On-site Learning in Museums: Re-conceptualizations and Re-directions for Museum Education in the Post-pandemic Digital Age

Abstract

As the digital age introduces an increasing amount of media technologies to traditional museum settings, a wealth of literature has found that these technologies are exerting prominent effects on museum visitor experiences. Such technical shifts in essence imply a growing part of communication activities, metaphors of media culture, and implications for technology-empowered learning based on museum institutions. New emphasis is being placed on state-of-the-art definitions of museum-technology, museum-learner, and museum-society relationships, appealing for re-conceptualizations of Museum, Museum Communication, and Museum Education, and therefore inviting communication and media culture scholars to join this discourse. Reviewing upon on-site learning issues discussed in previous museum research, this paper addresses the theoretical needs for present on-site educational practices in museums with re-conceptualizations of several important and operationalizable terms and proposes an interdisciplinary, learner-centred agenda for future museum education research and practices that are facing challenges and potential opportunities from e-learning and digital culture.