Designing Access to Audiovisual Cultural Heritage: The Case of the Carrot

This paper presents the design of an applicationfor engagement with audiovisual digital cultural heritage inthe classroom, called the Carrot. The aim of this interactivetool is to make online cultural heritage accessible andunderstandable for students in different levels of education. In relation to this work we pose two research questions: Whydo we need to develop tools for contextualization ofaudiovisual cultural heritage? And: How do we design anddevelop such tools? The preliminary answers to thesequestions come from our experiences in the design process, which deepened our understanding of a tool in the context ofthe classroom. We then relate this to the digital humanitiesproject, EUscreenXL. Initial conclusions suggest that toolsfor contextualization of audiovisual cultural heritage canengage students with cultural heritage, develop digital medialiteracy, and support contemporary didactics. These toolsneed to be developed across platforms, using nonproprietary software and involving a multidisciplinarygroup of experts.