Virtual Reality Simulations for Presenting Culturalhistoric Content in e-Learning for Kids

Cultural heritage is a priceless asset for humanity, as it shows our achievements throughout the ages. Rapidly developing technologies and tools provide new opportunities in the process of preserving the cultural heritage. That process includes searching, research, identification, documentation, registration, conservation, restoration and adaptation of cultural-historic objects and resources. It is very important to include children in this process, to increase their awareness, stimulate their willingness to participate in its preservation and develop their affiliation with the values of the pan-European cultural heritage. Access to these resources, however, is not always possible or suitable for kids that are increasing their national identity and patriotism. That brings the need of developing new and different tools and methods for presenting digital cultural assets to a wider and more diverse audience and using them for educational purposes. In this article we describe a software component for Virtual Reality simulations and using them to present cultural-historic content to kids. We also demonstrate a three-dimensional lesson, taught in the web browser, which includes a collection of 3D objects for simulating the authentic room of the Bulgarian revolutionary Vasil Levski.