SEE (Shrine Educational Experience): an Online Cooperative 3D Environment Supporting Innovative Educational Activities

What do new technologies have to offer to education? And in particular, can online collaborative 3D environments fulfill high educational goals, combined with the playful and social aspects that make them so attractive? SEE (Shrine Educational Experience), a project by Politecnico di Milano and the Israel Museum, represents a major step towards the answering to this question. SEE brings together, in a shared 3D virtual space, students from around the world, to learn about the Dead Sea Scrolls and the two thousand year old culture that produced them. During the experience, robust cultural content is delivered; cross cultural exchange and interaction among physically remote participants are encouraged. The experience is also an intriguing occasion of becoming familiar with state-of-the-art technologies. This paper describes the SEE experience, its major educational goals and the design choices made to accomplish them. The first results of tests performed in schools are also presented.