Introduction Museums constitute a significant portion of our society's communal heritage. Together, they form a type of collective memory of society, with organized collections of objects documenting the development of the earth from its earliest beginnings to the present day. Museums hold a wealth of material that help people to understand the development and functioning of the world of which they are a part. Though in many ways an oversimplification, the purpose of education is to prepare people to take their place in society. In any developed society, one of the major elements of this preparation is an understanding of the origin and history of that society, and the role and responsibility of the individual within it.
Museum collections are thus a major source of educational material.
Use of Museum Material in Education Computers are becoming an essential tool in our society. The development of new, attractive multimedia applications lets us learn about computers almost subliminally while we concentrate our efforts on the content of the production itself. One of the outstanding benefits of the new media is the quantity of material that can be made available. In addition to the data, the disk also holds a subject index, modest search and retrieval databases, and context-sensitive help files, all in two languages, not to mention the various program and support files. Other benefits are equally dramatic.