Museum of the Great Plains is on YouTube! Thanks to Cameron University Student, Chad Hearrell

Participation Starts with Staff: The Ruru Revolution

Participation Starts with Staff: The Ruru Revolution

This link was posted on Facebook by Nina Simon, author of The Participatory Museum.

And even though the Ruru Revolution engages a staff of 70 or more, I bet we could also have some fun with the idea here, with our very big staff of 12! :)

Tepee Construction and Design Project

Tinkering Workshop
Members of the the Oklahoma Museum Network (which thankfully, includes me) got together this week for a one day training to prepare for the tinkering exhibits which will soon be touring the state. We explored some deep and playful activities and discussed how to think about setting up a tinkering studio in a museum.

Above is a picture of Barbara Asepermy who is now helping me . Barbara and I are both amazed at the ingenuity behind tipi construction and design. Now that we are trying to figure out what sorts of materials are needed for a tipi tinkering area, we realize how much we had overlooked. For instance, do you know how many poles are needed to make a tipi or how they were placed? Where did the Indians even find such nice long, straight poles? And how many buffalo hides were needed to cover the tipi? Our questions go on and on.
http://goo.gl/photos/iJQdYKoJHd Here is a link to some photos, to see how our plans are going.

Luckily, Al Hobbs, a volunteer at our Red River Trading Post, is also providing his insight and understanding as it pertains to tipi construction, calculating the area of a circle, the relationship between the length of the poles and the diameter of the tipi, proverbs that promote the importance of a good question, tipi customs and etiquette, and the likelihood of a trial and error method of construction and design, by the first people when it comes to this very brilliant mobile home design.

John Falk, Rethinking the Museum Visitor Experience

John Falk, Rethinking the Museum Visitor Experience

Lawton's 2010 Big Read event continues with a special presentation by

Selby Minner & Blues on the Move

Free and open to everyone

Friday, March 19 from 6:30 till 8:30 p.m.

at the Museum of the Great Plains

601 NW Ferris Avenue Lawton Oklahoma

Spring Break

If you're looking for a fun place to be this spring break, head our way! Not only do we currently have two terrific new hands-on exhibits -the Mystery of the Mayan Medallion and 3-2-1- Blast - we will ALSO have the Science Matters Mobile Museum here on Friday! Yea!!
As far as the Mobile Museum goes, I think everyone's favorite components have been Hack the System, and the Obstacle Course. I think I have a picture of our former mayor, John Purcell trying out the Pulley Chairs which are on the outside of this huge "truck of science" and also a lot of fun!
Hope to see you soon!

Admission to go inside the Science Matters Mobile Museum? It's FREE!

For more information visit our Website.

Museums, Social Media and PR

I wonder how many museums are currently using social media to support and promote their museum's mission and programs in our state of Oklahoma. In terms of using social media, here are a few things I learned this past Friday at a volunteer management conference in Grand Prairie Texas, from presenter Ashley Hyder, Manager, Public Relation & Communications ahyder@vcnt.org www.vcnt.org, "To Tweet or Not to Tweet":

- there are now 400 million Facebook users worldwide, and 57 million Myspace users... This website was shared at the conference.

- first and foremost LISTEN to and respond to what your followers are saying. Be authentic.

- know your goals and objectives

- plan a strategy that will work for your organization

I happened to sit next to the web designer for the Texas Volunteer Management Conference and his advice was to use social media to build visitation to our main website. Sure enough, I found more information on this idea in one of Ashley's handouts. The content is from Online Marketing Blog. Under "Have a Destination and Draw Users Back". First line reads, "Without some sort of destination to draw users back to and funnel subscribers, you'll never achieve successful web community building that is protected from the rise and fall of social networks. My destination is our museum's website, which, by the way, is being redesigned and will include a new logo! So, if I understood correctly, I should use tag words to build up our chances of being pulled up during random searches. ...which is how this tag box is used below my post. Hmm. I didn't realize its importance.

Good Info for OKMEs

Below are a few websites with information on the audiences we aim to please, as museum educators. They came up last week when we met.


http://www.imls.gov/pdf/21stCenturySkills.pdf

http://pewsocialtrends.org/pubs/751/millennials-confident-connected-open-to-change

http://www.aam-us.org/getinvolved/learn/interpretation2010.cfm

Join the OKMEs for the two-day, multi-session online conference (link above)that will provide an interactive forum for museum professionals at all levels - to explore current technology trends and practices in museum education, interpretation, exhibition, public programs, and outreach.

Last but not least is,
http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/educators/resource_library/heritage_resources.html

The Greater Southwest Chapter Monthly Meeting

The Greater Southwest Chapter
of the Oklahoma Anthropological Society
www.gscoas.org

Monthly Meeting and Program, February 27

New Traveling Exhibit Opens at MGP

http://www.sciencemuseumok.org/omn_321blast.html

The Museum of the Great Plains will open its fourth exhibit from the Oklahoma Museum Network entitled “3-2-1 Blast” on Saturday, February 27, 2010.