I recently visited the Harry Potter exhibit at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. Let me start by saying I don’t really care for Harry Potter books or movies. But I love the museum and the whole Harry Potter phenomenon is just so huge I had to see what what was going on.
I assumed that the exhibit would somehow show the science behind the movies or maybe the real life versions of the magic from the stories but this was not the case. It is essentially just a museum about the series. Most of the areas in the large circus tent area were clothing showcases so people can look at the wardrobe and other props in person they have already paid to see on film.
I was left wondering: why was this at the Museum of Science and Industry? It wasn’t about how anything worked, so no science. And it wasn’t a look at movies or film, so no industry. Even though it clearly was entertaining for a lot people I couldn’t see how it was educational. So in my view there was no edutainment going on here. But does a museum need to edutain or can it merely entertain?
According to Janet Gail Donald, museums began to see themselves as both informers and entertainers in the 1970s. Juris Dilevko and Lisa Gotdieb point out that while this shift occurred for some pedagogical reasons, commercial interests and slumping tickets sales also drove the push for edutainment in museums. Scientists have teamed with television producers and museums to create other forms of edutainment.
For example, the British Broadcasting Company worked with researchers to create a television program called Walking with Dinosaurs. The show was wildly popular and after being ported to the United States a live action stage performance was founded called Walking with Dinosaurs: The Live Experience. Ken Lacovara, a paleontologist and researcher with Drexel University, referred to the franchise as the “gold standard” for edutainment.
Some argue that pandering to entertainment cheapens or dumbs down the quality of education in musuems as well as their scientific underpinnings. Others contend that alternative learning styles will make education via museums more attractive to learners of all types. Perhaps there is no one answer to the question but it certainly seems like an important one. If Harry Potter is considered worthy of one of the best science museums in the country then what does that say about science’s perception, more generally, in the United States?
Sources:
Janet Gail Donald. (1991). The Measurement of Learning in the Museum. Canadian Journal of Education, 16(3).
Juris Dilevko and Lisa Gotdieb. (2004). The Evolution of Library and Museum Partnerships: Historical Antecedents, Contemporary Manifestations, and Future Directions. Westport, Connecticut: Libraries Unlimited.
Brendan Maher. (2007). Bringing the Past to Life. Nature 449(27).
Gordon Carlson is a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is pursuing a PhD in New Media Communication. His work focuses on the role of technology in communication. Gordon's dissertation work looks at improving edutainment across various media. 