Museum literacy that is virtually engaging

Objects have underpinned pedagogic strategies in the arts and sciences. While recent online units of study enable isolated students to experience higher education, they are usually unable to examine collections. A 3D laser scanning project at Macquarie University creating a ‘virtual museum’ will enable distance students to experiment with curatorial approaches by working with virtual objects in virtual spaces. There are also opportunities for cross-disciplinary experimentation through the juxtaposition of objects from different museum collections. This will help students develop a new form of museum literacy appropriate to the hyper-connected learning laboratories of the future in higher education.