VIRTUAL MUSEUMS AND LEARNING INNOVATION

Abstract

The paper supports the idea that Virtual Museums (VMs) can effectively support learning innovation and drafts some basic guidelines useful to sustain their effective use in formal, non-formal and informal education. In the beginning, the paper explores the concept of learning innovation and discusses around what is required to define a learning process as genuinely "innovative": is it about the tools adopted? Or, rather, about the educational methods/approaches employed? Or even about the educational objectives we set? Should we, instead, only/primarily consider the actual results obtained? Perhaps all of them? In the light of a comprehensive definition of learning innovation where all the mentioned characteristics are taken into account, subsequently the paper presents the concept of Virtual Museum and highlights the educational potential of these innovative tools. Actually, VMs are software applications that use vision, narration and interaction to create immersive experiences that bring visitors, students, scientists inside history, past landscapes, art, towns etc... They should be also regarded as relevant examples of how cutting edge ICT technologies can be embedded into software applications oriented to knowledge raising and learning in the field of tangible and intangible cultural heritage. Many types of VMs exist, which differ as to the internal structure, the specific objectives addressed, the presentation methods and the interaction techniques adopted; moreover VMs deal with a wide variety of different contents and adopt various approaches to support information delivery, awareness raising and, ultimately, learning. In order to correctly frame the adoption of VMs for educational purposes, the paper presents in detail three different Virtual Museums and underlines how, despite the uniqueness and specificity of the contents displayed, each of them instantiates a specific learning methodology, suitable and relevant depending on the proposed educational objectives, the chosen learning context and the target population addressed.