This project continues the research originally supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (2008-2009) on the future of libraries and museums as mixed reality learning sites. Early research focused on a review of the (informal educational) role of emergent technologies in museums and libraries. Current research focuses on the notion of “tinkering as a mode of knowledge production in a digital age.” The next phase of the project will explore the design of community spaces for making and tinkering.  The aim is to create a community based informal learning space that serves as the context for the cultivation of the technological imagination.  The project will develop a prospectus for the development of a public community make-space that provides access 1) to a range creative tools (including hand tools as well as digital media making systems), 2) multi-generational mentors, 3) a social networking infrastructure that connects learners and mentors, and 4) a set of tools to organize the transactions among network participants.

Blog posts:

Inspiring the Technological Imagination: Museums and Libraries in a Digital Age by Anne Balsamo

Libraries: Setting the Context. From National Efforts to Create Digital Archives to Local Efforts at Access Equality. by Maura Klosterman

Digital Media in Community Libraries, Part 1: Mobile Media by Cara Wallis

Digital Media in Community Libraries, Part 2: Teen Websites by Susana Bautista

Digital Media in Community Libraries, Part 3:  Games and Gaming by Anne Balsamo and Stacy Ingber

Digital Media in Community Libraries, Part 4:  The Case for Virtual Libraries by Anne Balsamo

Digital Media in Community Libraries, Part 5: Media Workshops by Maura Klosterman

Museums: Setting the Context by Anne Balsamo

Mobile Experiences in Art Museums by Susana Bautista

Museum Collections: Digitization → Dissemination → Dialogue by Susana Bautista

Virtual Museums:  Where to Begin? by Anne Balsamo

Online (art) Museum Experiences by Susana Bautista

Learning from the Edges, Part 1: The Importance of Play by Cara Wallis and Maura Klosterman

Learning from the Edges, Part 2: Technologies of Participation by Anne Balsamo

The Future of Museums and Libraries in a Digital Age: A Bibliography of Resources and Weblinks by Anne Balsamo