MoULe

MoULe is an on-line environment for collaborative learning; by integrating smart phones and portable devices, it enables educational activities based on the exploration of a geographical place.

The system includes specific functionalities to search and access information spaces, to communicate and to annotate places according to their geographical coordinates .

Data stored in the system (included data uploaded into it by the users) are enriched by the information concerning geographical localization, so that the system provides users with information specific to the place they are visiting.

Administrators can use MoULe to design tourist as well as educational paths, monitor users’ activities in real time, and evaluate quantity and quality of interactions among users

Target

• MoULe can be used for any learning activity which foresees the association of learning resources to specific geographical sites, and where some part of the work should be done in a collaborative way .
• Recreational and/or professional publishing. The system enables the acquisition of multimedia contents (interviews, photos, text motes, and so on) directly on the places of interest, through mobile phones, and the publication of the acquired contents on a Web portal in real time.
• MoULe exhibits huge potentials as information system to be adopted in different tourist-environmental contexts, by providing customization of information and communication in a transparent way, according to the geographical surrounding.

Main functionalities

• Information search based on the users’ geographical position.
• Building of information spaces in a collaborative way (through wiki technologies and conceptual maps).
• Association of an information item to a specific point of interest.
• On-site multimedia annotation (photos, text, audio interviews).
• Synchronous and asynchronous communication tools (chat e forum), adapting themselves to the geographical position of the user.
• Satellite navigator to visualize the position of users and points of interests.
• Automatic recognition of the points of interest.
• Centralized users monitoring.

Use of the system

The MoULe system can be accessed both by PCs and mobile devices (PDAs e Smartphones). A normal Web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, and so on) is enough to access to the system through a PC. A specific interface developed at our Institute makes the use of the MoULe system extremely easy even by a mobile device.