“Unlocking [the] collections”: Digital Solidarity

 

As Mäkitalo has expressed, the Internet has changed the entire worldwide education system in ways that never could have been imagined a few decades ago (2006). In the first part of this research we have seen how the LTM’s web development has led to the greater accessibility of its collections to those distant both geographically and culturally. For the museum education sector the impact is enormous, leading to the birth of what might be called the ‘digital educator’, responsible for providing audiences with the tools to develop autonomy as learners, rather than working “hands on” with families in museum spaces.

The birth of the digital educator has led to a further invisible shift within the museum, a shift towards something called ‘digital solidarity’, an expression born from global conversations in very recent years (Kolesinsky, 2014). The Internet has brought the museum into people’s homes, promoting equality and diversity of access to its collections. It demonstrates a new concept of education whereby people from diverse cultural, linguistic and economic backgrounds can access education equally to improve the quality of their lives (Kolesinsky, 2014).