Along with the technological evolution of IT and its rapid diversification, the adult population that did not benefit from this kind of education is hardly keeping up with the new opportunities offered by various devices designed to ease their lives. In fact, these are not only optional, in many cases devices are keys of access to certain areas of interest: they help to communicate, orient ourselves and even pay bills. Although they have increasingly occupying field, adults have a great reluctance to use devices to their true potential, often invoking the fear of somehow affecting their functioning. This conducts to a new form of exclusion facing the adult population: technological exclusion. Adults with low ITC skills depend on people who are familiar with the use of modern technology. The main objective of the project is to increase the confidence of adult people in modern devices and to help them in improving their ITC skills by involving them in learning by doing activities and gamification methods based on AR technology. Augmented Reality (AR) technology offers the huge potential of education by developing new learning methods that will change the way that people gain skills. Given the generous formative potential of AR, Visual Library of Cultural Heritage Project responds to the ITC needs of adult people. It aims to prototype a learning method using an AR app. and flash cards that form will form the Portfolio of European Cultural Heritage. The project also intends to increase awareness about European cultural heritage by involving adult learners in creating a Visual Library that includes an AR gallery of the most important items of the cultural heritage of the participating countries that gives information overlapped with pictures, animation, references, on both online and mobile. Activities of the project aim to facilitate the transfer of innovative practice in European educational communities, by sharing experiences and dissemination resources, results, methods, and learnings implemented. The project prototypes an innovative method based on a sensorial experience of augmented reality through which information will be enriched by adding computer generated graphics in order to enhance the user's perception of the European Cultural Heritage. The participants in the project will be involved in learning activities and in creative workshops during which they will be able to create real and virtual objects correlated and presented in 3D space. The project activities are based on gamification tools and learning by doing method that has a major educational potential at any learning level due to the fact that it can be used as the informal/ non-formal tools.The learning methods used are very versatile. They can be replicated, as well, for other educational areas and can be transferred in leisure activities by augmenting daily information. It can be used in different contexts, and professionals participant in the project will adapt it for various educational purposes. The project will create the Visual Library of Cultural Heritage - an online gallery organized as a friendly map comprising a database of the cultural heritage items selected by each country, overlapped with pictures and animation, references and comments. The items are material objects (monuments, memorial houses, old books, autographs, frescoes, folk costumes, heritage objects) or immaterial (traditions, gastronomy). As a learning tool, participants will create the Visual Portfolio of European Cultural Heritage that includes augmented flash cards with presented items of cultural heritage from each partner country. Additionally, the participants will gain new skills to use ITC and mobile applications and confidence increased in using the new devices. They will also gain new abilities to use technology in creating audio-video content, to use AR applications, to do research and documentary work in the cultural heritage area. That will conduct to a better understanding of other cultures and increase trust in communication in a foreign language. In order to reach expected impact and ensure the sustainability of the project, we formed a transnational partnership composed by 8 different European organizations that have experience in the educational area and are driving by the same objectives. The project will involve adult people in education "without lessons" using new devices in education, leisure activities and in cultural practice. Libraries, schools, leisure centers, municipalities can be inspired to use Augmented Reality in order to learn, promote events or places and to add new services for people in the community. Adult people will gain confidence with modern technologies, which will lead them to discover new skills that may improve their life.
IT technology is rapidly growing and adult people are struggling to keep up with the new opportunities offered by various devices designed to make their lives easier. Although technology is gaining new frontiers, adults are reluctant to use it at its full potential. This leads to a new form of exclusion that the adult population faces: technological exclusion. In order to contribute to the alleviation of this, the project set 4 major objectives: - raising awareness of European cultural heritage by involving adults in the creation of an AR visual library with the most important elements of cultural heritage in the participating countries. -introduction of the learning by doing method using AR technology. in creating promotional flashcards that compose the European Cultural Heritage Portfolio. -increasing the confidence of adults in the use of modern devices and improving their ITC skills by getting involved in learning by doing and gamification using AR technology. -facilitating the transfer of innovative practices in educational communities, through the exchange of experiences and methods. Augmented Reality (AR) technology represents a huge potential in education and it changes the way that people acquire skills. The Visual Library of Cultural Heritage ( CHERITAGE) Project has exploited this by initiating a learning method based on the AR app. The project targeted especially adults from cultural, educational or social fields, having ITC low skills. In total, the project Learning Activities were attended by 135 people and at the Transnational Meetings participated 78 people, delegated by the organizations in the project. During the project's four learning steps, participants learned to create from scratch a visual library with the most representative objectives from the cultural heritage of their country, items selected, documented and promoted by themselves through AR technology. They have created flashcards for each selected cultural objective in their countries. The flashcards were made in both virtual and physical versions. The virtual version of the flashcards formed the gallery The Visual Library of Cultural Heritage uploaded on www.cheritage.eu, the project website, and the physical form of the flashcards formed brochures of the European Cultural Heritage Portfolio that were exhibited and presented on different occasions. In total, were created 8 brochures comprising 89 flashcards that shaped the Visual Library of Cultural Heritage Gallery, presented both as a friendly map and a dynamic carousel. In addition to the IT educational component, the project activities also aimed to initiate participants in methods of promoting heritage. Moreover, learning by doing methods provided participants with new technical skills and also required strong emotional involvement on their part. As one of the main objectives was to raise awareness of European cultural heritage, participants were actively involved in achieving the results of the project in order to gain deep insights into European values. This also facilitated the transfer of practices to other educational communities. The most important outputs of the project are the Cultural Heritage Portfolio and the Cultural Heritage Visual Library - an online gallery organized as a friendly map, a database with cultural heritage elements selected by each country, superimposed with images and animation, references and comments. Selected items are material objects (monuments, old books, frescoes, folk costumes, instruments, landscapes) or immaterial objects (traditions, dances, gastronomy). Participants have acquired new skills in using ITC and mobile applications and are much more confident in using new devices as well as online promotion platforms. They also acquired new professional research and documentation knowledge on a certain topic. They have now the required skills to create audio-video content and to use AR in various areas. The whole set of activities led to a better understanding of other cultures and increased the participants' confidence in communicating in a foreign language with people from different parts of Europe. The learning methods used were very versatile and easy to be reproduced in other fields: schools, libraries, online social pages, cultural managers as well as in leisure activities. In order to achieve a higher impact, we ensured good sustainability by involving 8 different European organizations, which have experience in the educational, cultural and social fields. For each process planned within the project, a specific dissemination method was used related to the purpose of the activity and a certain target group. Also, meetings with stakeholders from various areas of activity with different occasions contributed to the transfer of learned methods and the promotion of cultural heritage. Libraries, schools, leisure centers, municipalities attended the project presentations and were inspired to use augmented reality for new purposes.