Elizabeth Merritt on Museums and the Future of Learning

Join me Thursday, May 24th, for live and interactive Future of Education conversation with Elizabeth Merritt on museums and the future of learning. With co-author with Scott Kratz, in the report "Museums and the Future of Education," she writes:

The U.S. educational system is on the cusp of transformational change. Signals that the current educational structure has been destabilized include rising dissatisfaction with the formal educational system and the proliferation of non-traditional forms of primary education. In the coming era, museums will play a key role in the new educational landscape.

We'll discussion educational innovation taking place in museums, how museums relate to the development of learning skill sets, and the unique ability of museums to inspire learning. As her report concludes:

The future of education may well be one characterized by self-directed, passion-based learning. Some envision a knowledge economy in which schools are supplanted by personal learning communities, teachers’ role as facilitators is as important as their status as experts, and students and faculty engage in self-directed research and accomplish real work. In this future, museums can play a crucial role in helping learners discover their passion, providing resources and opportunities to pursue this passion and training educators in the skills of experiential learning.

Date: Thursday, May 24th, 2012

Time: 5pm Pacific / 8 pm Eastern (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate). Log in at http://futureofed.info. The Blackboard Collaborate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Blackboard Collaborate, please visit the support and configuration page.
Recordings: The full Blackboard Collaborate recording is at https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2012-05-24.1246.M.9E9FE58134BE68C3B413F24B3586CF.vcr&sid=2008350 and a portable .mp3 audio recording can be downloaded at http://audio.edtechlive.com/foe/elizabethmerritt.mp3.

Elizabeth Merritt is Founding Director of the Center for the Future of Museums (CFM), an initiative of the American Association of Museums. CFM is a think-tank and research and design lab for fostering creativity and helping museums transcend traditional boundaries to serve society in new ways. Ms. Merritt has 25 years experience working with and in museums, including administration, curation and collections management. Her areas of expertise include museum standards and best practices, ethics, collections management and planning, and assessment of nonprofit performance.