Smith, Andrea Livi. “Neither a Toddler nor a Stick-in-the-Mud.” (2011)

The goal of this paper is to express the views from the “outside,” from laypeople who want to go to museums, but perhaps find themselves not going very often. Adult visitors to history museums are often treated as either toddlers or sticks-in-the-mud, where they are assumed to break anything they touch, or enjoy didactic lectures. As a result, many have come to expect little interactivity, or worse, “edutainment.” Yet it does not have to be this way; interactivity can be encouraged without resorting to dumbing-down content. This requires both inventiveness and motivation to go beyond the status quo, but it is a worthwhile goal in order to attract the new generations of museum-goers.