The working life of Museum of London

If you were in the Museum of London last weekend you might have seen a man sitting on the mezzanine above our foyer with two laptops in front of him talking to family groups.  What was he doing?

We wanted to keep a slight air of mystery around the project whilst we were still consulting audiences because we wanted the people who we were consulting not to have any preconceived ideas. Now that the consultation’s finished I can now tell you a bit more about the project that this was leading to.

Martin, ‘the man on the mezzanine’, was carrying out some audience consultation with us as part of a project we’re working on to redevelop two important aspects of our website – our factpacks and our picturebank for schools.

About factpacks and picturebank

There are various ways to find our existing factpacks, but one way is to go to : the factpacks page within the Kids section. Our factpacks are basically short introductions to an area of London’s history.  You can use them to find out, for example, about:

• Children in Victorian London
• What life was like in Medieval London
• Suffragettes

And lots of other topics too. We think our factpacks are really interesting, but some of them are quite old now, and some of them are buried quite deep within our site. We’re taking this opportunity to refresh them and to add new ones as well.

The picturebank is a resource that’s mainly for schools and you can find it at: www.museumoflondon.org.uk/picturebank. It’s a collection of images divided up by topic that we think school teachers and pupils might find interesting.  Again, it’s got some great material in it, but we think it needs a bit of a new look so we’re refreshing it.

About the audience consultation

On top of the consultation with families, Martin also conducted a focus group with teachers and we’re delighted that over 200 people completed our online survey recently about how they use online resources!  If you were one of these people, thank you very much – your information has been very useful.

I wanted to make sure as much as possible that people answered the questionnaire and attended the focus groups with an open mind, without knowing what we were working towards.  As such, this consultation was quite general, and was about finding out how you use the web, what kinds of material you look for, where you look for it, what you like/dislike about it, how you look at it (online/printed off etc).

What we found out

Rather pleasingly we didn’t really discover much we hadn’t anticipated! Even so it was very useful for us to talk to different audiences and get a real picture of how they behaved online, and then get a judgement on what they thought of our existing resources.

Here’s a quick summary of our findings:

• People mostly use Google as a starting point to find images or information about a historical period (no great surprises there)
• People like to be able to click around and explore a topic and choose their own path through it
• Some people like to print things off, in which case they like it to look nice (i.e. not just a printout of a webpage that doesn’t print very well) when they print it
• Text needs to broken up into sections and broken up with images
• Teachers particularly would ideally like to be able to edit any resources that we provide to make them relevant and suitable for their particular students. This means if they’re downloading documents, they want Word format rather than PDFs
• Teachers will generally make their own resources out of what we provide so we should provide easy-to-find images and information that they can cut and paste
• The BBC History website and BBC Bitesize are particularly popular places to look for historical information, particularly for children
• There are a few websites that come up time and time again as good sources of material for schools – particularly Woodlands Junior school
• Quite a few people hadn’t considered that a Museum website might have information about historical events or historical images
• The families we spoke to didn’t tend to think of using a museum website to prepare for a visit other than to look at opening times, how to get here etc
• The most common place to look at these resources seems to be on a home computer

So the next task is to write all of this up in detail and work out how we’re going to proceed.  We’ve got some pretty good ideas of what we’ll do.  It’s likely that we’ll rename the factpacks ‘Pocket Histories’. What do you think of the name? We’ve decided what topics we’d like to do first and we’re starting to get things moving.

What can you do to help?

• Keep an eye out in the first few months of 2011 for these new resources
• Let us know what you think of them in another online questionnaire at the end of the project
• Let us know what website you like to use to find historical information or historical images
• Leave a comment below if you’d be interested in taking part in any future website consultations like the one I’ve outlined above
• Let us know what aspects of London’s history you’d be interested in finding out more about
• Remember – Museum websites are a treasure trove of information – not just information about opening times. Next time you visit us, take a look around our website first to find out a bit more about what you can see.

Today’s blog entry was compiled by Jill and Marianne, two of our trainee archaeologists:

“Trench 2 has been cleared to a fairly level surface making it easier to identify the different areas of soil and debris. Following on from a talk on planning, we divided the trench into sections and split into groups to have a stab at plotting by grid these different areas.

In Trench 1 we have had a first taste of using a mattock, or pick axe, to break up large lumps of debris (mainly bricks)…

…We found several metal curves which we guessed could have been drawer handles and parts of a chimney pot.

Also today, Roy Stephenson, Head of the Department of Archaeological Collections and Archive at the Museum of London, came to speak to us about pottery and ways of dating finds.

He was able to identify, from our finds, pottery from Roman and Tudor times and Midlands Purpleware, Tudor Greenware and a small piece of black basalt ware made by Wedgewood.

The training excavation in Burgess Park has started.

This is a five day course for adults to learn the basics techniques of field archaeology in an urban environment.

We are continuing on the site following on from our community excavation work with schools and other groups.

Two of our new recruits, Becky and Katie,  took time out from excavating to share their initial thoughts and discoveries:

” Today is our first ever day as trainee archaeologists. About 14 of us are here from different backgrounds – old and young, supple and not so supple!  we are excavating footprints of Victorian terraced houses, many of which were bombed irreparably during the war and subsequently flattened and cleared before becoming a park.

First off we learnt trowelling to clear debris in order to reveal soil/brick features, discovering small finds as we go.

It is thrilling  to identify an intricate design on a piece of pottery, tile or clay pipe, but less attractive items must also be collected such as random metal pieces and glass.

There is an enormous variety of material…

…brick, plaster from architectural features, coal, slate, flint (all discarded unless unusual) and then clay pipes, pottery , glass etc…oh, and losts of dust!

Will be learning this afternoon how to record the finds on context sheets and seeing what everyone elsehas found and what we can learn.”

Each year the Museum provides the opportunity for groups and individuals to experience a week of hands-on archaeology as we explore a site in London of historical  importance.
The site of this year’s dig is Burgess Park , Southwark, South London which research has shown was once occupied by terraces of Victorian houses, many of which were destroyed during World War II.

In preparation for the first of our school groups arriving on-site Monday (spaces are still available to attend the week-long adult training digs  in July – see our website for details)  Tom, one of our senior archeologists, spent a morning on-site clearing away the top soil back to the “demolition layer” a few inches below the grass turf.

We have been surprised by the amount of brickwork found so near to the surface as this demolition waste is normally moved off-site or more often it is piled together and covered in turf – which could explain that little hill you have in the garden of you flat or house…

One of our key jobs in advance of Monday is to record what is  currently visible on-site which will help our archaeologists plan dig locations for our first visitors Monday.

The results of our upcoming work on-site and the thoughts of those involved will be the subject of updates here on our blog and on our twitter pages.

Kate and Jackie ,who are coordinating the dig, were recently welcomed by the owners of one of the remaining Victorian houses in the terrace which used to stretch to include the site we are now investigating to have a look around allowing them to gain an insight into the scale and design of the homes that used to be on the site of our dig. They were both keen to explore the basement but unfortunately this had been renovated by the local council in the 1980s making the work that will be supported over the forthcoming weeks that more important…

Gold finger!

Last week saw the second Continue Creating workshop for 2010. This is part of the Inclusion Programme and past participants of all projects are invited back to a workshop every month. It’s social, fun and a way of maintaining a relationship between the Museum and our friends. May’s workshop saw us making C19th style Jumpin’ Jack puppets. Sadly, I can’t seem to upload all the images so here are two of the stars. As you can see, they have a contemporary twist!

At work in Elephant and Castle

As a newbie to the museum, I thought I’d say hello by introducing the project I’m currently working on, People and Change. The project, which was devised by Lucie Fitton, is working with predominantly adult asylum seekers to produce art work that will be displayed in the London, Sugar and Slavery gallery. The gallery has multiple themes and the one we’re exploring with this group is Change. Rosemarie Marke, an acclaimed painter and ex-aslyum seeker who was born in Sierra Leone, is leading the group. We’re working in two centres in Peckham with lots of different individuals. Each is producing a drawing or painting of what change means to them. Some have chosen to draw things associated with home (house, landscape, objects) or parts of London life that are totally new to them – e.g. football stadiums, London buses, British festivals. The more talented and regularly attending members, however, have branched out and are now producing more abstract work. We are encouraging them all to write something about the picture in their mother tongue, and this will be displayed with the piece on the wall with an English translation.

Simply being at the centre, reveals how rewarding and challenging this project is for both the Museum and the participants. Prior to this project, I had never been inside a support centre for asylum seekers and I have learnt a lot. Both centres are community halls that open one afternoon a week to offer a range of services – a hot meal between 1 and 2pm, medical consultation with a nurse, a crèche and nanny, advice on housing, employment and benefits, English lessons and arts and craft activities. There are usually at least 40 people there and in broad terms, half are young mothers with children under 5 and half are men between the ages of 25 and 40. Although we don’t talk about this, we know from the support workers that many are separated from their family, often recovering from trauma and in constant uncertainty over their future. For some people, even getting to the centre is quite a triumph. Either psychologically, or logistically, it can be very difficult. One of our regular attendees lives in Edmonton but goes to the centre every day.

We never know who is going to sit down when we set up our materials on the tables after lunch, but there are a few faces who have attended nearly all of the sessions. We meet quite a few people only once but even in one afternoon an individual can produce a very interesting piece of work. We don’t ask participants their story, unless they bring the subject up themselves, but sometimes people will tell us something about home. Often though, talk focuses around colour and technique and sharing artistic tips. One person had never seen a paintbrush before and until he was corrected by Rosemarie, was painting using the non-bristle end.

Home in Eritrea and Home in London

The point of the project, from the museum’s point of view is to give these individuals a voice in the gallery. From their point of view, we hope, it is to be able to express something and to share a calm experience for a few hours a week. There is not too much talking, which makes the session quite relaxing and takes the pressure off the participants to speak English all the time. We hope that the prospect of displaying their work at a high profile gallery is fun and confidence giving and we very much hope that the artists can be at the unveiling. There are a lot of factors, however, that guaranteeing this could be very difficult.

We are working in Peckham until the end of March and hope that the work should be up by autumn. When it does go on display, look out for work by the following characters – Gloria, Dawit, Mal, Bernard, Maria and Dani.

As promised in my previous post this blog post is to let you know that the new learning sections are now live on both the Museum of London and the Museum of London Docklands websites.

Go to the Museum of London Learning section

Go to the Museum of London Docklands Learning section

This is the end of quite a big work project for me and I’m quite pleased with the results.

There are three big reasons why the new sections are a good thing:

1. They tidy up the way that we present a large amount of information about our learning programmes online
2. They give a nice, easy, attractive and clear way for children to find a selection of our fun online games (see kids section)
3. You can now find out information through either of the two websites (Museum of London and Museum of London Docklands)

A substantial number of the resources that were previously available are still available on the sites. Let us know in the comments below if you can’t find anything and we’ll try and direct you.

There are also some new resources. Here are 6 cool new things featured in the new learning sections:

1. We took this opportunity to make some new interactive whiteboard presentations and quizzes available for KS2 Tudors, KS2 Anglo-Saxons, KS2 Romans, KS3 Romans and KS3 Medieval.  See the resources section for more information.
2. Each of our schools sessions now have their own webpage which will eventually link to the relevant teachers pack (some are already up, others are coming soon).  See the Museum of London ‘what’s on -schools’ section and the Museum of London Docklands ‘what’s on – schools’ section for more information.
3. Each of our adult courses now has their own page as well.  See the ‘adult courses’ section
4. We have a regularly updated ‘session availability‘ pages for Museum of London and Museum of London Docklands so you can check before calling the box office which dates are still available for the school session you’d like
5. There’ll be information to help you with your risk assessments going up very soon
6. It should be much easier to join our Teachers Network and stay informed!

Please look at the new sites and let me know what you think, especially if you regularly used the old site.  I hope you find the new sites useful and easy to use!

This is just a very quick blog post to say that a revised Learning section will be available on the Museum of London and Museum of London Docklands websites soon. Hopefully the changes will help you to find our learning resources more easily.

The Learning section will include:

• information for teachers about our schools programmes
• printable resources for teachers to support our schools programmes
• online resources for teachers and pupils to use either to support a visit to the Museums or independently
• fun games for children to play online
• information about our adult learning courses
• factpacks to help you learn more about the history of London

Why not take a look around the site as it looks at the moment http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/learning. It’s already got loads of interesting stuff on there. We’re not adding any new resources at this stage, we’re just trying to make it easier to find.

Take a look around now and get familiar with how it looks at the moment. I’d love to hear your feedback on how it compares once the new site is launched!

In January this year I blogged about my role as e-Learning Officer (Web) here at the Museum of London. In that post, I mentioned that I was working on two interactive games for 3-5 year olds which was a really fun project. This post is a quick follow on from that one to say that the games are now live!

Create a costume

In Create a costume children have the opportunity to design and colour costumes based on items in the Museum’s collections by dragging on shapes and patterns and then colouring them in with a paintbrush and some paints.  The costumes that the designs are based on are:

• a pearly king’s jacket
• the Fanshawe dress
• a pair of Georgian shoes

Move and Make

In Move and Make they can make a historical vehicle or building by dragging on the different elements. At the end, they can invent their own! In both games the children have the chance to see real objects/vehicles/buildings and find out a little bit more about them.

Adult guidelines to both games give accompanying adults some helpful hints on how to get the most out of the games as a family and provide a bit more in-depth information about each object/vehicle/building to talk to their children about.  We’ve also indicated whether and where you can see the objects for real. The games will be available not only online but also in our Clore Learning Centre and can be used as well as part of our Under-5s programme.

Working on the project

I’d never really worked on a project like this before, I’d project managed other web projects but never a game. Parts of it were great fun and the whole thing was a brilliant learning experience but it wasn’t without its challenges.

Developing something for such a young audience was a particular challenge. We knew, for instance, that we could not assume that children between 3 and 5 could read. For this reason all of the instructions are read out as well as written.  Obviously all text also needed to be very simple and it’s a real discipline sometimes, particularly where you’re trying to convey information about a really interesting historical object.

Why we did it how we did!

There isn’t space here to go into the ins and outs of every decision – let’s just say our first meeting to discuss concepts lasted 5 hours! But I thought it might be interesting to give a little bit of an insight into what we aimed to achieve.

By having two games, we aimed  to provide two different experiences for children – one where they could be creative and do some colouring – Create a Costume, and one where there was more of a ‘right answer’ – Move and Make.

We were careful, however, with Move and Make not to make too much of this ‘right answer’. These are, after all, aimed at very small children and we wanted to stress that it’s just as important to use your imagination and be creative as to get things exactly right. This is also why, at the end of the game, you get to use all of the different elements from across the historical periods to make your own fantastical vehicle or building.

We wanted to use a range of historical periods from across the stories that the Museum of London and the Museum of London Docklands tell.  We also wanted to include links to the galleries that are currently available, but also to items that will be in our new Galleries of Modern London due to open next year.

Enjoy!

We hope you and your children enjoy playing the games! Let us know which bits you like best!