Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Rural Development: The Case of Tàrbena, Spain

The population decline of small villages is a very serious problem for our society. This situation is not easy to reverse. The challenge is to generate consensus among the inhabitants of small villages to develop projects that have both a link with social and cultural heritage and the aid of the regional and local authorities. This framework can be successful when it also has the capability to provide new lines of development growing from this initial seed that can attract new inhabitants. In this paper, we present research that follows these requirements. Our proposal is based on a traditional agriculture resource, which is the art of building dry stone walls. We study the case of Tàrbena (642 inhabitants in the province of Alicante, Spain). Stone artifacts are recovered: some of them are still useful for agriculture, and others are cataloged and transformed into a product for cultural tourism. This project is expected to develop local, manual, and specialized work through the development of workshops, crafts, and small businesses. This will provide more income for the municipality and the private sector and more opportunities to attract new inhabitants.This research was funded by the government of Generalitat Valenciana, Spain (Conselleria de Innovación, Universidades, Ciencia y Sociedad Digital). Project AICO 2021-331

Virtual Environments and Augmented Reality Applied to Heritage Education. An Evaluative Study

Technological advancements have provided heritage with new learning environments via the use of virtual and augmented reality, which can foster the accessibility and understanding of culture and propose new ways of interacting with heritage. Therefore, in this study, a systematic evaluation is carried out of n=197 heritage education programs listed in the database of the Observatorio de Educación patrimonial en España (OEPE) (the Spanish Heritage Education Observatory–SHEO) which, in their descriptions, integrate the use of virtual environments and/or augmented reality to promote learning on the part of the user. The objectives of this study are: (1) to analyse the state of the art, (2) to evaluate the quality of their educational designs via the “analysis and assessment sequential method for heritage education programs” (SAEPEP-OEPE) and (3) to identify variables which can be improved or which have a significant influence on the quality of the programs. Highlights of the results include: (a) the increasing implementation of these technologies in heritage education programs, with the greater presence of virtual resources than of learning environments, (b) the low level of the scope of educational quality in their designs, particularly their assessment, and (c) the inclusion of advanced technologies slightly decreases the specificity of the educational design.This research was carried out with the aid of funding from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, and was co-funded by ERDF funds from the European Union for the research projects EDU2015-65716-C2-1-R, EDU2015-65716-C2-2-R, and PGC2018-094491-B-C33. It has also been made possible by funding from the Fundación Séneca of the Region of Murcia for the project 20638/JLI/18 and the Education Department of the Regional Government of the Basque Country (IT1193-19)

Augmented reality for cultural heritage education

In the past few years, it is noticed a fast adoption and increase of mobile devices that are able to retrieve information quickly, regardless of the user's physical environment. Thus, application developers have leveraged it by developing a variety of applications using mobile Augmented Reality (AR) in domains such as cultural heritage education, shopping, gaming, and more. AR technology overlays a virtual object into the real world that enables users to have virtual and real-world experience at the same time. During a visit to a cultural heritage site such as a museum or an art gallery, the learning experience and enjoyment is necessary for a visitor and AR introduces new opportunities to improve them. We propose an AR-based framework for cultural heritage education. We aim to promote cultural heritage education by enriching user's experience and at the same time to offer the knowledge with the most enjoyable way. In order to evaluate our framework, we have developed a server application and an AR-based smartphone application

Location-Based Augmented Reality for Cultural Heritage Education: Creating Educational, Gamified Location-Based AR Applications for the Prehistoric Lake Settlement of Dispilio

Today, augmented reality (AR) applications are being used in many fields, such as advertising, entertainment, tourism, and education. Location-based augmented reality (AR) is a technology where interactive digital content is associated with real-world locations and their geo-based markers. The merging of the real-world environment with the digital content occurs when the user reaches these locations. Location-based AR applications are typically experienced using mobile devices with the ability to report the user’s location via GPS. These applications are increasingly used in education, since it has been shown that they positively affect student satisfaction and engagement. Furthermore, it is known in the literature that learner satisfaction and engagement increase when gamification and storytelling techniques are incorporated into the educational process. The aim of the study is to present two location-based, educational augmented-reality applications that utilize gamification and storytelling to provide cultural heritage knowledge about a prehistoric lake settlement. The study also aims to provide ideas and guidance to educators who wish to create applications that transform educational visits to archeological sites and museums into engaging augmented-reality experiences. Both applications underwent a preliminary evaluation using a sample of 71 higher-education students and a sample of 58 school students. The findings showed that the applications scored well in aspects such as ease of use, student satisfaction, and perceived educational usefulness