Antonia CHOUVARDA
(Athes, Greece)
Abstract: The aim of the research was to investigate the educational role of ICT displays in Cultural Heritage.
The poster will present the visitors’ survey undertaken in 2008 at the Hellenic Cosmos (the exhibition center of the Foundation of the Hellenic World in Athens) and the conclusions related to learning. It aims to compare the learning outcomes and the perception of Hellenic Cosmos’ two displays, the virtual reality theater and the related exhibition that constitutes of different exhibits, both high-tech, multimedia and VR applications and more traditional ones, such as text, images, hands-on etc (their common subject deals with the Ancient Agora of Athens).
To meet the goals of the survey we used in situ observations and face-to-face questionnaire (combination of open-ended and categorized questions) with pupils aged 9-15 year old, members of school groups, and a total of 127 of them participated in the study. After the data gathering, a quantitative (categorization of answers, uni-variant and bi-variant techniques) and qualitative (interpretation and compare) analysis followed, with the help of the software SPSS.
The results of the survey gave us several aspects about the educational impact of ICT displays, concerning the role of immersion and interaction in the process of learning, the increase of the engagement, the different kinds of learning that new media allow their relationship with more traditional methods etc.
These issues can be used for discussing the role that new media play as mediators in the construction of knowledge and it can be a basis on which to discuss about the reception of ICT by the audience. Finally, their comparison with other similar studies, contribute to the building of a larger body of evidence of visitors’ use and aims to be used as a foundation tool for future design and evaluations of ICT displays.
Keywords: virtual reality, immersion, interaction, learning