Wrong assumptions.
Wrong assumptions.

Wrong assumptions.

This is effectively my take on the piece “The picture didn’t tell the whole story” was written by John Arendt in 2017 in his column for Summerland Review (https://www.summerlandreview.com/opinion/column-the-picture-didnt-tell-the-whole-story-4138835). The article centres around the image above showing a group of young people seated in an art gallery looking at their phones next to the famous old painting “The Night Watch” by Rembrandt painted in 1642. Posted onto social media without explanation, the immediate assumption taken by many was that the young people were not interested in the painting and would rather be looking at the content on their phones. However, the reality was quite the opposite – the young people were actually engaging in the painting, finding out additional information about it via their phones and becoming more engaged with the painting than they may have been by just standing there and looking it.

The use of smart devices to help teach and/or provide additional materials is very long-standing. Take for instance the image below.

smart phone being used to research information in a museum
Students using smartphones to help with study at a museum (c) Kit Logan 2005

It’s from a research project I was involved with back in 2005 where part of the research had students using a smartphone to find out more information about the exhibits at the God’s House Tower, a small local museum in Southampton (apparently it closed in 2011). They were also asked to take pictures and compose short pieces of work about what they had seen. Now,, if you had seen this at the museum without seeing what was on their screens, would you have assumed they were just engaged with their phone and not with the museum visits?

Many museums, historical attractions and other places of interest have turned to the advantages that smart devices can deliver. Even when writing this now I still remember visiting in 2015 the Chateau Chambord in France and appreciating their use of technology, via pads that could be hired out, to provide among other things augmented reality (AR) showing some of the rooms as they might have looked in the past. Holding the pad up – as you turned and viewed the room via the pad additional features and points of interest would be presented on the screen. As part of this they also included an AR treasure hunt for children to find all the features around the castle, encouraging them to explore and use their devices to find the hidden treasures around the rooms.

At Chateau Chambord you hired a tablet PC with preinstalled software. At the end of the visit, you returned the pad and got your security deposit back which I think may have been needing to leave an official form of ID with them. However, this also had it drawbacks, such as queuing to collect and return the devices with additional time involved in processing deposits, etc. For the chateau itself amongst other things it had the disadvantage of high cost of initial outlay and the ongoing cost in maintenance of devices and software. Nowadays, with smart devices being both much more ubiquitous, more powerful (able to handle more complex programs such as AR) and also better data transmission rates, museums and attractions are becoming more reliant on a bring your own device (BYOD) approach and visitors only need to download a bespoke app either at the venue or in advance to access the additional information and interaction that can be delivered via the App. Less queuing means greater throughput, visitors have more time engaging and overall a better experience. Like some schools that have a BYOD policy this also means that the attraction doesn’t have the problems of outlay and maintenance of machines. Mainly the outlay in the development of the app to be downloaded and its upkeep.

Portable technology like tablet PC and smartphones in particular are exceptionally powerful educational engagement tools when used correctly. And there’s a whole different conversation about that, but I feel that we are all too ready to demonise technology. Nowadays when somebody is spending their time looking at their phone they get castigated by others who feel they should be looking at what is going on around them. Sure there are times when it’s better not to be looking at our phones, like crossing a road, etc. However, is that any different to the past when we spent our time looking at newspapers or reading books? We’re doing the same now. It’s just that books, audiobooks, podcasts and plays, music, games, films, news, reviews, etc as well as museum guides, discussions and various other types of educational content are all now available via one easily portable device.

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