Young Visitors Research Articles

The Annual Meeting of the Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies: Atlanta, Georgia, USA November 20–21, 2015

The Annual Meeting of the Society for Buddhist-Christian StudiesAtlanta, Georgia, USA November 20–21, 2015 Sandra Costen Kunz, SBCS Secretary Each year the SBCS, as a “Related Scholarly Organization” of the American Academy of Religion, holds its annual meeting concurrently with AAR’s annual meeting. For many years the pattern has been to hold our board meeting on Friday morning and early afternoon; to offer at least two panels, paper sessions, or other type of presentation (sometimes in conjunction with other scholarly organizations); and to hold our annual members meeting following one of these sessions. Usually a session is scheduled for late Friday afternoon, followed by a dinner gathering, often hosted by a local Buddhist or Christian community. governing board meeting This year’s Friday board meeting began with member Ruben Habito’s leading us in a moment of silence for Rita Gross, who had died nine days prior. One of the society’s founders and a clarion voice within AAR, Rita served as co-editor of the society’s journal and in almost every other capacity. After the agenda and minutes were approved, the board approved the report from treasurer Glenn Willis, who noted, happily, that the new online renewal system is working well and that members would be emailed renewal reminders. The journal co-editors’ report from Carol Anderson and Thomas Cattoi was followed, first, by thanks for their fine work during their first year and then by discussions about copy-editing, the role and tasks of the editorial board, and how to memorialize Rita Gross. Sid Brown was approved for another term as book review editor, with much gratitude for her work. Editor Jonathan Seitz’s thoughtful newsletter report suggested ways to get new members onto the mailing list and to facilitate communication within the society and preserve our institutional history. After brief consideration of alternatives, it seemed wise to stick with the current newsletter format. [End Page 205] The Nomination Committee reviewed officer, board, and committee vacancies and needs, followed by discussion of which scholars might be approached to fill these positions. (Society officers are ex-officio board members.) Much of the meeting was devoted to the report of the new Social Media and Website Committee, which was greeted with kudos for the lovely new website, especially for the work of board member Judith Simmer-Brown and her daughter, Alicia Brown. After some brainstorming about website images, the board’s Executive Committee was authorized to allocate funds for these. Judith’s summary of the new site’s traffic noted more than 1,600 visitors, including many Asian, European, and young visitors and followers. Fifty-two memberships were processed online. In light of this committee’s importance for the society’s future, the board initiated the process to amend the bylaws to make it a standing committee with ex-officio board membership for the chair. The board gratefully accepted Ayo Yetunde’s offer to do website housekeeping, pending the members meeting’s approval. David Gardiner, chair of the Streng Book Award Committee, announced that this year’s award went to former board member Amos Yong’s Cosmic Breath: Spirit and Nature in the Christianity-Buddhism-Science Trialogue. Committee member Tom Hasting’s insightful newsletter review of the book was noted. David Gardiner was approved for another term as the committee’s chair. John Makransky, chair of the Program Committee, noted that everyone was invited to their lunch meeting to discuss session topics for next year. The Membership Committee, co-chaired by the treasurer and secretary, discussed how its composition might be reworked to best foster the society’s growth. The board suggested bylaws changes to effect that. Final Governing Board business included potential bylaws changes to clarify the role of international advisors. Discussion of an international conference was postponed until this role is solidified and such leadership needed for conference planning is in place. 2015 sessions and shambhala visit The board meeting was followed by the society’s session “What’s Wrong with Us? What’s Wrong with the World?” chaired by Alice Keefe with Thomas Cattoi, Glenn Willis, Roger Haight, and Hsiao-Lan Hu presenting and Kristen Largen responding. A lively discussion followed their...

Designing museum exhibits that facilitate visitor reflection and discussion

ABSTRACTThis paper explores how four design principles (curiosity, challenge, narratives and participation) facilitate reflection and discussion among young visitors in the issues-based exhibition Dear, Difficult Body. The investigation is based on a mixed-method approach combining questionnaire and interview data. The implementation of design principles resulted in a variety of exhibits which variously prompted reflection and discussion on the part of visitors. Exhibits with narratives, for example, here defined as both personal and expert narratives, were found to be effective in facilitating personal reflection but also prompted discussion. Participation, defined as including both physical interaction with exhibits, and dialogic interaction between visitors, facilitated the sharing of ideas and feelings between visitors. Exhibits with elements of curiosity and challenge were found to attract pupils’ attention but also worked well with other design principles to engage the pupils in sustained reflection and discussion. While other contextual factors remain significant in determining visitor responses, this paper argues that the use of design principles can help create visitor experiences that correspond to exhibition aims.

Media Technology Creating “Sermonic Events.” The Hillsong Megachurch Network

Media Technology Creating “Sermonic Events.” The Hillsong Megachurch Network Miranda Klaver Global megachurch networks like Hillsong having its center at the megachurch in Sydney, Australia, are becoming important research sites to understand how the integration of new media technology in worship services affects and even transforms liturgical practices. The Hillsong megachurch network, like most Evangelical and Pentecostal churches, regards media technology as positive. It provides access to mass audiences and enables Hillsong to extend its network and mission of spreading the gospel and planting churches. On the basis of ethnographic research in Hillsong New York City and Hillsong Amsterdam, I discuss new modes of preaching practices enhanced by the possibilities of media technology. I argue that, because live preaching is accompanied by real‐time video casting of the preacher on screens and showing sermons on video has become an acceptable substitute for live preaching, the Hillsong megachurch network challenges the characteristics of live preaching in terms of coherence between time and place, embodiment, and performance. Alternatively, the sermon is transformed into a “sermonic event” that can be reproduced across limits of time, place and context. Hillsong megachurch network targeting global cities Since the turn of the century the Pentecostal Hillsong megachurch in Sydney has established a rapidly growing global network of new churches in urban centers in Australia, Europe, South Africa, and recently in the United States. The success of the Hillsong sites in Amsterdam (founded in 2009) and New York City (founded in 2010), attracting respectively more than 1,200 and 7,000 mainly young visitors on a regular Sunday, is remarkable against the backdrop of secularization and de‐churching in the Western world. It signals a new trend of global cities becoming hot spots for global networks of connected churches. Media saturated megachurches are at the center of innovative global religious networks that successfully “franchise” churches in global cities in different parts of the world. While attention for global religious networks is usually studied from a perspective of migration and reverse mission, a recent new phenomenon is the establishment of global networks by Western based megachurches. Key features of megachurch networks are their size, Evangelical/Pentecostal background, unwaveringly growth‐oriented vision, shared cosmopolitan lifestyle and the integration of the latest digital media technologies in their religious practices and organizational structures. Megachurch networks like Hillsong share a world‐affirmative orientation stressing relevance over truth and hold a materialistic view of salvation often captured by the term “prosperity” gospel. They offer cosmopolitan spaces of community and identity formation beyond categories of ethnicity and race. Additionally, megachurch networks are supported by extensive online media practices in the form of videos, blogs, live streaming and continuous updates of the church, pastors, and other leaders through social media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Periscope, accessible 24/7. The integration of media technology in Hillsong's worship services is part of the larger trend among contemporary Evangelical/Pentecostal churches that validates technology as a God given opportunity which can be used for proclaiming the good news of the gospel and the production of entertaining church services that mirror the surrounding media‐savvy popular culture. This raises the question how the integration of media technology fosters new liturgical practices. When I conducted ethnographic fieldwork at two locations of the Hillsong megachurch network in New York City and Amsterdam, I encountered several modes of preaching practices that depart from common Evangelical practices of the sermon as lecture, often supported by PowerPoint projections. Preachers on stage were also real‐time casted on the screens and often videos of sermons were shown when no live speaker seemed available. These observations led me to investigate and reflect upon new emerging sermonic practices I encountered in Hillsong NYC and Hillsong Amsterdam and the implications of integrating media technology in liturgical settings. Liturgy and technology The Hillsong megachurch network is unique in creating a globally shared church experience beyond the cultural and contextual differences in the church locations in different parts of the world. Hillsong's worship services display a remarkable similarity in worship space, liturgy, sound, leadership style, and organizational structure. They are usually held in theaters and clubs and resemble multi‐media spectacles like rock concerts with the use of...

The mediation of information technology on visitors’ experience at a cultural heritage site

ABSTRACTThis study identifies perceptual differences between the experiences of using an interactive ubiquitous access tourism service (U-tourism service) at a cultural heritage site and on-site participation-driven services. An interactive U-tourism service, “Hwaseong Haenggung Histour”, a smart phone application, was developed and implemented for this study. The study found (a) visitors who experienced the U-tourism service showed higher recognition on such dimensions as education, novelty, entertainment and fellowships, regarded as important components of on-site experiences, than those who joined on-site participation-driven services and (b) young visitors who used the interactive U-tourism service recorded higher in the dimensions of both education and novelty than those who joined on-site participation-driven services and showed higher satisfaction. These findings provide strong justification for the introduction of U-tourism services, particularly for young visitors. This study contributes to the understanding of a fast-growing and influential electronic tool for cultural heritage sites.

Integrating a Location-Based Mobile Game in the Museum Visit

Location-based systems currently represent a suitable solution to enhance cultural experiences inside museums, as they can satisfy visitors’ needs through the provision of contextualized contents and services. In this framework, a promising approach to captivate the attention of teenagers—a hard to please target audience—is represented by mobile serious games, such as playful activities aiming to primarily fulfil educational purposes. The use of a mobile digital tool during the visit definitely discloses new opportunities for contextual learning scenarios; however, so far, only a few studies have analysed the impact of different communication approaches on visitors’ degree of exploration and acquisition of knowledge. This work aims to enrich this field of research, presenting the conceptual framework; the design principles; and the evaluation results of “Gossip at palace,” a location-based mobile game integrating a storytelling approach. The game was developed for an Italian historical residence to communicate its 18th-century history to teenagers, capitalizing on narrative and game mechanics to foster young visitors’ motivations to explore the museum and facilitate their meaning-making process. Following a mixed-methods perspective, the article firstly describes to what extent the components of the application were appreciated by teenagers as well as by other visitor segments. Secondly, it provides an insight on the effectiveness of the game in facilitating the acquisition of historical knowledge by participants, enriched by considerations on the methods to be adopted when evaluating mobile learning in informal educational settings. Thirdly, players’ degree of use of the digital game throughout the visit is compared to analogous patterns registered for people using a multimedia mobile guide in the same venue. On the one hand, the study pointed out that the game facilitated a wider exploration of the museum; on the other, it highlighted that players mainly gained a superficial knowledge of the proposed contents.

The journey as concept for digital museum design

This article discusses The Journey as a metaphor for design and development of the app Kunstporten (Art gate) for mobile and iPod. The goal of the project was to go beyond traditional mobile guides and support young visitors' various and contiguous experiences with art. The project involved seven Norwegian art museums over the period 2012–2013. The article focuses on the choices and challenges we as museum professionals met during the design of the app. It reports on how the dialogic concept of museum communication, integrated in the metaphor of The Journey, was shaped and adjusted in the design, planning and development of modules, multimedia content and procedural structure that may support art experience as a journey. The article describes considerations undertaken by museum practitioners in processes of creating museum communication that goes across multiple mediational platforms.

Merseyside memory resource launched by Angela Rippon

British Journal of Healthcare AssistantsVol. 8, No. 4 Health MattersMerseyside memory resource launched by Angela RipponPeter BradleyPeter BradleySearch for more papers by this authorPeter BradleyPublished Online:15 Apr 2014https://doi.org/10.12968/bjha.2014.8.4.206AboutSectionsView articleView Full TextPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail View article FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails 1 April 2014Volume 8Issue 4ISSN (print): 1753-1586ISSN (online): 2052-4420 Metrics History Published online 15 April 2014 Published in print 1 April 2014 Information© MA Healthcare LimitedPDF download

Youth at play: some observations from a science museum

This paper explores the nature of playfulness in young people. Observations and a small-scale questionnaire study consider the characteristics of, and dispositions towards, playfulness in a particular setting: the Thai Toy gallery of the National Science Museum in Thailand. While not initially seen to be a ‘zone of play’, the gallery has deliberately invoked a sense of play through the use of toy-making activities. A small sample of 60 young visitors to the museum was invited to make-and-play activities with traditional Thai toys as part of their family groups, and exploratory data were collected to explore their behaviours and self-ratings of playfulness. These young visitors largely enjoyed the activities, and in their responses to the questionnaire portrayed themselves as happy, funny and cheerful. A very small minority proved to be more solemn, distant and unengaged by the event. The paper discusses further work to be done in this area.

해양스포츠 방문객의 연령별 참여동기와 고객행동의도 간의구인동등성 검증 및 다중집단분석

This study was aimed at exploring various aspects to develop mraine sports by analyzing the relationshipamong different characteristics of marine sports and their difefrences by age group. In particular, this stud yanalyzed the relationship between participation motivation andc onsumer behavior of marine sports spectatorsby age group and examined how to apply it to actual marine sports development. This study was aimed atanalyzing the structural tendencies between marine sports and spectators by examining the results of previousanalysis. The findings are as follows. The results suggest tha tmarine sports managers should strive to boos tthe factors related to novelty, education and deviation, althoguh amusement led to satisfaction and revisit o f20-something visitors. As for those in their 40s, education an ddeviation led to satisfaction and revisit. However,novelty and amusement were perceived as negative aspects among them. Since they are the group mostlikely to revisit, as discussed above, managers should striveo t offer diverse programs that appeal to them. A sfor 50-something visitors, amusement, rather than education, lde to satisfaction and revisit. Such results ind-icate that older visitors are more likely to seek emotions theyra rely feel in their daily lives. As each group ha ssuch characteristics, the managers and executives of marine sports should offer customized programs that appealto each age group. For example, they could prepare seasons-pecific suits or provide new safety equipment. Also, the officials should strive to improve the marine sports environment to engage visitors in their 20sand 30s, who can affect the future marine sports development. It is better than focusing on visitors in their 40sand 50s just because they had the biggest influence on marine sports development, according to the findings. Although young visitors might not be as financial secure as oledr visitors, more approachable marine sportsenvironment could attract more visitors.

A “delightful resort for persons of all ages, and more especially for the young”: Children at Bristol Zoo Gardens, 1835–1940

Bristol Zoo Gardens has provided a leisure space for people of all ages since it first opened to the public on July 11, 1836. Changes in that space over time reflect the management’s evolving priorities. The story is generally one of increasing provision of activities specifically aimed at children, both for education and entertainment, particularly from the turn of the twentieth century. This has resulted in the common conception of zoos as primarily places for young visitors. Examining the experiences of children themselves shows how they have responded to this provision and how they have appropriated space for their own enjoyment. This article contributes to the growing discipline of childhood studies by exploring the place of children in zoological gardens, using Bristol as a case study. Making the most of the very limited sources depicting children’s perspectives (an essay and postcards written by children) in combination with sources created by adults (minute books, correspondence, guidebooks, and newspaper articles), the article makes some preliminary observations about the extent of children’s agency in the Zoo and about how children’s experiences have differed from the expectations of their seniors in providing a space for children to enjoy.

Leonardo da Vinci: changing approaches to teaching and learning.

Il Mondo di Leonardo (The World of Leonardo) exhibition is one of the most important cultural events in Milan in 2013–14. At the heart of the town, in the prestigious King's Rooms at Piazza della Scala, we can rediscover the world-renowned artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci through working models of his machines, digital restorations of his paintings, and more than 200 three-dimensional interactive reconstructions. In addition to his artistic works, the Codices of Leonardo are displayed in virtual format via multimedia stations, allowing hands-on interaction. It is possible to learn by observing and doing, in a manner not unlike what usually happens in general medicine teaching and learning: you can paint The Last Supper, build a wooden bridge, make a device supporting a man flying and so on. Visitors can read page-by-page Leonardo's hand-written documents, such as the Atlantic Codex, Manuscript B and the Codex on the Flight of Birds, and easily understand them. They can also interact with his robot, clavi-viola, mechanical lion, programmable cart, tank, multi-barreled cannon and submarine, getting to grips with Leonardo's inventions as never before. For the first time, it is possible to see marvels such as the ‘Flying Machine of Milan’, as well as Leonardo's project for the highest tower in Europe and the Sforza Monument; one of the biggest equestrian monuments in the world, which was realised in metal in the last century by an American millionaire and sent to Milan, where it is now exhibited at the entrance to the hippodrome. There is also a dedicated space for young visitors, Leonardo's Laboratory, where children can learn how to assemble Leonardian machines and print their own inventors' certificates. The digital restoration of The Last Supper enables visitors to discover details and colours previously thought to be lost forever. In one recently added section, visitors can see the Manuscript of Wonders, with more than 150 three-dimensional and interactive models of machines never before seen. ‘The Time Machine’ is born of the Manuscript; one of Leonardo's most futuristic and surprising devices. Folders 33v and 34r, always described as ‘mechanical drawings’, include the designs for a moto perpetuo (perpetual motion) machine, a system of programmed boxes using energy from an inverted mill and mercury as a propelling force that was supposed to provide unlimited energy to Leonardo's ‘ideal town’. In Milan, the genius Leonardo was frenetically busy; working as a painter, sculptor, engineer, architect, designer and playing many other roles too. But his foremost project, the dream of his life, greater than the Sforza equestrian monument, more emotionally moving than any painting or artistic work, was human flight. He studied and worked on it in secret, waiting for the right moment to unveil it to the public. Leonardo's drawings and projects on flight were secret and well hidden: no one saw them because Leonardo wanted to maintain his privacy. In Folder 749 of the Atlantic Codex one can see the advanced project for ‘the secret flying machine from Milan’. One can imagine Leonardo in his secret room near the duomo (cathedral), in the evening, by candlelight, after a long day spent at his many duties, after painting part of The Last Supper, always thinking of his most important project, his dream. This was the cause of Leonardo's concern, making him appear so strange to the others, who did not know his mind or his secret work. The model of the flying machine, prepared by Leonardo near the place where, centuries later, the Royal Palace was built, is now reproduced in its original size – an eight metre wingspan – at the centre of the exhibition. It is one of the most recent, and most innovative additions to the exhibition. Appropriately for an exhibition dedicated to the eclectic and always-active Leonardo, Il Mondo di Leonardo is incredibly diverse and is open all day, every day. It continually develops, adding more reconstructions of his inventions, new interactive stations and increasing numbers of audio guides (now in Italian, English, French, German, Russian and Chinese). As mentioned above, the exhibition's approach to teaching and learning is a central aspect, and thousands of school groups are booking and visiting. This exhibition coincides with the European ‘Leonardo Project’ for teaching the teachers of general practice and family medicine (Framework for Continuing Educational Development of Trainers in General Practice in Europe), using courses managed by faculty for Levels 1–3, and organised and distributed by the European Academy of Teachers in Family Medicine (EURACT). Details of the project can be found at the EURACT website (www.euract.eu/leonardo-project/introduction).

Web Access to Digitised Content of the Exhibition Novo Mesto 1848-1918 at the Dolenjska Museum, Novo Mesto

EXTENDED ABSTRACTFor the first time, the Dolenjska museum Novo mesto provided access to digitised museum resources when they took the decision to enrich the exhibition Novo mesto 1848-1918 by adding digital content. The following goals were identified: the digital content was created at the time of exhibition planning and design, it met the needs of different age groups of visitors, and during the exhibition the content was accessible via touch screen. As such, it also served for educational purposes (content-oriented lectures) or problem solving team work. In the course of exhibition digital content was accessible on the museum website http://www.novomesto1848-1918.si. The digital content was divided into the following sections: the web photo gallery, the quiz and the game. The photo gallery was designed in the same way as the exhibition and the print catalogue and extended by the photos of contemporary Novo mesto and accompanied by the music from the orchestron machine. The following themes were outlined: the Austrian Empire, the Krka and Novo mesto, the town and its symbols, images of the town and people, administration and economy, social life and Novo mesto today followed by digitised archive materials and sources from that period such as the Commemorative book of the Uniformed Town Guard, the National Reading Room Guest Book, the Kazina guest book, the album of postcards and the Diploma of Honoured Citizen Josip Gerdešič. The Web application was also a tool for a simple and on line selection of digitised material and the creation of new digital content which proved to be much more convenient for lecturing than Power Point presentations. The quiz consisted of 40 questions relating to the exhibition theme and the catalogue. Each question offered a set of three answers only one of them being correct and illustrated by photography. The application auto selected ten questions and valued the answers immediately. The quiz could be accessed individually or in a group of visitors as a quick test at the end of a visit to the exhibition. The computer game Cray Fish Hunting on the River of Krka was tailored to young visitors. It described the geographical position of Novo mesto on the Krka peninsula and some objects on the riverside (wooden baths, the old bridge, the dam and the mill). Hunting noble cray-fish was very extensive in the Novo mesto region until the outburst of the cray-fish plague. It is said that up to 100,000 cay fish were caught annually and transported to all major towns of the then Austrian Empire. The original museum collections were preserved by scanning precious items which were kept in depots. Digitised materials accessible on the museum website met the needs of the majority of users and provided expanded access to the museum collection through presentation of graphic materials in virtual exhibition on the web which was much more comprehensive than a printed catalogue. There was also the possibility of remote access to the museum website which was very important for tourists and museum visitors with special needs. It was possible to design customer tailored presentations on specific themes (postcards from the period of national awakening, local societies, middle class garments etc.). Digital content was also available to school teachers to discuss the themes of interest with their pupils or students either before or after visiting the exhibition. There are many pitfalls and limitations of digitisation, the biggest two being staff deficiency and shrinking budget. Furthermore, there are difficulties with the technical support, gathering information on the implementation process, seeking partners to digitise materials etc. Besides, the question of long term digital archiving is of vital importance.

How full is your luggage? Background knowledge of zoo visitors regarding sharks

For the general population, sharks have a reputation that does not really fit with their biological and ecological nature. Informal surveys often classify sharks as dangerous, aggressive and/or man-eaters. This apparent common knowledge seems difficult to detach from the conscience of many worldwide zoo visitors, even with the help of shark-focused educational programmes. As so, how can zoos and aquariums contribute to a change in this paradigm? Are the education and conservation strategies effective to the average zoo visitor? In this study, young visitors’ perceptions regarding sharks were assessed with the goal of identifying a valid Learning Progression, thus helping to update and develop different and more effective educational strategies and methodologies. The study took place at Zoomarine, an oceanographic park located in southern Portugal, with visitors aged between 8 and 16. A case study was conducted using a qualitative research approach (drawings and interviews) resulting in a Learning Progression Hypothesis. The proposed Learning Progression is composed of three knowledge levels for the participants’ biological perceptions regarding sharks. The results of this study showed a clear predominance of anthropomorphic and anthropocentric visions, as well as a utilitarian view of sharks and ecosystem, thus conditioning the visitors’ epistemological knowledge.

Biosphere Reserve as a Learning Tourism Destination: Approaches from Tasik Chini

Biosphere Reserves (BR) are special areas or regions highly recognized for their conservation, logistic functions and sustainable development initiatives. However, not much work has explored into the BRs’ roles or functions as tourism learning destination, especially during the early years of their recognition as BR. This article aims to identify the mechanism utilised in the learning tourism function at Tasik Chini Biosphere Reserve since its inception in 2009 to the present year of 2013. The results reveal that learning of science and culture of the locals are the two-tier perspectives utlised in conceptualizing a tourism learning destination. Activities introduced in the specific themes of The Sustainability of Tropical Heritage fulfils the fundamental need of deep learning of scientific research and learning of the BR’s ecosystem, while the Ecosystem Health fulfils both deep and surface learning of the young visitors. The cultural knowledge of the community, on the other hand, offers a unique and authentic experience to the learners or visitors. As a learning tourism destination, the learning community, nevertheless, expects that the standard of tourism services should not be marginalised and must meet the high standard of tourism services. It is imperative that the science of Biosphere Reserve and the local culture are linked to set a holistic foundation in the creation of the learning programmes at the Tasik Chini Biosphere Reserve.

Eugenio Litta Children's Hospital Pond by Bob Wilson

Bob Wilson, a tile maker and sculptor, was born on October 12, 1950, at North Platte, Nebraska, and raised in Sioux City, Iowa, and Tulsa, Oklahoma. After graduating from high school, Wilson apprenticed as a sign painter and subsequently founded his own sign and commercial art shop located in Tulsa.1About Us.http://www.wilsoncustomtile.com/aboutus.htmlGoogle Scholar In 1983, Wilson relocated to Omaha, Nebraska, where he opened the Wilson Custom Design Tile Company, which specializes in architectural design and fabricating. He is known for his murals, fountains, and structures using fired clay, bronze, and glass.1About Us.http://www.wilsoncustomtile.com/aboutus.htmlGoogle Scholar The Mayo Eugenio Litta Children's Hospital was named after a young Italian boy whose family and friends wanted to preserve his memory and to help others with ailing children.2Mayo ClinicWelcome to Mayo Eugenio Litta Children's Hospital [Form # MC1831-07rev0310]. Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, Rochester; MN2010Google Scholar Eugenio Litta Children's Hospital Pond, a round ceramic structure, warmly greets every visitor to the atrium with the soft sounds of bubbling, rushing water. A mallard hen followed by her puddle of ducklings, beaver, otter, frogs, lily pads, floating oak leaves, and fish abound in the pond. Young visitors afraid of upcoming medical appointments may easily be distracted from their concerns—if only for a moment—with the sights and sounds of Eugenio Litta Children's Hospital Pond (please see Supplemental Video, available online at http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org). Eugenio Litta Children's Hospital Pond is located on the second floor atrium of the Mary Brigh Building in the Saint Marys Hospital complex in Rochester, Minnesota. View Large Image Figure ViewerDownload (PPT) Download .mpg (15.06 MB) Help with mpg files Supplemental Video

“Young faces in old places”: perceptions of young cultural visitors for the archaeological site of Delphi

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify young cultural visitors’ perceptions towards culture and cultural heritage destinations.Design/methodology/approachThis study, based on a survey conducted in the archaeological site of Delphi in Greece, examines young cultural visitors’ perceptions by identifying their perceived importance for a series of destination attributes.FindingsFindings reveal the important characteristics of cultural heritage sites for young travelers. Emphasis needs to be given on the following four influential factors of a cultural heritage site: organization and facilities, learning and experience, operation and accessibility, and place and promotion.Research limitations/implicationsTourism authorities ought to focus upon young people and understand their needs in order to attract them to cultural destinations providing positive experience/s. This study is a unique attempt to analyze the perceptions of young people in cultural destinations and is limited to only one cultural heritage site, Delphi. Further, research in other sites examining younger ages and their differences would provide significant information about this unexplored market in cultural sites.Originality/valueThis paper examines that misconception about culture concerning only older age‐groups needs a new way of thinking that takes into consideration young visitors as important cultural visitors. By ignoring their importance, opportunities to maximize value from the sites as well as to operate them in a more sustainable manner are lost. Knowing exactly the perceptions of young people for culture gives insights into their present and future behavior in cultural heritage destinations.

Co-participation among school children around a computer-based exhibit

This paper investigates the different forms of social interaction that emerge between young science centre visitors (aged 9–14 years) around a specific computer-based exhibit, which, like most computer-based exhibits, prioritizes an individual user. Based on video recordings, the paper shows that these young visitors, unlike adults, engage in various forms of co-participation around the exhibit. The empirical analysis compares different degrees of participation among the participants, ranging from minimal to full participation. The analysis shows that the affordances of a computer-based exhibit do not impose themselves upon visitors’ actions at that exhibit. While the exhibit has a preferred use – a ‘prescribed interaction’, which prioritizes an individual user – the schoolchildren in the study mould what may seem like natural functions of the exhibit.

I Learn Nothing!–Voices of Visitors at Youth Clubs in Sweden

The purpose of this article is first to make visible, examine, and illuminate the young generation’s perception of what they learn and how they learn during their visits to youth clubs and similar meeting places; second, through visitors’ own comments, interviews with visitors, and analysis of staff’s diaries, to reflect on and analyze the unconscious learning that might have been visible; and third, to discuss how these particular contexts contribute to learning. The research was conducted using two questionnaires, staff daily notes in diaries, and through interviews with young people visiting youth clubs and similar meeting places. The results of the empirical study show that there is a gap between the youngsters’ perception of what they learn or verbalize with the help of youth leaders and what they actually learn. To conclude, these meeting places can have a compensatory function to schools; a sort of expanded learning to help young people develop their citizenship. However, I shall take a critical view and argue that youth clubs and similar meeting places lack in making visible what young visitors actually can learn from their visits. To make it possible I suggest that the learning situations must be verbalized, discussed and made visible together with the youth leaders and the group of visitors or the individual visitors.

The Holocaust for Beginners: Yankev Glatshteyn's <i>Emil un Karl</i> and Other Wartime Works for Young American Yiddish Readers

Once a topic thought inappropriate for children, the Holocaust is now presented to them in a proliferation of undertakings: state-mandated educational programs beginning in elementary school, special exhibitions for young visitors in Holocaust museums, and the burgeoning genre of children's Holocaust literature, which now boasts hundreds of titles. (1) Long before Holocaust education was widely endorsed for young people, childhood had begun to figure strategically in the form of young protagonists in major works of Holocaust literature such as H. G. Adler's novel Panorama (1968), Gunter Grass's Die Blechtrommel (The Tin Drum) (1959), and Jerzy Kosinski's The Painted Bird (1965). (2) More recently, literary works engage childhood through provocative use of the idioms of storytelling for the young; for example, David Grossman's 1986 novel Ayen erekh: ahavah (See Under. Love) evokes children's literature, while Art Spiegelman's Maus: A Survivor's Tale (1986) employs the juvenile genre of comics. The disparity between childhood, conceived as the age of innocence, and genocide, understood as the fundamental collapse of civil society, is a productive opening for the creation of avant-garde literary works on the Holocaust, including the occasional work of fiction for young readers, such as Markus Zusak's The Book Thief (2005). A remarkable precedent for this confluence of the Holocaust, the sensibility of the child, and the literary avant-garde can be found in works written in the early 1940s by one of the leading modernist American Yiddish poets of the twentieth century, Yankev Glatshteyn (1896-1971), especially his novel Emil un Karl (Emil and Karl) (1940). Written for young adult readers, Emil un Karl was published in New York only months after World War II had begun and more than a year before the United States entered the conflict. A pioneering work of Holocaust fiction, the novel comes from the pen of a major Jewish writer who achieved considerable acclaim for his postwar poetry on the Holocaust. And yet, the novel has merited only a passing reference in most Glatshteyn scholarship. (3) Emil un Karl and two shorter pieces on the Holocaust that Glatshteyn wrote for young readers during the war years are noteworthy on several counts. As early examples of Holocaust literature, these works engage an event that not only had yet to be given this name (or its Yiddish equivalent, khurbn) but also was still unfolding as these works were written and published, in contrast with postwar writing on the Holocaust. This distinction is especially telling with regard to the preponderance of children's literature on the subject. This literature has been written well after a master narrative of the Holocaust as a discrete historical event was established--a narrative distinct from the history of European anti-Semitism, the Nazi era, or World War II. Indeed, in America the Holocaust was not secured as a prominent fixture of the national moral landscape until several decades after the war. Moreover, as the Nazi-led mass murder of Europe's Jews, Roma, and other civilian populations took place far from the United States and bore no direct connection to the lives of most of its citizens, the Holocaust has been valued here as a paradigmatic event as well as a subject of importance in its own right. In this capacity, the Holocaust informs American public discussions of other genocides, both earlier (for example, of American Indians) and later (such as the ethnic cleansing operations in the Balkans), as well as an array of morally challenging issues, including the abortion rights debate, the AIDS pandemic, the nuclear arms race, animal rights, and world hunger. Glatshteyn's writings on the Holocaust for young readers are revealing as among the first attempts to engage Americans in this remote event of unrivaled enormity. The works are also noteworthy as some of Glatshteyn's earliest efforts to address the Holocaust, which loomed large in his postwar career as a poet, essayist, and editor. …

Young Visitors’ “Messing Around” in Museums: Exploring social media to engage teens in participation

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