The University of Salamanca, through GRIAL Research Group, leads a Comenius project which aims at constructing learning objects for the subjects of Geography and History in Secondary Education in the different partner countries (Spain, Austria, France, Italy, Poland and Germany). The idea is to use the potential of multimedia tools in order to create learning materials more effective and attractive than traditional resources. At the same time, these materials should help to generate a vision of Geography and History from a wider and more diverse point of view, promoting a European identity that goes beyond the strictly national focus.
Learning objects will be hosted in a D-Space repository and the interface to access them is an interactive map with a timeline where, selecting a year, pins with the events for that year in the included countries (at the moment, the partners in the project) show up. Clicking in one of those pins, the most important data of that learning object will be shown, as well as a link to that learning object. There are different search criteria: by country, theme or year. You can see an early prototype here.
The learning objects themselves will be available for download (Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license) as a whole, in html, SCORM or IMS packages and also individually each of their elements. Each object has a simple interface, with sections divided into tabs. The initial tab shows the author data, the license and the project logo. The “Presentation” section shows the contents of the object, the academic level it has been designed for and a summary. There is one section for each of the contents and another section with self-testing activities. Finally, there is a last section with “More info”, with links, bibliography and other resources that complement the contents seen. Each object has a student's view and a teacher's view, which adds more information and gives solutions to questions posed. Objects will be translated in the languages of all partner countries. You can see an early prototype here.
All information on the project can be found at http://mihproject.eu.