Today’s offering was about electronic scavenger hunts in museums ('A SCVNGR Trek at the ROM'), using smartphones (iPhone or Android) to access challenge questions from throughout the museum. My family does geocaching (kind of like scavenger hunts in nature, with the help of a hand-held GPS), so I am curious about this. With a quick search on the Internet, I found the following short YouTube video about how this “SCVNGR” hunt application works. Cool! Check it out:
SCVNGR challenge at the Urban Ecology Center
Next I went to the SCVNGR website and I watched the short tutorial on how to make a SCVNGR challenge (click on the “watch how to build” button on the lower right). It seems pretty darn straightforward for people comfortable with technology.
I’m thinking, what a great project for collaboration with our local schools – either through their history curriculum or their technology classes. Let’s get a SCVNGR trek created for Hatfield’s two museums. Of course, I don’t have a smartphone, and lots of people don’t, so we’d also want to create a non-tech version of the scavenger hunt at the same time. In this case, the technology application would not only be kickstarting the mobile museum, but kickstarting the museum in general, as we use today’s media to connect with our community!