New Social Practices in the Field of Museum Education in Brazil: Digital Culture and Social Networks

Abstract

The use of digital technology and creation of network infrastructures in Brazil’s national museums has emerged as an important research topic in recent years, either from the perspective of finding new ways to socialize collections and to expand their potential or by implementing new practices to manage and organize these institutions. This article aims to debate how museum education sectors can establish new social practices of digital culture based on the perspectives identified by digital technologies. To this end, a reflection was carried out based on the educational potential proposed by the National Policy on Museum Education, and a case study was performed based on the experience of the Tainacan project, implemented by the Brazilian Museum Institute for the socialization of museum collections in the digital universe. The results are still preliminary; however, they can show how the practices of digital culture, considering that the network has its own characteristics and socialization strategies that are inherent to it, which can be used in favour of museum education, constitute operational possibilities, which can be applied in the reality of Brazilian museum institutions.

Keywords

• museum education
• digital culture
• social networks