Promoting Outdoor Cultural Heritage Education with Mobile Mixed-Reality Learning Tools: Two Case Studies in Italy and Great Britain

The thesis studies the impact of new technology on the transmission and promotion of heritage on primary school pupils in order to demonstrate the importance of an alliance between history, visual culture and technology. Two case studies with two distinct types of corpus generated two experiments in situ: ancient architecture in Verona (Italy) and eighteenth-century landscape garden at Hestercombe (Britain). Verona and Hestercombe are two sides of the same patrimonial coin. The co-supervision was done under a specialist in digital story telling of history, Corrado Petrucco (Un. of Padua) and one in eighteenth-century garden and landscape history, Laurent Châtel (Un. of Lille). Mobile Learning began in the 80’s when portable computers (the “in-thing” in those days) where first introduced into the classroom on an experimental basis being a genuine take-off in the late 1990’s thanks to experimental educational programs aimed to exploring the didactic potential of PDAs (Personal Digital Assistant). From the mid 90’s to today, three different phases can be pinned down: a tool-focused phase, extra-mural learning, and an emphasis on student mobility. What this study shows is that the teacher’s role is of fundamental importance. The learning process is on site, situated and enhanced by AR tools and devices (which are equipped with an ‘app’ developed specifically for this project): the ‘app’ is however not intended to replace the guide or the cultural educator, but to be complimentary and to enrich his/her route. In its documents such as “Cultural Heritage Counts for Europe (CHCfE). Towards a European Index for Cultural Heritage" the EU Council of European Ministers recognized heritage as a "strategic resource for a 'sustainable Europe" and a source of benefits – a source of creativity and innovation, generating new solutions to problems. This thesis shows why and how heritage education when augmented via technology improves the interpretation of historic environments and buildings, and also makes them accessible to citizens and visitors.