"New Web Project Brings Museums into Classrooms"
2001-07-26 until 2001-07-26
Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts
Canberra, , AU Australia

Ned Kelly, dinosaurs, and Phar Lap's heart will soon be in classrooms across the country. Discovernet, the Australian Museums Online (AMOL) education gateway is increasing student and teacher access to collections and stories told by Australian cultural institutions. Launching the gateway today at Leongatha Primary School in Gippsland, Federal Minister for the Arts, Peter McGauran welcomed the new website as an important resource.

'Students can now visit more than 1200 museums, galleries, libraries, zoos and botanic gardens across the country, through their school computers,' Mr McGauran said.

'Discovernet provides a number of web-based educational resources, and allows students to be a museum curator for the day, by assembling their own virtual exhibitions.'

Coinciding with the launch, a link has been set up with a megafauna fossil dig site at Alcoota in the Simpson Desert, north-east of Alice Springs. Scientists from the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory have posted photos and diary entries from the dig on the website and this week have been answering emailed questions.

The link to the megafauna fossil dig runs from 23-27 July. Discovernet can be found at www.amol.org.au/discovernet

AMOL is a Heritage Collections Council (HCC) initiative. The HCC is a collaboration of the Commonwealth, State and Territory Governments in partnership with the museum sector. Discovernet has been developed in consultation with the Education Network of Australia (EdNA).

Related Links:

Indepth Arts Resources for Australia

Other Important Exhibitions in Australia