JiscMail Logo
Email discussion lists for the UK Education and Research communities

Help for MCG Archives


MCG Archives

MCG Archives


MCG@JISCMAIL.AC.UK


View:

Message:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

By Topic:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

By Author:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

Font:

Proportional Font

LISTSERV Archives

LISTSERV Archives

MCG Home

MCG Home

MCG  March 2012

MCG March 2012

Options

Subscribe or Unsubscribe

Subscribe or Unsubscribe

Log In

Log In

Get Password

Get Password

Subject:

Re: apps and education

From:

Shelley Mannion <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

Museums Computer Group <[log in to unmask]>

Date:

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 17:23:05 +0100

Content-Type:

text/plain

Parts/Attachments:

Parts/Attachments

text/plain (79 lines)

Hi folks,

We've been developing mobile apps for learning here at the British Museum for about two years. We've developed two full-featured native apps in that time and several mini apps which run inside other platforms. All are Android apps and are used in our facilitated schools and families workshops.

Developing apps within an education department or team is fraught with challenges because it requires learning mangers (who are, for the most, focused on face-to-face teaching) to become IT project managers or at the very least informed clients of digital agencies. This requires a new skill set and the ability to engage confidently with geeks and designers.

Budgets for education projects or programmes are usually not large enough to support proper app development. For a native Android or iPhone app you can expect to pay £10,000-25,000 depending on its complexity. We've spent far less on the development of our apps, having reduced costs by using free software, internal staff and generous freelancers eager to work with a well-known museum.

In terms of design, the main issue we've encountered is that nearly all museum mobile app developers try to build us a replacement multimedia guide, which delivers passive content according to 'stops'. This is not our idea of a good learning app, which should have a variety of interactive tasks.

Our first app for a large-scale secondary history project asked students to find objects using Augmented Reality and then rate them according to a set of carefully selected criteria. You can see an example at:
http://vimeo.com/32660849

Our second native app just launched a few weeks ago is a RE activity trail through the Hajj exhibition. It uses features of the phones like the camera and gesture recognition to simulate the experience of going on pilgrimage to Mecca. We took inspiration from the Inception app (http://inceptiontheapp.com/) and RJDJ (http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/rjdj/id290626964?mt=8) for this.

There is great scope for building educational apps, but I think one of the biggest hurdles, for us certainly, will be making the leap from a facilitated experience where we can accommodate less than perfect app performance to teacher self-led activities which can run on students' own devices.

Hope that helps,
Shelley



-----Original Message-----
From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of JONES, Hilary
Sent: 29 March 2012 16:21
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: apps and education

Hello list (this is my first post, though I've been reading silently and lurking for about a year.)

My apologies if this is a post that has come up before. The education team I work in at EH are interested in the idea of developing educational apps, but at the moment, the 'idea of developing' is pretty much as far as we've got, thought-wise, and I thought asking the infinitely-better-placed list members would be the best next step!

So, are there any MCG-ers out there who have thoughts that they'd be willing to share on developing/using/evaluating apps - i.e. what makes good content, or does anyone have any approximate development costings? One of the things I'm most struggling with is calling it an 'educational' app. Surely most apps have educational aspects about them without being badged as 'educational'? [Also, I expect we'll struggle with the cost too, but that's way down the line at the moment...]

Alternatively, please can anyone point me in the direction of apps that you think are great - even if not necessarily education focussed?

I've seen the Museum of London StreetMuseum and Londinium apps (and also approximate costings for this from the HLF digital learning and particpation report: http://www.hlf.org.uk/aboutus/howwework/Pages/Digitalparticipationandlearning.aspx )- but are there more produced by museums/galleries/historic sites that any of you know about please?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts/help you can share/offer.

Hilary *crosses fingers that this posts successfully*

Hilary Jones
Education Resources Manager
English Heritage
The Engine House
Room 1/40
Firefly Avenue
Swindon
SN2 2EH
Tel: 01793 414919
Mob: 07785 393874
www.english-heritage.org.uk/learning<http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/learning>




This e-mail (and any attachments) is confidential and may contain personal views which are not the views of English Heritage unless specifically stated. If you have received it in error, please delete it from your system and notify the sender immediately. Do not use, copy or disclose the information in any way nor act in reliance on it. Any information sent to English Heritage may become publicly available.

Portico: your gateway to information on sites in the National Heritage Collection; have a look and tell us what you think. http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/professional/archives-and-collections/portico/

****************************************************************
       website:  http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/
       Twitter:  http://www.twitter.com/ukmcg
      Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/museumscomputergroup
 [un]subscribe:  http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/email-list/
****************************************************************

Hajj: journey to the heart of Islam
Until 15 April 2012
www.britishmuseum.org/hajj

****************************************************************
       website:  http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/
       Twitter:  http://www.twitter.com/ukmcg
      Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/museumscomputergroup
 [un]subscribe:  http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/email-list/
****************************************************************

Top of Message | Previous Page | Permalink

JiscMail Tools


RSS Feeds and Sharing


Advanced Options


Archives

April 2024
March 2024
February 2024
January 2024
December 2023
November 2023
October 2023
September 2023
August 2023
July 2023
June 2023
May 2023
April 2023
March 2023
February 2023
January 2023
December 2022
November 2022
October 2022
September 2022
August 2022
July 2022
June 2022
May 2022
April 2022
March 2022
February 2022
January 2022
December 2021
November 2021
October 2021
September 2021
August 2021
July 2021
June 2021
May 2021
April 2021
March 2021
February 2021
January 2021
December 2020
November 2020
October 2020
September 2020
August 2020
July 2020
June 2020
May 2020
April 2020
March 2020
February 2020
January 2020
December 2019
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
June 2019
May 2019
April 2019
March 2019
February 2019
January 2019
December 2018
November 2018
October 2018
September 2018
August 2018
July 2018
June 2018
May 2018
April 2018
March 2018
February 2018
January 2018
December 2017
November 2017
October 2017
September 2017
August 2017
July 2017
June 2017
May 2017
April 2017
March 2017
February 2017
January 2017
December 2016
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
August 2016
July 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
February 2016
January 2016
December 2015
November 2015
October 2015
September 2015
August 2015
July 2015
June 2015
May 2015
April 2015
March 2015
February 2015
January 2015
December 2014
November 2014
October 2014
September 2014
August 2014
July 2014
June 2014
May 2014
April 2014
March 2014
February 2014
January 2014
December 2013
November 2013
October 2013
September 2013
August 2013
July 2013
June 2013
May 2013
April 2013
March 2013
February 2013
January 2013
December 2012
November 2012
October 2012
September 2012
August 2012
July 2012
June 2012
May 2012
April 2012
March 2012
February 2012
January 2012
December 2011
November 2011
October 2011
September 2011
August 2011
July 2011
June 2011
May 2011
April 2011
March 2011
February 2011
January 2011
December 2010
November 2010
October 2010
September 2010
August 2010
July 2010
June 2010
May 2010
April 2010
March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998


JiscMail is a Jisc service.

View our service policies at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/policyandsecurity/ and Jisc's privacy policy at https://www.jisc.ac.uk/website/privacy-notice

For help and support help@jisc.ac.uk

Secured by F-Secure Anti-Virus CataList Email List Search Powered by the LISTSERV Email List Manager