A 3D history class: A new perspective for the use of computer based technology in history classes

The job of the historian is to understand the past like the people who have lived it have comprehended it, but also to communicate it with instruments and techniques that belong to an age and that influence the mentality of whom in that age live. Technologies, especially in the area of multimedia and virtual reality, allow the historians to communicate the experience of the past in a wide variety of senses. In this work we present a case study, that tries to answer the demand to "make history" involving directly the students, engaged in 3D reconstruction of a building from the past, by carefully checking all the problems of authenticity and by using methods of historical research. In this way, students are able to learn history by re-creating the past with information technology instruments. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.