Interactivity and Zoos | Designing Zoos. A recent article by Wayne LaBar, the founder and principal at Alchemy Studios, outlined some of the growing trends in interactivity in museums…and got me to thinking: Are these also trends we are seeing in zoos and aquariums? If not, should they be? Certainly, interactivity in experience and educational opportunities are important aspects of zoo design. However, our industry may not lead the charge due to the simple fact that zoo visitors come to see animals primarily. Interactivity adds to the experience, elevates the excitement, and could serve as an educational platform, but in the end, guests would be happy just getting to see animals. Museums face a more difficult challenge in communicating often abstract concepts to their visitors without the benefit of a cute furry face, and thus seem to be the driving force of innovation on interactivity and interpretation in general.
Let’s take a look at the current trends. Tinkering – Making This one is somewhat limited in zoos and aquariums. Museum games: the kids are all right | Culture professionals network | Guardian Professional. The science of pain isn't an obvious topic of choice for a game. You might argue that a game's focus on fun makes it frivolous and incapable of explaining serious artistic or cultural content.
But fun means engaging, entertaining, challenging, memorable, playful and many more words all perfectly sensible aspirations for a museum exhibit. The team behind the Science Museum's Antenna gallery wanted an interactive to draw the crowds and present the science of pain in a way that would actually interest young minds. So they asked some young minds what they were interested in. Students from Langley Academy contributed ideas throughout the production of OUCH, a game about pain.
Remarkably, after three intense days of brainstorming at Thought Den, we found ourselves returning to the same ideas they suggested when the brief was first written. On reflection it makes sense; children are expert pattern-spotters, hardwired to experiment, test and question. Teens 2012: Truth, Trends, and Myths About Teen Online Behavior. 5 Critical Nonprofit PR Strategy Tips for Marketing to Millennials (DATA) « Know Your Own Bone – Nonprofit Marketing & Online Engagement.
Last week I had the honor of speaking about how to market to millennials at the 30th Annual California Travel Summit in Sacramento, California. There is a lot of information out there on millennials: how we behave and communicate, what we value, what motivates us, and countless articles with tips about how to interact with this generation in the workplace. One thing is for sure: at about 90 million strong, this generation is the largest in human history and will someday – extremely soon – make up the very vast majority of our institutions’ stakeholders, constituents, customers, staff members and supporters.
Millennials are often defined as folks born between around 1980 and 1995. “True Millennials” – those born between 1981 and 1989 who are included in every millennial definitional timeframe and make up a majority of existing millennial data – are at a critical age for the economy. Millennials are public service motivated so right now it is cool to be kind. Colleendilen MPA. Is Too Much Tech Bad for the Modern Teenager? [INFOGRAPHIC] Is tech saturation good or bad for the modern teenager? Arguments can be made either way, but there's no debating that today's teens are more wired than ever.
And digital permeates the lives of young people in general, too. People aged 18-34 have an average of 319 online connections, according to a recent Pew Research Center study. That's compared to an average of 198 connections for the 35-46 group, and the numbers continue to decrease from there. Pew also recently reported that 63% of teenagers text message with friends on a daily basis, compared to 39% who speak on the phone daily and just 35% who interact face-to-face outside of school. But the digital revolution comes with drawbacks. The Internet education portal OnlineSchools.com combined the Kaiser and Pew findings with research from Common Sense Media and other organizations to put together an infographic showing how technology is affecting young people.
Do you think total tech immersion does more to help or hurt teenagers?