Enjoying cultural heritage thanks to mobile technology

Explore! is designed to be used in a wider set of historical sites. The game content historical information, 3-D reconstructions and sounds is provided by XML files and can be authored in numerous ways and adapted to different sites. A great advantage of Explore!, which makes it very attractive for use in archaeological parks across Italy with very limited funds, is that the game infrastructure requires almost no investment by the park. The system can also show high-resolution 3-D models of other areas that might not be accessible in the park. Explore! has been field tested with 124 middle-school students, who expressed excitement about the opportunity to use technology during their visit and commented on how nice it was to use a cell phone for the game and see the 3-D reconstructions. They provide added value in terms of stimulating learners' engagement, increasing their motivation, and arousing their curiosity, while permitting immersion in the learning environment. The system runs on commercial cell phones, and the software is all contained in the phone's memory card.