Museums are a rich treasure trove of knowledge on culture, history and traditional technology if the specimens are accurately identified, digitally recorded and visually documented. A museum is a place to learn about heritage and arts, and children are one of the main visitor groups.

The museum curation and setting have moved from being ‘about something’ onto ‘for someone'. It is the trend in tailoring museum exhibitions and visits to entice and curate a memorable learning experience.

In a museum, one can find ceramics made from clay as pottery objects from as early as 24,000 BC. The practice of firing clay objects to harden, waterproof and fireproof became popular only as early as 5000 BC, during the Neolithic period.

Clay-based ceramics are among the first synthetic materials formed by human hands with ingenuity that display the know-how of the civilisation that created them. Particularly in pottery production, the pottery techniques are important for archaeologists to deduce cultural groups and their distribution areas. Through fragments of pottery, intercultural links or movements of populations in certain geographical areas can be identified. Apart from being a cultural heritage, these ceramic artefacts contain invaluable built-in scientific knowledge on material processing and technology such as the choice of materials, application of surface treatments such as waterproofing and hand-drawn decorations. Hence, much important information can be discovered by studying these artefacts. This can complement the primary source of information (in the form of the textbook) as it provides a more concrete and tangible perspective in teaching and learning.

Digital technology

Rapid advancement in materials science and engineering will enable museums to collaborate with universities to discover together new historical and technical facts that can help preserve and appreciate the cultural history of the region. Using digital technology, a museum can act as an open-source hands-on learning experience for the Malaysian community.

There is a need to transform museum education by introducing a visitor-centred learning experience by engaging visitors to co-develop museum content with active research. To realise this potential, museum practitioners need to digitise the ceramic collection and develop enriched annotations of the artefacts. Integrating this multi-modal information is a challenging task that requires advanced algorithms and machine learning. Furthermore, the current museum education delivery needs to be innovated to incorporate digital activities effectively. This will be enhanced with the aid of digital technologies for an integral part of life-long history education and cultural identity.

Parents and teachers are the main stakeholders of museum learning among children, apart from the children themselves. As children learn best through play and exploration, such technical development of the learning activity should also allow flexible learning. The use of digital technology is also able to bridge the younger generations with traditional artefacts and cultures. It is a challenge faced when interdisciplinary skills have to be effectively weaved to produce a seamless learning experience.

“Learning for someone”

Moving away from “learning about something” to “learning for someone” puts the learners at the centre of the learning experience design, while keeping in mind the theme or the material as the learning subject. In the case of heritage artefacts, stories behind the use and people using the artefacts, the culture and society involved in making, maintaining and using the artefacts could be potent ‘story-telling’ points that could engage the imagination of young children.

Efforts need to be made to make learning fun through integrating content pedagogy, affection and interest capture, with strategic algorithm and software savviness. The use of carefully curated anchor story points can leverage young children’s imagination which otherwise is limited to still pictures and commercially available images and characters.

-- BERNAMA

Ts. Dr. Siti Hajar Halili is an Associate Professor and Head of Department at the Faculty of Education, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur.