2005 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Innovative uses of mobile communication technology: developing self-guided tours in museum
| Project/Area Number |
14208019
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Educational technology
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| Research Institution | National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo |
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Principal Investigator |
INOUE Toru National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo, Public Information Service, Chief Officer Public Relations (30370993)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
MANABE Makoto National Science Museum, Geology & Paleontology Department, Senior Curator (90271494)
ARITA Hiroyuki National Science Museum, New Gallery Project, Educator (70342938)
YABUMOTO Yoshitaka National Science Museum, Kitakyushu Museum of Natural History & Human History, Curator (80359471)
YOSHIMURA Horokazu Hosei University, Department of Letters, Professor (70135490)
FUSHIMI Kiyotaka Hiroshima Kokusai Gakuin University, Information Design, Assistant Professor (30369574)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2002 – 2005
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| Keywords | mobile communication device / audio guide / exhibit guide / mobile phone / museum |
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| Research Abstract |
Are mobile phones effective for information delivery in science museums? In the first phase of the project, researchers tested a mobile phone audio guide in the dinosaur gallery at the National Science Museum. Sixty self-selected visitors completed a questionnaire and a face-to-face interview after listening to the audio guide. Participants' gallery-walking patterns were traced on a floor map to ascertain how they listened to the audio guide. Overall, respondents, including one sight-impaired person, reported a high degree of satisfaction with the mobile phone audio guide. Most participants were pleased to be offered this type of service in the museum. One concern for users was the uncertainty over the cost of downloading the audio file.
In the second phase of the project, an audio tour was designed for downloading to an iPod. This iPod audio tour was the first of its kind in Japan. It was introduced at the Dinosaur Expo 2005, Kitakyushu Museum of Natural History and Human History. The audio guide had 22 audio stops and was recorded in English. For non-Japanese-speaking visitors, the audio guide was the only opportunity to access information about the exhibition, since all signage and the commercially available audio tour was in Japanese only. A group of 37 students from a local high school listened to the audio tour. The survey results showed that a majority of students enjoyed learning about the exhibition, even though they were listening in a nonnative language. Almost two-thirds of the students reported that they agreed to participate in the study to practice their English. However, at the conclusion of the experiment, this group reported that they had really looked at the displays and they had learned something new about how birds evolved from dinosaurs.
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