Engaged Learning
In order to learn you do not have to be at the edge of your seat ready to absorb whatever your teacher says, however being interested in the subject makes learning a more enjoyable experience for all. This interest can be increased through the use of visuals and interactive activities. Visuals can be seen as pictures, videos, or three dimensional objects while interactive activities can be physical objects to be manipulated or an activity through a digital platform.
The CMNH uses these strategies to engage the people that come to the museum and create an environment that encourages them to return, despite previously seeing the entire museum. These strategies are important for learning and museums because they keep interest levels up and facilitate the learning of knowledge that will be retained in the future.
Before being the Cleveland Museum of Natural History it was HealthSpace Cleveland and “for 70 years, Cleveland's health museum provided engaging exhibits and educational programs for families and school children and [had] become distinguished as a trusted source of unbiased information on human health” (Liu 32). HealthSpace Cleveland (HSC) set up a program to share the information that they were using with other institutions as a way to facilitate distance learning. In order to do so they used “interactive videoconferencing (IVDL),” which at first was most easily accessible to Ohio schools but became more readily available to other states and countries as their funding increased (Liu 32). This technology that they were using in 1999 was relatively new but they understood and used its potential and continued to grow the resources and reach that the program had.
