I found the diagram in chapter seven to be very helpful. It easily showed that the visitor ad the museum feed back into each other from the experience. The guest is impacted by the museum's affordances and there expectation of the museum and the museum is influenced by perceptions and interactions with the visitor. Long term effects of this interaction over time repeated of thousands of guests may alter the museum enough that visitors may receive a wholly different experience.
As a museum adapts its affordances to the visitors, it may better adapt to the guests and to the communities that it is servicing. I see this happening at MOXI on a small scale in how we interact with the field trips vs. the general public. I know that when I work weekends I focus in the facilitation of playful science, but when field trips in I switch to a monitor that enforces roles (running, screaming, water play). I try to engage in educational facilitation but the focus has switched and that is feed by the group of guests and how I as museum staff have interacted with guests in the past.
I agree, the diagram was very helpful. Informal learning isn't a straightforward process, it's a cycle. I like the idea that the museum is learning from the guests as the guests are learning from the museum.
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