Beyond mere information provisioning: a handheld museum guide based on social activities and playful learning

Abstract

During a museum visit, social interaction can improve intellectual, social, personal and cultural development. With the advances in technology, the use of personal mobile handheld devices – such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) – that replace the traditional paper guidebooks is becoming a common sight at various heritage sites all over the world. This technology often leads to problems such as isolating visitors from their companions and distracting visitors away from their surroundings. We believe careful design of mobile applications and taking advantage of low-cost networking infrastructure can avoid such isolation of the visitor from his or her surroundings and encourage interaction with both surroundings and companions. In this paper, we describe our approach to create a mobile handheld guide that supports the learning process by exploiting social interaction between visitors and subtly matching the content and concepts shown on the handheld guide with what can be found in the museum.