Organizing the multimedia content of an m-learning service through Fedora Digital Objects

In this paper a software infrastructure is presented, developed in the ambit of the CHAT (“Cultural Heritage fruition & e-learning applications of new Advanced (multimodal) Technologies”) research project to provide context-sensitive services accessible through thin clients such as cellular phones or PDAs. We propose a client/server architecture. On the server side, software modules implement the algorithms to manage the “dialogue” with the user. The client application displays the multimedia contents sent by the server and captures user interaction and contextual data registered by the mobile device carried by the user and/or received from other sensors in the surrounding environment. The multimedia contents are organized through Digital Objects managed by the Fedora open-source content management software. An additional system component, the Authoring Tool, allows end users lacking computer programming expertise to develop multimedia contents for the different services provided. Exploiting the wide applicability of the infrastructure, we have designed an m-learning service, called Explore!, that supports and enhances middle school students' experience of a visit to an archaeological park