on a web site
• Designing an evaluation to address specific outcomes
• Evaluating and creating a report about the projects and use of the web site in each school

It's hard to identify five specific skills, but I'd say the most important skills are not in the use of technology itself, but in the
• ability to assess information needs,
• to work with the users of the system, and
• to coordinate educational activities among all the different participants, from content creators, to teachers, to students, to museum professionals.

Satisfying the needs of all the project participants is far more difficult that developing the actual technological systems.

Organizational skills
Management skills
Flexibility and willingness to try out ideas, openness to change
Patience
Observation/Ability to reflect

1. Pragmatism. It's very important to be pragmatic, and realistic.
Understand that a partnership with the museum can be a win-win, but the
schools may not be able to turn on a time.

2. Have good content. If you don't deliver high quality programs that
teachers value, nothing else will matter.

3. Personalities matter. Veteran teachers have little tolerance for amateurs.

4. Nurture the seeds. Partnerships take time to grow strong roots. They
need to be nurtured...and not always with more and more programs.
Sometimes just a fun outing is what's needed.

5. Institutional support, of course, is important. Without high-

Patience and persistence: there are often many institutional barriers that make collaborations difficult both on the school and museum side.
 
Resourcefulness: As chronically under funded institutions, collaborations between museums and skills are always drawing on the willingness of individuals to do more than they are paid for, to find ways to do things 'on the cheap', and to be creative in bringing in resources.
 
Awareness of what a community needs: All school communities are not the same.  It is important to adjust any program to the particular skills and needs of the school community involved.
 
Ability to make something sustainable:  Too many projects are done as one offs. What schools need is something that is sustainable, that creates a chain of mutual value that will motivate all participant to continue.
 
Obviously communication skills and the ability to get stakeholder buy in are essential too.

Patience, listening skills, communication skills, flexibility, planning/managerial skills 

7) What are the 5 main milestones designated in the process?

• Determining the effectiveness of trying to model our teaching methodologies in the design and functionality of the web site
• Observing how students use the web site and respond to the images without the intervention of a museum educator
• Discovering how teachers and students use the web site in unexpected and imaginative ways
• Finding out which of the site’s resources and features are actually most useful for classroom teaching and learning
• Using what we learned from these collaborations to inform future developments on the web site

Again, this varies from project to project, but any project needs to include

• information needs assessment,
• an iterative design process with extensive user testing and redesign,
• pilot testing of the beta version of the project, and
• formative and summative evaluations during and after each project.
• There has to be a constant focus on evaluation and testing throughout the project life cycle.

Development of concept and team
Obtainment of funding
Design Phase
Initial Implementation
Refinement

Milestones vary. For our partnerships, milestones are frequently
associated with the terms of a grant. Like, for example, certain
objectives need to be met at the end of each year.

Generally speaking, milestones tend to be event-based. Like, if we're
working on projects together, culminating events provide an opportunity to
showcase what we've done. Those celebratory moments are important, and
often serve as turningpoints for the partnership.

Last semester, the kids in the SLA created presentations about topics in
the exhibits in the museum. Then, in December, each group presented to the
whole school and museum community. That event was a real
milestone...something we were working toward and then achieved together.

I know that's not really 5 milestones, but I can't really think of any
others.

• Shared vision and agreement on desired outcomes for each party.
• Identification of stakeholders and key players
• Establishment of goals and project plan
• Buy in at the CEO level in both organizations
• Funding commitment

As I was not the primary leader on the second project I will only discuss the first.
1.  Discover the needs of stakeholders
2. Develop the website
3. Train Teachers to use the curriculum and the website
4. Refine the website and worksheets
5. Develop video to further support teacher training

8) Who initiated the collaborative projects that you worked on? Were they internally driven or did they come from the partner (or other) institution?

We (the XXX Ed dept) initiated the collaborative projects

That's an interesting question.

With the museum/school collaborations I worked on, often a school would approach us first, and we would develop a project together, but then we might approach other schools with similar ideas later on.

With the university/museum collaborations, it's mostly been museums contacting us to assist them with their projects.

About 85% from the other partner organizations.

Most of the projects have been internally driven, although frequently with the external partner being a co-conspirator. But, generally speaking, I'm usually involved with projects where my own institution is considered the lead. Often, that has to do with funding structures. As a non-profit with an established name, history, and reputation, we often have access to funding opportunities that our partners might not. (The School District pops to mind as one example.)

Even when we act as "the lead," though, we always involve our partners from the very earliest stages as true, equal partners. Without that collaborative engagement from the get-go, the odds of ultimate success for the project decrease significantly.

We were contacted about the l Zoo project, but suggested particular activities to them. (They knew they wanted to connect with classrooms, but didn’t have a specific plan).
 
The dialogue was a good thing – they more we spoke on the subject, the more they signed up for! :-)

We initiated both the project and the collaboration