The Digital Diorama project: from Museum to interactive whiteboard to Park Interpretative Center educating for the future

Introduction: Among the many resources of Natural History Museums, centers of excellence for research and access to science, are the dioramas. These are models of ecosystems realized to show principal world environments. These are complex models based on ecology and paleontology. Objectives: The aims of the project are: - to train people to consider living things in terms of their environment and their ecological relationship as a first step towards sustainability education; - to help people to connect important ecological themes to their daily lives; (to promote the idea of being a “citizen of the planet”) - to aid the comparison of the local environment and that of places far and wide; - to appreciate the value of local heritage, not only that of Museum’s but also perhaps brownfield sites which are developed into parks and green belts. (to explain their specific vulnerability and to underline their conservation). Methods: The Digital Diorama project concerns the digitalization of some dioramas and their transformation into educational multimedia using interactive whiteboards. Digital technology at its best provides effective social sites based on relationships, discussion and sharing. The project hinges on a methodology involving the development of crossover topics regarding the various elements of the diorama and maintaining discussion at different levels. Unlike they are in school, these elements are presented as points of entry rather than specific topics themselves. The Digital Diorama can also be used outside the school, in public spaces: at the museum, at the university, and in other suitable city spaces such as Interpretative Centers in public parks. Results: At the moment we are experimenting a prototype of the Digital Diorama both with small groups of children of different ages and in primary school classrooms. The first presentation to teachers of the Digital Diorama prototype received a positive reaction. It proved to be an educational device for use not only with regard to scientific disciplines. This is a first important return on the possible use of the interdisciplinary Digital Diorama, which answers the need to promote well-established connections and relationships between the different fields of knowledge. Conclusion: In the future awareness of our daily lives helps us change certain sociocultural habits to become more sustainable. In addition to this, the Digital Diorama methodology could help the individual's creativity towards greater responsibility for carrying out sustainable actions which are not based on rules but from individual choices