The Edward and Betty Marcus Institute for Digital Education in the Arts has released 2010 Horizon Report: Museum Edition.
Here's an excerpt:
The highest ranked of those trends had significant agreement among the Advisory Board members, who considered them to be key drivers of museum technology adoptions for the period 2010 through 2014. They are listed here in the order in which the Advisory Board ranked them.
- "Rich" media—images, videos, audio, augmented reality, and animations—are becoming increasingly valuable assets in digital interpretation. Museums understand the value in capturing high-quality media documentation related to their collections at every opportunity. Working more closely than ever with educators and researchers, museums are embracing opportunities for multimodal learning both online and in the galleries. High-quality media like images, videos, audio clips, augmented reality, and animations are no longer seen as afterthoughts in interpretation but increasingly as necessary components of an interpretive plan. This trend is beneficial to museum professionals and visitors alike as it encourages a deeper understanding of objects, ideas, and audiences.
- Digitization and cataloguing projects will continue to require a significant share of museum resources. Museums are distinguished by the content they keep and interpret. There is an increasing understanding among museum professionals that visitors expect to be able to readily access accurate and interesting information, and especially high-quality media. This requires museums to plan strategically for the digitization and cataloging of collections. These projects frequently require hard choices in the allocation of money, personnel, and time, but are not likely to diminish in importance in the foreseeable future.
- Increasingly, museum visitors (and staff) expect to be able to work, learn, study, and connect with their social networks in all places and at all times using whichever device they choose. Wireless network access, mobile networks, and personal portable networks have made it easy to remain connected almost anywhere. Museum audiences have become accustomed to easy access to the network in other parts of their lives, and grow increasingly impatient with places where it is not possible (or where it is prohibitively expensive) to be connected using the device of their choosing.
- The abundance of resources and relationships offered by open content repositories and social networks is challenging us to revisit our roles as educators. Access to educational materials of all kinds has never been as easy or as open as it is today. The model of the museum curator or educator standing in front of an object interpreting meaning for a passive audience is no longer realistic in a world accustomed to instant access to virtually any kind of information. More important to today’s audiences is advice on how to find, interpret, and make their own connections with collections and ideas.
