Human memory research demonstrates that multisensory experiences can improve perceptions and ease memory retrieval process, resulting in enhanced recognition comparatively with unisensory exposure.
The traditional learning model usually does not take into account multisensory information's importance, transmitting the knowledge using mainly two senses: vision and audition. Moreover, the professor is the main figure in this model and controls the interaction that students may have with himself, with each other and with the surrounding environment, limiting interaction and collaboration. Research has consistently shown that interactive-collaborative learning, comparatively with traditional model, enhances learning and produces improved individual achievements. Encouraging students to interact and help each other transforms an otherwise competitive environment in a cooperative and collaborative one.
Information and communication technologies (ICT) have an increasing importance in schools, leveraging individual and academic achievements. This work, based on SchoolSenses@Internet project, expects to create a georeferenced multisensory information's support platform that embodies the benefits identified by these studies, always with a playful approach, into elementary school.
The proposed solution, based on a service-oriented architecture (SOA), was designed to be used without any associated costs, to be platform independent and usable in any place: even where there is no network coverage. Therefore, even schools that have lower budgets can adopt the proposed platform, mainly because students' computers (Magalhães) can be used.
Two activities were developed in an elementary school to test the proposed platform, in which students from 5th grade were able to test all system's functionalities: from georeferenced multisensory information creation to its exploration using Google Earth.
It can be concluded that developing a solution that has no associated use costs and that is usable in any place, with or without operator's network coverage, is possible. The impossibility of school's sensors with GPS and WLAN modules acquisition may force specific solutions development for each different sensor, complicating a global solution implementation.
In the near future, when tecnologies made it possible, can be built an integrated environment that allows multimedia content creation inside the application and that automatically obtains geopositional data. This way will not be necessary to install additional software and could be offered an uniform interface.