The Future of Museum Learning with Deborah Howes

Oct 14, 2025

Deborah Howes, President of Howes Studio and a digital museum education pioneer, shares her insights on revolutionizing museum learning. She discusses how AI is reshaping museum archives and accessibility, emphasizing the importance of authenticity in EdTech. Deborah advocates for open-access museum data to enhance global learning and urges collaboration between tech firms and museums. She also highlights how museums can inspire better AI tutoring methods, urging them to adapt to remain relevant in the digital age.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Books

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

AI Enables Scale For Slow Institutions

AI helps museums act with speed and scale on time-consuming tasks like cataloging and accessibility.
Deborah Howes argues proper AI implementation can amplify mission-critical museum work without replacing curation.

ADVICE

Automate Descriptions To Improve Access

Use combined AI analysis of collection text and visuals to auto-generate image descriptions for accessibility.
Prioritize these descriptions because they help both people with vision challenges and downstream AI indexing.

INSIGHT

AI Unlocks Hidden Historical Texts

AI can noninvasively read and reconstruct ancient texts from imaging data, unlocking lost knowledge.
Howes highlights Pompeii scrolls as an example where AI translates ink patterns without physical unrolling.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

Send us a text

Deborah Howes is the President of Howes Studio and a pioneer in digital museum education. With over three decades leading EdTech programs at top cultural institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA, the Art Institute of Chicago, and MOCA Los Angeles. She now helps museums and nonprofits transform analog learning into dynamic digital experiences.

💡 5 Things You’ll Learn:

How AI is transforming museum archives and accessibility.
Why authenticity and trust matter in EdTech collaborations.
The power of open-access museum data for global learning.
How museum teaching methods can inspire better AI tutors.
What museums must do now to remain relevant in a digital world.

✨ Episode Highlights:
[00:01:00] The hidden power of museum and EdTech collaborations
[00:05:10] AI in museums: from ancient scrolls to image tagging
[00:11:40] Why AI isn’t learning from museum data, yet
[00:22:40] “Throw open the gates”: the case for open access
[00:31:50] How a MoMA partnership brought art into classrooms
[00:38:40] Howes’ advice for EdTech founders partnering with museums
[00:47:00] “Start with the experience, not the tech”
[00:57:30] The urgency: keeping museums relevant in the AI era

😎 Stay updated with Edtech Insiders!

Follow our Podcast on:
Sign up for the Edtech Insiders newsletter.
Follow Edtech Insiders on LinkedIn!

🎉 Presenting Sponsor/s:

This season of Edtech Insiders is once again brought to you by Tuck Advisors, the M&A firm for EdTech companies. Run by serial entrepreneurs with over 30 years of experience founding, investing in, and selling companies, Tuck believes you deserve M&A advisors who work as hard as you do.

Ednition helps EdTech companies reclaim rostering and own their integrations. Through its flagship platform, RosterStream, Ednition replaces costly data providers and complex internal infrastructure with direct, secure connections to any SIS or data source. The result: scalable integrations, lower costs, and seamless experiences for schools and districts of every size. With Ednition: Reclaim rostering. Own your integrations. Cut the cost.

Innovation in preK to gray learning is powered by exceptional people. For over 15 years, EdTech companies of all sizes and stages have trusted HireEducation to find the talent that drives impact. When specific skills and experiences are mission-critical, HireEducation is a partner that delivers. Offering permanent, fractional, and executive recruitment, HireEducation knows the go-to-market talent you need. Learn more at HireEdu.com.