Participatory activities of teenagers in museums using digital media in history course. A case study at the Museum of the City of Volos

Ph.D Candidate: 
Maria Rinou
Supervising Committee: 
Niki Nikonanou Anna Chronaki Yannis Pechtelidis

Museums are one of the foremost social learning fields, where creative ideas are cultivated, emotions and relationships are developed both between people and between people and objects. However, in recent years they have faced a variety of challenges related, both to the policy and strategy they will have to adopt to meet the needs of the time, and to the way of approaching the public that has different requirements and interests. This dissertation initially aspires to record the current reality in the museum's relationship with the group of teenagers, and to analyze experiential ˗ educational activities offered by Greek museums addressed to this group . The research field of the dissertation thesis, seeking to explore issues related to the opening of museums to the group of teenagers, aims to research and organize participatory educational-experiential activities using digital media that could contribute to more active participation of them in the museum who so far seem to be alienated or marginalized from museums. The research question posed in this research study is how to increase the participation of teenagers in educational activities that will benefit the museum in the context of the history course and how the communication and interaction of museums as cultural institutions could be enhanced with the group of students who have been educated by a firm understanding of history education and the museum visits that fall within this framework.

Rinou, M. & Nikonanou, N. (2019). “Crowdsourcing” as a participatory tool in heritage experience for youth: an insight into museum practice”, Socio-cultural Learning of Youth in Mobile Societies (SLYMS) Conference, April 9-11, 2019, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece (under publication).