Audio Guides

In this poster we present a study exploring the benefits of using audio guides instead of human tour guides to foster children’s engagement and learning outcomes during their visit to a natural science museum. We conducted an experiment in a museum with 25 children from a school (9-10 years old) in order to discover if there was any effect of the usage of audio guides regarding children’s engagement and learning outcomes. We did a pre-test and post-test analysis for learning, applied scales and conducted qualitative observation. We found that children using the audio guide were keen to repeat the tour. We also noticed differences in the learning outcomes (the group without audio guide had better results), although it was not statistically significant. We conclude the poster with a set of suggestions to increase enjoyable learning experiences for children when using audio guides in a museum tour. Author

A consistent finding of research into mobile learning guides and outdoor learning games has been the value of audio as a medium of communication. This paper discusses the value of location-based and movement-sensitive audio for learning. Three types of audio learning experience are distinguished, based primarily upon differing levels of narrative cohesion: audio vignettes, movement-based guides and mobile narratives. An analysis of projects in these three areas has resulted in the formulation of guidelines for the design of audio experiences. A case study of a novel audio experience, called ‘A Chaotic Encounter,’ delivers an adaptive story based on the pattern of movements of the user.

Art museum audio guides provide background information about the works on display. Such information seems beneficial: if we know more about a work, we will get more out of it. Yet, uptake rates for audio guides are low. One reason is that visitors often believe the guides will be distracting. Listening to experts talk about art history and theory will pull their attention away from how the works look. It will ruin the aesthetic experience they hope to enjoy. My aim is to rebut this objection. I will maintain that audio guides help with even immediate and subjective forms of aesthetic appreciation. I will rest my case on two arguments. First, to appreciate a work of art, we must understand it. But understanding a work often requires background information. Second, perceiving a work’s aesthetic properties is a skill, and those who lack this skill may benefit from expert guidance.

Accessibility to museums is enhanced by various types of cultural mediation, such as audio guides, which consist of a means to make the museum visit more autonomous and simultaneously replace the traditional guided visit. Their use is integrated in the tendency for museum democratisation felt in Europe between the 60s and the 80s of the 20th century, especially accomplished with the development of educational services at museums and their opening to schools. It is also an invaluable solution for foreign visitors and particularly people with special needs, such as the blind and visually-impaired, the deaf and hard-of-hearing or those with intellectual disabilities. This paper intends to analyse audio guides on offer in Portuguese museums according to specific criteria, so as to ascertain their current practices and the potential role of audio guides as an accessibility tool.

Il progetto partecipativo #iziTRAVELSicilia è stato lanciato nel maggio 2016, con l’obiettivo principale di colmare il gap della comunicazione e valorizzazione digitale del patrimonio culturale della Sicilia. Questo  progetto si è presto trasformato in un processo partecipativo, coinvolgendo migliaia di persone, esempio di quelle “comunità di eredità”citate dalla Convenzione di  Faro, ed è diventato una best practice nella promozione e valorizzazione digitale attraverso lo storytelling. A partire dal suo lancio sono state prodotte più di 160 audioguide. #iziTRAVELSicilia è stata subito riconosciuta come un esempio di buone pratiche, anche nella didattica museale, di partecipazione alla co-creazione di valore culturale, in grado di trasformare le persone provenienti da più parti delle comunità sociali in comunità d’eredità di tipo smart, rivelando così il grande impatto sulla società civile di cui è capace questa piattaforma con le sue tecnologie, perseguendo l’unico obiettivo di valorizzare il patrimonio comune.

A consistent finding of research into mobile learning guides and outdoor learning games has been the value of audio as a medium of communication. This paper discusses the value of location-based and movement-sensitive audio for learning. Three types of audio learning experience are distinguished, based primarily upon differing levels of narrative cohesion: audio vignettes, movement-based guides and mobile narratives. An analysis of projects in these three areas has resulted in the formulation of guidelines for the design of ...

This paper presents the perceived satisfaction of undergraduate students of translation and interpreting who have taken part in the creation of a multilingual, accessible and inclusive audio guide for the Faculty of Arts at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). A selection of students carried out the translation and proofreading of texts describing architectural spaces of the building, while others provided the recording in one of the languages of the audio guide (Spanish, Basque or English). Data on their satisfaction were collected through a questionnaire circulated in 2020. Results show that students involved in the project differed in their knowledge on accessibility and audio guides, but completed the project generally satisfied with the process and product. In addition, participants were aware of the benefits of such participation for their professional careers, for the institution as well as for the blind and people with low vision that may have need of this audio guide. The questionnaire served as the culmination of the students’ learning process and helped them reflect on the experience, which serves as an example of a learning process aiming to serve the community and easily exportable to other scenarios.

Museums are designed as social spaces. They are places where people can talk, share experiences, and create collective memories. The spatial layout of exhibits allows groups of visitors to view and converse. Talk is encouraged and staff are employed to support families, school groups and tours. Yet much of the computer technology that has been introduced into museums is for individual rather than collaborative use. Handheld guides have been designed to be held up to the ear and multimedia museum displays usually have a single ...

This paper describes and compares two audio guides used to inform the general public about local historical events, specifically the 1831 Reform Riot as it happened in and around Nottingham in the UK. One audio guide consisted of a guided walk, organised and produced by a local community history group, where members of the group performed spoken narratives at specific points of interest around Nottingham city centre, delivered to a large group of participants. The other guide was a trail of geolocated audio files, created by the same community history group and delivered via location-aware smartphones to a smaller group of participants. This second guide provided similar historical information at the same points of interest as the guided walk, authored using a third party software app that employed a mapping facility to trigger audio events at specified locations. Our central research question was to examine how these experiences differed, or were similar; whether they provided an effective means of learning by the general public about local historical events; and how these kinds of techniques can be used in the future or by other community groups.

In this poster we present a study exploring the benefits of using audio guides instead of human tour guides to foster children's engagement and learning outcomes during their visit to a natural science museum. We conducted an experiment in a museum with 25 children from a school (9-10 years old) in order to discover if there was any effect of the usage of audio guides regarding children's engagement and learning outcomes. We did a pre-test and post-test analysis for learning, applied scales and conducted qualitative observation. We found that children using the audio guide were keen to repeat the tour. We also noticed differences in the learning outcomes (the group without audio guide had better results), although it was not statistically significant. We conclude the poster with a set of suggestions to increase enjoyable learning experiences for children when using audio guides in a museum tour.

This article considers the impact of translation on the transmission of collective memory through a comparative study of the original French and translated English audio guides at the Centre de la Mémoire at Oradour-sur-Glane, a village whose inhabitants were massacred by the Waffen-SS in 1944. Framed by Landsberg's notion of ‘prosthetic memory’, it explores the capacity of translation to shape the affective and ethical response of the English audio guide user, thereby orienting the visitor along the Centre's route of remembrance in a manner which may converge with or deviate from the experience of the French visitor.

Este artigo tem por objetivo discutir a progressiva abertura dos museus a diferentes públicos, consubstanciada na atual questão da acessibilidade muse- ológica. Segundo Dodd e Sandell (1998), os museus criam frequentemente obstáculos ao acesso dos visitantes, em especial daqueles com necessidades especiais. No conjunto destas barreiras colocadas à acessibilidade, destaca-se a acessibilidade sensorial, diretamente relacionada com as necessidades das pessoas cegas ou surdas que podem ser supridas por meio dos tradicionais audioguias ou dos modernos signo-guias, respetivamente. Estes guias museológicos cumprem uma importante função de mediação cultural, ao mesmo tempo que concretizam diversas dimensões de acessibilidade. Neste sentido, parte-se da caracterização do contexto museológico nacional para a caracterização dos museus do distrito de Bragança à luz das condições gerais de acessibilidade, terminando-se na análise do Museu do Abade de Baçal, em Bragança. Este serviu de mote para a realização de um diagnóstico das suas condições de acessibilidade e, baseadas nas conclusões retiradas, desenha-se um conjunto de propostas potenciadoras da acessibilidade museológica.

This investigation arises from the authors' experiences working as museums' front of house staff and mediator, observing visitors and their challenges to engage with the artwork horizontally. Our investigation concentrates its efforts on identifying a common denominator among an audience in The UK and Sao Paulo (Brazil) by testing an approach based on audio. Crossing the participatory museums studies, our experience working in museums and UX Design tools, this paper shows the research process to develop a solution for a collaborative audio tool. It shows an effective way to build a connection with the artwork by giving to the audience a tool to make the fruition of art independent and horizontally.

We describe the building and testing of a museum audio tour with content recorded as spontaneous interactive dialogue between two curators as they walked around an art gallery. The aim was to produce a guide which would increase the amount of topically relevant talk shared by people visiting a museum in groups of two or more. Conversation analysis is used to show how a pair of visitors engaged more with the content of the guide than they would have with audio produced as traditional scripted monologue. Examples of a variety of engagement types are detailed and a supporting rationale drawing on Goffman's theory of 'footing' is discussed. The approach potentially offers a low cost way for organisations involved in informal learning to produce flexible in-house audio content for mobile and e-learning, which improves visitor engagement both with the content and with one another, and leads to a more enjoyable visitor/learner experience than traditional forms of audio.

(EN) Whether they use them or not, visitors nowadays are more or less familiar with this category of devices, available in some museums and at many monuments or historical sites. The use of portable mobile devices-whether based on widely-used technology or on more experimental solutions- re-establishes the issue of the use of such tools as aids to a museum visit. What is their position? What particular role has been assigned to this category of devices? What are the issues raised by mobility among visitors and museum professionals? What are the uses encouraged by museum management, and, symmetrically, what are the needs for mediation voiced by the visitors? What kind of content is possibly specific to mobile devices and what sort of communicational logic is at work? The findings presented here are based on research studies and evaluations conducted in France in a great number of museums that have audio-guided tours on offer, and some of which have included more recent multi-media po...

Гецэвіч, Ю.С. Папулярызацыя гісторыка-культурнай спадчыны Свіслацкага краю праз мабільныя электронныя рэсурсы / Ю.С. Гецэвіч, А.В. Крывальцэвіч, Н.Я. Драгун, Н.Д. Казлоўская, М.У. Марчык, А.І. Пратасеня, Э.У. Русецкая, М.В. Шыбко, Г.Р. Станіславенка // Мінулае і сучаснасць Свіслацкага краю: зб. навук. арт. / рэдкал. В.В. Даніловіч (гал. рэд.) [і інш.]; А.У. Унучак (адк. рэд.). — Мінск : Беларуская навука, 2018. — C. 258-267.

La accesibilidad ha trascendido los límites tradicionales, ampliando su significado desde lo estrictamente físico hasta la incorporación de la accesibilidad sensorial y cognitiva. Desde el punto de vista metodológico y disciplinar, los Estudios de Traducción han asumido gran parte del reto de la accesibilidad y la inclusión, alcanzando el ámbito audiovisual. Por lo que se refiere al entorno disciplinar de la Historia del Arte, la accesibilidad es especialmente notoria en el mundo de los museos y el patrimonio, donde la ampliación del campo semántico de la accesibilidad ha incorporado la inclusión en las acciones de puesta en valor y socialización del patrimonio.
La comunicación presenta la metodología y los resultados del Proyecto de Innovación Educativa (PIE) titulado «Creación de una audioguía accesible, inclusiva y multilingüe. Una experiencia de aprendizaje-servicio en la Facultad de Letras», integrado por profesorado de Traducción e Interpretación (TeI) e Historia del Arte (HdA), técnicos audiovisuales y alumnado de doctorado y de ambos grados, que incluyen alumnas con discapacidad visual. Presenta, además, los puntos de unión entre la creación de audioguías y la accesibilidad audiovisual, y como aquella puede beneficiar en la didáctica y futura inserción laboral del alumnado en esta.
El proyecto incorpora la metodología de aprendizaje-servicio y se sirve de prácticas voluntarias y remuneradas al alumnado para la creación de la audioguía. Se trata de un proyecto colaborativo en el que el alumnado de TeI e HdA han trabajado conjuntamente para el mapeo de los espacios, la traducción, revisión y locución. El resultado del proyecto es una audioguía trilingüe (euskera, español e inglés) de espacios arquitectónicos locutada por alumnado y alojada en la web de la UPV/EHU.
El proceso y el resultado de este proyecto confluyen, además, con los estudios y la práctica de la accesibilidad audiovisual, entendida esta en un sentido amplio más allá de las tradicionales audiodescripción y subtitulación para sordos. No solo eso, sino que sienta la bases para el conocimiento de las necesidades de las personas con discapacidad visual y presenta una salida laboral en continuo crecimiento para nuestro alumnado.

"Museums are designed as social spaces. They are places where people can talk, share experiences, and create collective memories. The spatial layout of exhibits allows groups of visitors to view and converse. Talk is encouraged and staff are employed to support families, school groups and tours. Yet much of the computer technology that has been introduced into museums is for individual rather than collaborative use. Handheld guides have been designed to be held up to the ear and multimedia museum displays usually have a single small screen. Recent developments such as museum guide applications for mobile phones continue the theme of supporting the solitary museum visitor. It is not surprising that some curators regard computer technologies as barriers to social engagement with the museum (Tallon & Walker, 2008).

Since the 1960s attempts have been made to design more social museum technology, including dual earpieces for audio guides (Tallon, 2008), quiz questions for pairs of museum users equipped with communicating handheld devices (Yatani, Onuma, Sugimoto & Kusunoki, 2004), multimedia displays that allow visitors to leave opinions and arguments relating to museum exhibits for others to view and respond (Hsi, 1997), and the use of social media to provoke conversations around museum collections (Johnson, et al., 2010). While these have had varying success in connecting and engaging visitors, they can create a fragmented experience where the visitor’s attention is divided between the museum environment, the technology and the social interaction. In this chapter we explore how narrative structures can create threads of experience that connect visitors with museum exhibits and with the narratives woven by other groups of visitors through their conversations and interactions. Computer technology can be designed to anchor these narratives to locations and enhance them through social interactions to create memorable experiences that can be replayed and shared.

The chapter draws on the model of ‘explicit interactivity’ proposed by the US game designer Eric Zimmerman (Zimmerman, 2004), where interactive objects in the environment combine to tell a story, presenting individuals or groups (who may variously be termed audience, players, readers or users) with opportunities to affect the content of the story as it is being delivered. The human participants, computer applications, and locations intermingle to form narratives that unfold through a combination of human-computer interactions and physical movements around the space."

Gentile Collega,
nell'ambito delle iniziative di STATALEperEXPO l'Università degli Studi di Milano ha promosso la realizzazione di Etruscans@EXPO – Una “camera delle meraviglie” in Statale. Si tratta di una esposizione multimediale collocata nel Porticato storico su Largo Richini, a cui si può accedere, per maggiori informazioni e comunicati stampa, anche dal sito: http://www.etruscansatexpo.it/.
Nell'ambito delle molteplici attività dell'iniziativa Etruscans@EXPO è stato programmato un workshop per spiegare e promuovere l'adozione delle audioguide come strumento tecnologico e di grande impatto per la divulgazione di temi legati all'archeologia, l'arte, il turismo.
Il workshop viene organizzato in collaborazione con la società internazionale izi.TRAVEL che ha sviluppato una piattaforma gratuita dove è possibile creare, pubblicare e condividere con i visitatori di tutto il mondo percorsi turistici e itinerari d’interesse.
La tecnologia, fornita gratuitamente da izi.TRAVEL, permette ai responsabili degli enti di inserire contenuti (audio, testo, video e foto) rimanendone gli unici proprietari. 
I visitatori, attraverso un’applicazione anch’essa gratuita, possono scaricare l’audioguida direttamente sul proprio cellulare e ascoltare le spiegazioni attraverso le proprie cuffie.
L’app è disponibile per chi ha uno smartphone o un tablet sia esso Apple, Android o Windows oppure tramite browser quindi nessun visitatore sarà escluso!
È possibile creare percorsi in luoghi al chiuso e all'aperto, collegati tra di loro, (sia in modalità online che offline), proponendo un'esperienza di visita unica e stimolante, coinvolgente ed allo stesso tempo educativa per i visitatori, in qualsiasi lingua.
Gli utenti possono anche condividere attraverso i social media l’esperienza della guida multimediale e in questo modo promuovere efficacemente gli itinerari da voi proposti.
Molte città e istituzioni nel mondo hanno colto l’opportunità rappresentata da izi.TRAVEL, che infatti oggi è presente in ben 11 paesi. Le segnalo il link del sito - https://izi.travel - dove potrà visionare le audioguide di città come Amsterdam, Parigi, Barcellona, Londra, Ginevra e Mosca.
A Firenze izi.TRAVEL ha pubblicato, in collaborazione con i Musei Civici Fiorentini, l’audioguida degli Scavi del Teatro Romano di Firenze sotto Palazzo Vecchio; mentre a Vetulonia, in collaborazione con il Museo Civico Archeologico, l'audioguida del museo e del sito archeologico.

Durante Etruscans@EXPO izi.TRAVEL terrà un workshop informativo di un’ora e mezzo:  venerdì 10 Luglio, dalle 10.30 alle 12.00.
La partecipazione (riservata a operatori museali, istituzioni culturali, operatori turistici e personale universitario) è gratuita con prenotazione, da effettuare scrivendo una mail a info@etruscansatexpo. In allegato l'invito con il programma del workshop.

Siamo a disposizione per ogni chiarimento.

Cordiali saluti,
Orlando Cerasuolo

Recently, museums and historic sites have begun reaching out beyond their traditional audience groups, using more innovative digital display technology to find and attract a new audience. Virtual, mixed, and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies are becoming more ubiquitous in our society and "virtual history" exhibits are starting to be available to the public. There are numerous studies focusing on AR, however a scant amount of research is being done at historical sites. An initial experiment used repeated measures (ANOVA) to compare and rank three different types of AR devices used at a site of cultural heritage. A further experiment was then undertaken to observe participants using two different AR devices with and without sound to determine if which device used or the presence of sound impact the usability of the device, or the user's satisfaction/preference of specific devices. Several surveys, including demographic and usability surveys, were provided in order to collect a range of user data. A two-way repeated measures (ANOVA) were used to analyze the quantitative data gathered. No significant effects were observed based on the quantitative data provided by the surveys, indicating that all devices were equally usable and satisfactory, and that sound did not have a significant impact in this instance. However, the qualitative data indicated that users may prefer using AR technology on a smartphone device and preferred to use this device paired with sound.

We describe the building and testing of a museum audio tour with content recorded as spontaneous interactive dialogue between two curators as they walked around an art gallery. The aim was to produce a guide which would increase the amount of topically relevant talk shared by people visiting a museum in groups of two or more. Conversation analysis is used to show how a pair of visitors engaged more with the content of the guide than they would have with audio produced as traditional scripted monologue. Examples of ...

In this paper, we discuss the value of location-based and movement-sensitive audio for learning. We distinguish three types of audio learning experience: audio vignettes, movement-based guides and mobile narratives. An analysis of projects in these three areas has resulted in the formulation of guidelines for the design of audio experiences. We offer a case study of a novel audio experience, called "A Chaotic Encounter", that delivers an adaptive story based on the pattern of movements of the user.

Timing and tracking is a common method used to collect data about visitor behavior in exhibitions. Typically, it involves the unobtrusive observation of visitors. The purpose of this paper is to present an alternative method for automated timing and tracking using an available audio guide system. In the first part of the paper, existing timing and tracking methods are reviewed to reveal their advantages and limitations. Against this background, the requirements of an alternative method for tracking large numbers of visitors in an interactive science center are discussed. Audio guides that are commonly used in museum exhibitions, are utilized to track the movement of single visitors. In the second part of the article, the use of this method is illustrated in the context of a comparative study on the orientation and choice behavior of different visitor groups in an exhibition on biotechnology, molecular biology, and genetics. In conclusion, the benefits and limitations of our approach are discussed.

In this paper, we discuss the value of location-based and movement-sensitive audio for learning. We distinguish three types of audio learning experience, based primarily upon differing levels of narrative cohesion: audio vignettes, movement-based guides and mobile narratives. An analysis of projects in these three areas has resulted in the formulation of guidelines for the design of audio experiences. We offer a case study of a novel audio experience, called "A Chaotic Encounter", that delivers an adaptive story based on the pattern of movements of the user.