The use of search engine technologies to enhance an on-site learning experience

The recent mobile access technologies are a powerful tool for making information resources and services available anytime, anywhere. Students can benefit enormously from using the new mobile technologies during visits to cultural sites because they provide: access to on-line resources, powerful search capabilities and support for effective learning, rich interaction, and performancebased assessment. Moreover, students may be more motivated to learn about a historic building like the Massimo Theatre in Palermo, when they actually see it. In this paper we present a mobile learning framework that combines a wireless access with PDA and localization technologies to use a number of useful services and to access Web information correlated to the place and time of the observation. Through the framework the students have the opportunity to access the learning content that most closely matches their interests, taking advantage of a search engine specialized in art, museums, theatre and everything that concerns art and the cultural heritage.