A presentation from Museums and the Web 2009. This paper presents early results from a large, multi-year study of the impact of Web 2.0 technologies on museum learning and practice. The study has two parts. One part is an examination of discursive activity on a science museum blog (Science Buzz from the Science Museum of Minnesota), and the second part is an examination of the impact that Web 2.0 technologies have on museum practice (Museum of Life Science in North Carolina). In this paper, we focus on results from the analysis of activity on Science Buzz. The study is shaped by the following questions. (1) What is the nature of the community that interacts through Science Buzz? (2) What is the nature of the on-line interaction? (3) Do these on-line interactions support inquiry and learning for this user community? (4) Do these on-line interactions support inquiry, learning, and change within the museum – ie, what is the impact on museum practice? Our results to date suggest that the activity on the Science Buzz blog is highly complex. The community that forms online is highly variable and shaped largely by topic. For instance, some topics attract a large number of participants with diverse levels of knowledge and perspective and who participate from locations both inside and outside the physical museum. Our analysis to date suggests that argumentative strategies such as making claims are most common on the Buzz blog. These forms of reasoning strategies are the focus of much of the discourse-based studies of concepts like “learning” in group environments. Yet what our analysis of the Buzz blog also shows are a range of strategies that we associate with constructing individual identities (more common) and group identities (less common). These discourse strategies are often ignored in studies of learning or knowledge construction, but they are clearly integral to any understanding of the on-line spaces made available by museums to the public. Session: Evaluation 2.0 [evaluation]

1. Take Two: A Study of the Co-Creation of Knowledge on Museum 2.0 Sites Jeff Grabill, Michigan State University Kris Morrissey, University of Washington Bill Hart-Davidson, Michigan State University Kirsten Ellenbogen, Science Museum of Minnesota Troy Livingston, Museum of Life + Science Stacey Pigg, Michigan State University Katie Wittenauer, Michigan State University

2. How Do Web 2.0 Technologies Impact Museum Learning and Practice? Most museums with an online presence either have or are planning to experiment with web interactivity. What is really happening in these online spaces? Have Web 2.0 tools brought about changes in the ways knowledge is shared, created and co-created, and the ways that visitors interact with the museum and each other?

3. How Do Web 2.0 Technologies Impact Museum Learning and Practice? The Take Two study is an examination of online museum activity and impacts on museum practice. We focus on a science museum blog (Science Buzz from the Science Museum of Minnesota) and on the impact that Web 2.0 technologies have on museum practice (Museum of Life + Science in North Carolina).

5. Coding for Discourse Analysis Our investigation of online activity relies on discourse analysis to characterize that activity, focusing on four major rhetorical acts: