Interactivity in virtual and multimedia environments: a meeting point for education and ICT in archaeological museums

Constructivist educational trends stress interactivity as an important methodology for education and communication. Focusing on archaeological presentation and museum communication, this paper examines how the introduction in these fields of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), and particularly of Virtual Reality (VR) and multimedia (MM) applications, is modifying the “traditional” concept of interactivity. Firstly, it establishes the main ideas about the concept’s meaning in education, museums and computers. Afterwards, it analyses the common and particular features of VR and MM and, using the findings from a range of relevant studies, it evaluates their effectiveness as learning tools.