Web-based Learning Solutions for Communities of Practice

ties (including internet resources), to ‘minds-on’
experiments and models of different everyday
coursework involving ‘real’ remotely controlled
experiments. Altogether a “student-friendly”
and engaging environment of thematic parks or
museum are provided.
The working hypothesis of the CONNECT
project was that the amendment of the traditional
scientific methodology for experimentation with
visualization applications and model building tools
will help a learner to generally articulate mental
models, to make better predictions and to reflect
more effectively. The project took advantage of
the fact that students enjoy tremendously visits to
museums which often increases individual interest
scores and enjoyment of science activities as
well as constitute to valuable long-term learning
outcomes (Ayres & Melear, 1998). The role of
technology in bridging the gap between formal
and informal learning environments may sum
up to the delivery of scientific visualization and
multimedia systems in the areas of virtual (VR)
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Visualising the Invisible in Science Centres and Science Museums
Figure 2. Visualizing the invisible: The CONNECT Science Thematic Park.The CONNECT experience
may add to a visitor’s view a series of augmentations, both, advanced or poor and simple. The advanced
augmentations (E/M fields, molecular motions, microscopic view of the matter) were created by the
CONNECT team. Through an authoring tool the museum educator or the teacher can upload additional
simple content in order to create more personalized scenarios.
and augmented reality (AR). The possibility of
AR and VR to make convergence of education
and entertainment is becoming more and more
challenging as the technology is continuously optimised
and expands to a wide area of applications.
The CONNECT project has pushed the current
boundaries further by providing a platform that
integrates contextual information into classroom
settings, by employing advanced, highly interactive
visualization technologies embedded systems
and wearable computing. Simultaneously it has
introduced new activities and personalized learning
paradigms that fluidly link the use of physical
materials with digital technology in creative
inquiry and inventive exploration.
The main technological innovation of CON-
NECT consisted in the development of an advanced
learning environment, the Virtual Science
Thematic Park (VSTP). It was supposed to act
as a main “hub” of all available resources within
the existing network of science parks, science
museums and research centres. The VSTP serves