Abstract:

New Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are changing our life. Society, and especially its younger part, got used to everyday life in the digital space. People spend more and more time in this space. In many countries, the number of hours spent online exceeds eight per day. These statistics are dominated by young people who know the world using digital media. These trends must be used in many areas, including non-school and informal education of young people in the field of cultural heritage.

The aim of the paper is to present an example of the use of new technologies for historical and cultural heritage education. The educational tool is an internet portal on which information on historical monuments lying on the medieval trade route called Silk Road is collected and made available to everyone free of charge. This route was the longest in history and connected the Chinese and European economy. Many cities were created, enriched and developed along it. Their remains are a worldwide cultural heritage. The portal is called 3D Digital Silk Road. It provides textual and multimedia information, using such new technologies as 3D models of museum artefacts, 3D panoramas of large architectural objects and virtual reality (VR). In addition to images, films and files for VR glasses, the portal contains reports from conferences and scientific expeditions related to the digitization of cultural heritage objects. The structure of the portal, the information available on it, and the form of it sharing are directed to increasing the interest of young people in the cultural heritage of Silk Road.

The portal and its content is the result of international cooperation of computer science specialists and museologists.

Keywords:

Informal education, cultural heritage, new technologies.