Hypermedia for teaching and learning (abstract): a multimedia guide to the history of European civilization

The MuG project has been designed and developed at “Istituto di Discipline dells Comunicazione”, University of Bologna, by D. Barbieri, B. Bassi, G. Blasi, A. Fogli, L. Freina, C. Marmo, M. Mattioli, P. Niccolai, D. Singer under supervision of Umberto Eco. The project has been sponsored by Olivetti. MuG is a hypermedia system providing a unitary representation of the events of European culture and history. The system is designed to cover subjects related to Political, Social and Economic history, as well as the history of Science and Technology, Arts, Literature, Philosophy and Religion enabling the user to switch easily from one cultural sspect to the other. The initial prototype partially covers European civilization in the 17th Century, but the project concerns the whole history of Europe. MuG is meant as a teaching aid for students of the first years of University curricula and the last years of secondary schools. The ultimate purpose of the system is to constitute a useful tool for historical research and presentation as well as teaching. The system is shaped into three interconnected environments: