THE INTERNATIONAL SPY MUSEUM’S NEW 360° DIGITAL HIGHLIGHTS TOUR

An Inside Look

The Basics

Interviewee: Jacqueline V. Eyl, Youth Education Director at the International Spy Museum

She specializes in programming and resources for educators who are planning visits to the museum

A joint project: the museum partnered with the American Institute for History Education (AIHE)

The Purpose

The 360° digital highlights tour serves as a pre-visit for teachers

Likely, at some point, the tour will be coupled with a small pre-visit lesson plan for educators

It also gives any visitor an exciting preview before they visit the museum

The Actual Tour

An entirely new service offered by the museum

Three rooms showcased The rooms are small and connected to each other Rooms with the best layout, etc. were chosen

Hotspots The ability to zoom in on the artifact allows for a deeper user

experience Some hotspots also feature audio and video files

The tour has yet to debut—it is still in its final stages

Inception

AIHE approached museum to partner together on this project

The tour was not one of the museum’s priorities until AIHE pushed it forward

http://americaninstituteforhistory.org/virtualtours/

Development

Walking a line The museum developers had to carefully consider how much to reveal

within the tour

AIHE camera crew filmed rooms All one day for about three hours

Minimal Problems changes that need to be made, glitches, were determined by the museum

and sent back to AIHE

museum has full ownership of the program; purchased from AIHE

The total production process took about 3 months

Future Plans

When it debuts, in around a month, it is likely to be located on the homepage—to promote both the tour and trips to the museum

Links to the tour will be distributed on the museum’s listserv once it debuts, as another means of promotion

Museum website will also be revised in the next few months

Overall, the tour’s purpose is for educators primarily, and also for individuals to view it in the comfort of their homes, and also to entice a visit to the museum

A Sneak Peak!

Preview of the tour

Feedback: Jackie’s email, jeyl@spymuseum.org

Friend them http://www.facebook.com/spyeducators