The concept of technology seems forward thinking. So, a museum dedicated to computers, as the Rhode Island Computer Museum in North Kingstown is, may seem counterintuitive, until you know about its work involving youth education and community connections.
The volunteer-run museum collects computer equipment and accessories from a wide range of manufacturers, with more than 100 large mainframe systems and more than 150 small systems.
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Dan Berman is the museum’s curator.
PBN: The Rhode Island Computer Museum has a lot of old technology – such as a programmed data processor from the 1980s, for example. Who is your average museum visitor?
BERMAN: The RICM has identified two main audience groups: people who used the machines and devices in our collection in their own lives and careers, and people to whom the collections represent the history of the devices ubiquitous in present life. Older visitors share many personal recollections while our younger visitors may be perplexed and intrigued by unfamiliar technologies – [such as] rotary telephones and acoustic modems. Learning Lab visitors tend to be more elementary and middle school audiences interested in coding, robots and gaming.
Another group of interested visitors have emerged: set designers, movie and TV writers who are interested in vintage rentals. We have rented our equipment as props for such shows as “Mad Men,” “Halt and Catch Fire” and “The Americans” [and movies] “Hidden Figures” and “Kong: Skull Island.”
Many of our visiting children had seen “Hidden Figures” and remembered the computer equipment.
PBN: How did the idea for the museum come about, originally?
BERMAN: A local group of British car enthusiasts turned to collecting computers as a smaller and more affordable hobby (this soon proved not to be true!). They began receiving donations of computer equipment in 1996 from friends and local businesses and formed a 501(c)(3) organization in 1999. The physical museum was started in a mill building (Shady Lea) also used by local artists as designer studios, and then moved to its current location in a shared warehouse owned by the state’s Quonset Development Corp.
PBN: When did you start the STEM [science, technology, engineering, mathematics] classes at the Learning Lab, and why?
BERMAN: RICM had been developing vintage computer displays and workshops over the last five years, and started holding workshops at the North Kingstown Free Library. Our most popular program then and now is teaching Scratch, a computer program developed by MIT [Massachusetts Institute of Technology] to teach software coding, ideal for young programmers itching to design their own video game. In 2015, we did over 200 workshops for libraries in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut.
Three years ago, we decided to open our Learning Lab as a physical space. We then created an internship program with The Met High School, a network of six small, public high schools located in Providence and Newport. A small group of Met students comes to the RICM to learn how to code, build circuits, design and program robots, and create video games. They … teach younger students that the RICM reaches (such as Segway Middle School), and various other community groups.
This year, RICM opened a new CodeBot Studio at the Hope Artiste Village in Pawtucket … another community location where home-school tech classes can be held.
PBN: What has been the reaction so far to the workshops and classes?
BERMAN: The library workshops have been highly successful. … These relationships are critical as library workshops fill a number of STEM needs, including getting teen girls and boys interested in targeted areas for future jobs. In addition, the workshop and classes allow RICM and libraries to offer educational activities to children that otherwise might not have been able to afford them. … This was successful not only in reaching people who had not heard about RICM but also resulted in offers of vintage equipment donations.
RICM presented at over 30 Massachusetts libraries last year. In 2015, 2016 and 2017, RICM was again selected by Rhode Island Office of Library and Information Services and is listed on the Rhode Island State Council for the Arts Education Roster for STEM activities. Last year, we received a grant from the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities to present free workshops.
PBN: Is RICM forming community partnerships in the local tech industry?
BERMAN: [Johnston’s] Dassault Systemes’ employees have volunteered and partnered with us, to display at the ProvFest Makerspace; RICM has provided a Raspberry Pi Workshop for employees and their children. RICM was awarded a grant from Dassault Systemes U.S. Foundation. We will be working with libraries throughout Rhode Island and Massachusetts to create a new teen program, 3D Learning Labs, which uses both digital and traditional media. We are modeling this traveling Fab Lab program after Dassault Systèmes’ new 3DExperience Lab … it’s expected to provide prototypes for the field and be based on current research about virtual reality technology and youth learning.
Susan Shalhoub is a PBN contributor.
