The HyperMuseum Theme Generator System: Ontology- based Internet support for the active use of digital museum data for teaching and presentation

Museums have always been, sometimes directly and often indirectly, a key resource of arts and cultural heritage information for the classroom educator. The Web now offers an ideal way of taking this resource beyond the traditional textbook or school visit. While museums around the globe are embracing the web and put virtual exhibitions, cultural databases and archives on-line, the educator (or user in general) is still facing the daunting task of integrating this material into an active document, course, curriculum or presentation. This paper reports on the construction of a personalized theme creation engine as a possible catalyst to the active use in secondary education in Europe of digital media published on-line by selected museums.