Experiencing Augmented Reality on Cultural Heritage Application in iVET

In 2018, the European Union celebrated the Year of European Cultural Heritage. Various campaigns and events were launched to get EU citizens excited about the common cultural heritage. The FHM also thought about how to inspire young people from vocational schools and colleges in particular for European cultural objects. The answer was: CultApp.

In general, the project was about a better experience of European cultural assets with the help of augmented reality (AR). The idea behind it was to enrich the real, visible world with additional content. AR technologies were particularly popular with young people and therefore played a central role in the project in discovering European cultural diversity.

At the heart of the project was an international student project in which 34 vocational school students from Italy, Germany and the Netherlands developed and tested AR applications for 17 cultural objects from their home cities of Florence, Bielefeld and Roermond. Young people were able to acquire or deepen various skills in the process: Creativity, handling new digital media, teamwork skills and awareness of a common European identity. This pilot project served as a reference for European VET stakeholders in the integration of AR into vocational school curricula and can thus drive the modernization of curricula. In this way, the project made a significant contribution to promoting aesthetic and digital education at vocational schools.

An online training program entitled "Augmented Reality for Cultural Heriatge Education" (AR4CHE) was also developed and tested for vocational school teachers during the course of the project. 34 teachers successfully completed the training and improved their skills in planning and implementing AR projects in the classroom. The online program has now been made available to all interested parties free of charge at www.ar-cultapp.eu.

The project results also represent high added value for various regional, national and international stakeholders from the culture and tourism sector. By successfully demonstrating AR applications on cultural objects, further creative ideas for the use of AR on tourist destinations can be developed and implemented, which can ultimately contribute to increasing the attractiveness of European locations.