The Interactive philosophy
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The use of interactive exhibits as an aid to education is based on the idea of reinforcing the learning of a concept by the association of a series of sense impressions with the idea or ideas at the core of the concept.
Learning takes place in a number of ways, and educators are now aware of a variety of learning styles used by different individuals. This learning may be auditory, tactile, kinesthetic or visual.
Some learning and memorisation concepts have a very long history. Mediaeval scholars developed sophisticated techniques of memorisation, which consisted of assigning items to be memorised with particular locations in an imaginary building, such as a cathedral. The power of such a method will be obvious to all of us who can always find what we are looking for on our desk or in our workshop, so long as it is in its proper place.
Most information can be presented in a very simple form, such as text, graphs and tables. Engineers and other professionals use such methods all the time as they are the most efficient way to handle data in a reproducible, standardised, processable and storable way. However, professionals go through long periods of training to learn to use these methods effectively, and it is easy to discount the kind of unconscious automatic process which these methods usually become.
Children, and untrained people generally, need to be stimulated to learn in more sophisticated ways. It is necessary to associate concepts and ideas with images, sounds or movements which help fix the concepts as part of a constellation of inter linked memories which will be more stable and durable over time.
This is the function of interactives. Often the ideas which we wish to impart are quite abstract but by giving them a physical embodiment as an interactive, which is more than a simple surface (as in graphic materials) and which engages the participant in a series of choices and actions, we embed the learning more deeply.
The key ideas which govern the design of interactives are
differentiation (a series of identical interactives each providing different
ideas would not be very effective) and a form which reflects the structure
and meaning of the ideas contained.
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