The project

Το The Laboratory of Technologies, Research and Applications in Educationof the Department of History and Ethnology, Director dr. Angelos Palikidis, Associate Professor of History teaching, in cooperation with the The +MorPhoSe Linguistics Laboratory, Department of Greek Philology, Director dr. Zoe GavriilidouProfessor of Linguistics at the Department of Greek Philology and Vice Rector of Academic Affairs and Student Welfare at the Democritus University of Thrace, undertake the research project: 

"Digital Thrace: Mapping the history and the culture of the region with a view to improving the tourism product"

The project is implemented as part of the ‘SUPPORTING REGIONAL EXCELLENCE’ action and funded by the ‘COMPETITIVENESS, ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION’ programme.

The innovative platform for the preservation, and promotion of Thrace’s cultural heritage will provide digital services that will allow the users to virtually visit cultural sites from a wide area characterized with various cultural elements. It will incorporate advanced technologies, such as augmented reality, semantic Web services, context-awareness, and Open Linked Data, in order to create new forms of interactive cultural experience.

 

Aims

The project is geared towards the creation of a digital environment interconnecting the cultural and historic heritage of Thrace. Furthermore, it will contribute to the qualitative improvement, promotion and exploitation of the above in the interest of tourism industry.

Digital recording and preservation

The project’s aim is the establishment of a research infrastructure along with the implementation of a digital research platform that will record, classify, study, organise and transform the historic and culture heritage of Thrace, with a view to preserving and promoting the respective digital material for the benefit of the scientific community, the tourism industry as well as Greek and foreign visitors.

Contributing to future research

The digital research infrastructure will serve as a particularly helpful tool for scientists and individuals interested in the scientific study of Thrace as well as university departments and students working on various assignments. The respective added value resulting from the involvement of researchers and university departments from Balkan countries in the study of the history and culture of Thrace is expected to be significant.

Promotion and social use

The project endeavours to promote and tap into the diverse cultural heritage of the region and also improve the range of tourism products and services available, both at local and national level. Moreover, through the use of information and communication technologies, it will increase accessibility to its substantial cultural heritage, through different types of digital media, thus contributing to the development of tourism, the creation of new media and an increase in job opportunities. In addition, the project is directed towards the overall local economic growth for the benefit of local economy and media.

Expected Results

The possibilities emerging from the utilisation of new technologies combined with scheduled events are expected to contribute to the promotion of the existing material and the activities of the multidisciplinary research team.

Digital presentation

The collected multimodal material, in the form of text, pictures, audio, and multimedia, will be accessible via a digital interactive map. It will offer a variety of introductory touring proposals focusing on both the thematic and multithemed cultural heritage of Thrace. A digital web platform will be designed for the collection, documentation, and publication of digitised material. The platform will allow the integration of free resources, such as text, graphics, pictures, video, and metadata.

Accessibility

The interactive map will be also available for visually impaired users, and will include detailed routes for people with special needs , making use of open-source software such as HTML, PHP, και Javascript. The visitors will only need a mobile phone or any other portable device and the “Digital Thrace” application, which will be created as part of the project. More specifically, they will be provided with routes and exhibits that match their profile and interests.

 

Pedagogical reframing

Given the relevant field of expertise by most scientific team members, the platform will help systematically reinforce and modernize pedagogic activities in the crucial field of atypical education, particularly museum pedagogy at all educational levels. As part of the project, specifically designed field trip proposals, addressing different ages and educational levels will be posted. Additional proposals will be targeted at teams from Greek and foreign universities involved in educational scientific programmes or summer schools involving Thrace.

Social and economic benefits

The project aspires to dynamically and effectively integrate our University and Thrace into a wider international context, and especially within the region of Southeast Europe. The constantly increasing inbound tourism from neighbouring countries along with multiple opportunities for cooperation among researchers and their respective university departments will instigate the development of a fruitful dialogue in Greek society and the international community. The platform will also draw the attention of various non-traditional visitors to historical exhibitions, such as school groups.

News

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