Web-based Learning Solutions for Communities of Practice

Visualising the Invisible in Science Centres and Science Museums
The EXPLOAR service is the main outcome
of the European CONNECT (www.ea.gr/ep/connect)
which developed a personalized museum
wearable system along with a long series of
informal educational scenarios. The system was
implemented in science centres in UK, Sweden,
Greece and Finland (Sotiriou et al. 2007) which
demonstrated the potential of such a system to
offer unique experiences to the visitors. Similarly,
the enrichment of the repertoire of learning opportunities
as well as the blending helped to meet
the challenge of “science for all”, i.e., it provided
science education opportunities tailored to diverse
and heterogeneous populations of users. These
populations vary both in their interest in learning
science and in their abilities to learn science. In
parallel it supports the provision of key skills to
the future citizens and scientists (collaborative
work, creativity, adaptability, intercultural communication).
The EXPLOAR service demonstrates a suitable
example of an innovative approach involving
visitors in extended episodes of playful learning.
The EXPLOAR service specifically uses informal
education as an opportunity to transcend from
traditional museum visits, to a “feel and interact”
user experience, by allowing a learning “anytime,
anywhere”, an openness to societal changes and
at the same time a feeling culturally conscious.
These pedagogical concepts and learning practices
would address implementing a set of demonstrators
(learning scenarios), employing advanced and
highly interactive visualization technologies and
also personalised ubiquitous learning paradigms
in order to enhance the effectiveness and quality
of the learning process. In this way, EXPLOAR
demonstrates the potential of the AR technology
to cover the emerging need of continuous update,
innovate and development of new exhibits, new
exhibitions, new educational materials, new programmes
and methods to approach the visitors.
The CONNECT system provided the starting
point to the EXPLAR approach. It consisted of an
joint initiative of pedagogical, cognitive science
and technological experts, museum educators
and psychologists who searched for possibilities
of using advanced technologies for educational
purposes. The Virtual Science Thematic Park was
It was developed as an active learning environment
that functions in two distinct and equally
important, from a pedagogical point of view,
modes: the museum mode and the school mode.
It allows for ubiquitous access to educational
and scientific resources and incorporates all the
innovative use of technology for educational
purposes. The partnership has provided a variety
of learning methods incorporating experimental,
theoretical and multidisciplinary skills that will
eventually may produce independent learners. The
developed educational scenarios included field
trips (virtual and conventional visits to science
museums and parks) that are tangential to existing
curricula, to pre- and post-visit curricular activi-
Figure 1. The EXPLOAR service offers unique
opportunities to a science museum and a science
centre visitor. A series of augmentations of
physical phenomena, pictures, video and text are
presented to the optical view of a user while explaining
the physical laws and phenomena under
investigation. The system also supports the work
of the exhibition design and development team of
a museum as it allows for enrichment of current
exhibits with numerous applications and gadgets
providing an easy way to update and to renovate
each exhibition.
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