Abstract
Most museums maintain an educational brief. In many, this is achieved through the integration of informal education programmes—guided and self-guided tours, and practical learning activities, often with curriculum-linked learning content—into single-visit class engagements. In the past, museums have supported these one-off, or occasionally repeat, visiting experiences with outreach support. This can take the form of museum educators visiting schools, or resource loan systems. Maintaining an amalgam of educator-implemented school visits and ‘physically’ exercised outreach programmes is difficult to coordinate and can tax museum resources. Digital media offer opportunities to expand the museum education purview, support (and even replace) on-site visitation and reach more learners, in different ways. This account examines the Virtual Excursion online visitation experience offered by The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. It finds the Excursion programmes offer museum experiences for communities that are unable to access the Museum or outreach services in person. It also describes how the interface between technology-enhanced museum facility and school classroom settings accommodates diverse participants, learning dispositions and requirements, and aide-supported, culturally diverse, and collaborative learners.