Using Dialogue System Technology to Support Interactive History Learning

We describe the use of spoken dialogue technology to enhance informal history learning. We describe several uses for this technology, including allowing learners to engage in natural interactions at a historical site, allowing learners to talk with recreations of historical figures, and using oral history recordings of a witness to create a dialogue experience. Two projects are highlighted, one to give a guided experience of a historical location, and another, New Dimensions in Testimony, that allows an experience similar to face to face conversation with a Holocaust survivor. These techniques allow many of the benefits of an intimate connection to historical places and people, through direct interaction and user initiative, but can also be delivered to a mass audience, formerly only reachable by broadcast, non-interactive media.