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MA/PhD Theses Abstracts of Current Students & Alumni |
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Curtis, Kelley (MA), Designing interactive multimedia for the Anthropology Exhibit Gallery (Bird/Weisman), 2003.
Computer-based multimedia offer an alternative means of providing instruction
to learners in two primary, yet disparate, ways. Multimedia can be used
to convey information to learners, or alternatively, learners can make
use of multimedia to impart information. One example of the use of multimedia
technologies at the University of South Florida is an interactive computer
kiosk installed in the Anthropology Exhibit Gallery. The development
of the educational program featured on the kiosk's touchscreen computer
is the subject of this paper. The purpose of the kiosk's program was
twofold: 1) to introduce the field of anthropology to university students
and the general public who visit the Anthropology Exhibit Gallery; and
2) to incorporate training in the creation of multimedia materials into
two departmental project-based courses, Museum Methods and Visual Anthropology.
Designing effective educational programs that take advantage of multimedia
capabilities without losing focus on the user's needs or on the content
being presented is a challenging endeavor. In this paper, I present the
process of designing an interactive multimedia program, and discuss the
critical issues of audience, hardware and software, programming tools
and other technical and design considerations. The development of the
program, furthermore, must be understood within the broader context of
several areas, including anthropology and museums, the role of education
in museums, and exhibitions as a form of media and communication. Finally,
a summary of the project is presented, including a discussion of the
problems and successes encountered and suggested areas for further development.
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