Collaborative online teaching and learning offer exciting potential for
exchange among museum professionals, content experts, and visitors, and
can lead to cross-institutional and cross-disciplinary content
development and new ways of maximizing the institutions' role in
society. Through this new, shared model of meaning-making, and by
re-framing our museum collections in a highly connected, global world,
online collaborative learning offers museums and visitors new
possibilities for learning, both in small, narrowcast groups and also at
the larger institutional level. As digital artifacts are created and
improved by co-experts working together online toward a common goal, the
larger public may benefit from a shared content model, or digital
commons, thus shifting museums from their roles as cultural competitors
toward a new model of cultural collaborators. Includes extensive case
studies and practical advice for museum educators. Endorsed by EdCom and
the Media and Technology professional networks of AAM.