Markov Models of Museum Interactions: How Museum Visitors Scaffold for Learning in Exhibits

• In Event: 69.021 - Research in Informal Learning Environments

Abstract

While museum learning is often unstructured and unscripted, visitors may engage in rich collaborative learning experiences. To investigate how visitors engage in scaffolding and learning with an interactive technology-based museum exhibit, we used mixed-methods discourse analysis coupled with descriptive Markov models to quantify and visualize visitors’ discourse patterns. We found that visitors often engaged in extended scaffolding dialogues. Learning, when scaffolding, tended to perpetuate itself. However, talk unrelated to scaffolding and learning also perpetuated itself, and non-scaffolded learning tended to desist. Considering the vital role scaffolding played in learning with this exhibit, we see a need to further investigate the special role scaffolding plays in informal learning and consider design implications for encouraging scaffolding in exhibits.

Authors

• Catherine Louise Dornfeld, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Matthew W. Berland, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Sadhana Puntambekar, University of Wisconsin