It's a museum at your fingertips.
Drexel University's Goodwin College has teamed up with the
National Constitution Center for a mobile app that brings a new layer of richness to the center's collections, and virtually brings those collections right out the door. Available at this time for iPhone and iPod users, the basic NCC app is free to download from the
iTunes Store and includes news, links to the museum's store and blog, and admission information including hours, tickets and directions.
For a small fee, add interactive multimedia tours of both permanent and traveling exhibitions. That's a revenue stream with long term potential, because shows that stop at the NCC go on the road, and the app remains attached for the life of the exhibit.
Cory Schmitt is director of learning technologies at Goodwin, and he explains that when he started working at Drexel, the mobile tour collaboration with the NCC was somewhat of a back-burner idea. He and Kerry Sautner, who is both an adjunct instructor at Drexel and director of public programs at the NCC, saw iPods as a way to open up a lot of possibilities for engagement and fun.
Since then, Schmitt and team have developed a total of nine iPod tours for the museum. "Three or four are for permanent exhibits, and the rest are for traveling," says Schmitt. In June, the team will launch a tour to go along with a George Washington exhibit coming from Mount Vernon. That show is slated to travel for ten years, and the 99-cent app goes along with it.
Schmitt points out that the app is accessible globally, not just to people visiting the Constitution Center, citing value for "anyone who is interested in US history and democracy," and emphasizing that the NCC offering is living, with news and version updates.
The Constitution Center app, says Schmitt, is the first step in collaborations with local and national museums. "Now that we've completed research and development and have a template, we can go to other institutions and produce their mobile apps as well." Schmitt says his team hopes to develop the NCC app for Android and other mobile platforms.
Source: Cory Schmitt, Goodwin College, Drexel University
Writer: Sue Spolan