Digital educational applications with historical content in museum websites

The current study examined if on-line activities in museum’s webpages with historical subject follow traditional or modern trends in their museological background, in their approach to history education, in the expected learning outcomes and in the use of modern technologies. The major hypothesis was that the on-line activities that belong to webpages of national and traditional museums will be characterized as “traditional” according to the parameters we examined, whereas others that come from “modern” or “postmodern” museums in their museological background, will present “modern” or “postmodern” characteristics. We also made the assumption that the “traditional” approach will appear more in on-line activities from Greek museum webpages in comparison to those coming from museum webpages from abroad. To conduct the research we designed 4 systems of category analysis according to the research questions we mentioned above. Results revealed that the museological background of the activities affects the other parameters. Moreover, on-line activities from national and traditional Greek museums are mostly characterized by traditional approaches in all the parameters we analyzed. In contrast, activities that belong to museum webpages from abroad mainly demonstrate modern approaches. The results of this study demonstrate that the use of modern technologies in museums and mainly in Greek museums doesn’t always support educational purposes and a hybrid environment in which high technology is used doesn’t always ensure the real participation of its user or a modern approach of history education.

https://ir.lib.uth.gr/xmlui/bitstream/handle/11615/44630/13421.pdf?seque...