Corrado Petrucco

Teaching Cultural Heritage using Mobile Augmented Reality

The relationship between augmented reality, mobile learning, gamification and non-formal education methods provide a great potential. The AR-CIMUVE Augmented Reality for the Walled Cities of the Veneto is an original project in collaboration with Italia Nostra and other associations which deal with transmitting our cultural heritage and which teach primary and middle school children the cultural and historical importance of the Veneto’s and the surrounding territories’ walled cities. In this learning experience students will explore how our environment has developed across the ages using the mobile devices with the technical back-up of the AR App. This will allow them to see maps, examine data, 3D models and will enable them to judge and improve their skills. From a pedagogical and educational point of view the emphasis is on a constructivist social-cultural approach which helps students to become active citizens more aware of their historical identity.

Wikipedia as Training Resource for Developing Digital Competences

It seems improbable that Wikipedia could be considered a valid resource for educational institutions like schools and universities because of the risk of incurring mistakes, inaccuracies, and plagiarism. The bad reputation of the free encyclopedia is false, Wikipedia is reliable and can be used in the curriculum as a new approach for social and collaborative construction of knowledge. It can enter fully into educational contexts, which will represent an opportunity to reflect on the verification of information, the ethical use of technology, and the role of democratic participation of people that use social software. In fact, the creation and maintenance of the articles of Wikipedia as classroom activities offer higher processes of cognitive development and on-line relationships, allowing the development of essential digital competences for life-long learning, like Information Literacy, Participation Literacy, and Ethical Literacy.

Developing Critical Thinking in online search

Digital skills especially those related to Information Literacy, are today considered fundamental to the education of students, both at school and at university. Searching and evaluating information found on the Internet is surely an important competency. An effective way to develop this competency is to educate students about the development of critical thinking. The article presents a qualitative-quantitative survey conducted during a course in Educational Technologies within a five year Degree program. The outcomes of the survey reveal some interesting behaviors and perceptions of students when they are faced with the Web search process and the characteristics of their critical thinking processes: some aspects of critical thinking are generally well-supported, but others are acquired only after specific training. Experience shows that if properly motivated by metacognitive reflections and a clear method, students can actually critically evaluate the information presented online, the sources, and the sustainability of the arguments found. positive results also occurred when the evaluation process was done in a collaborative modality.

An Exploratory Study on Perceptions and Use of Technology by Novice and Future Teachers: More Information and Less On-Line Collaboration?

The article discusses the factors that affect the choice of teachers to integrate technology in their teaching and presents the results of a questionnaire administered to 805 teachers attending professional development training courses TFA and PAS in the Veneto Region Northern Italy. The research is aimed at collecting data for the development of a teachers training program that is effective in motivating them to a broader and more effective use of technology. The study reveals how teachers still have little consideration for the potential of interactive and collaborative technology, preferring to use technology for searching information and materials rather than for discussion and participation in on-line communities with their peers, in order to improve their teaching and towards a collaborative construction and sharing of knowledge. The study also confirms the findings in the literature on the subject relative to a number of factors internal and external that are perceived as obstacles to the decision to integrate technology in education and proposes specific training activities that are useful in order to remove them.

Didaduezero project: an action research to promote relations between schools and the territory of Web 2.0 tools

While students use social software outside school and are accustomed to social networking in informal contexts, it is still very rare for such software to be adopted in support of curricular activities in mainstream education. Undertaken in collaboration with IPRASE (Istituto Provinciale per la Ricerca e la Sperimentazione Educativa), this action research on digital competence investigates learning processes in informal and non-formal situations mediated by new Web 2.0 technologies and examines their possible integration within the formal school curriculum. The research involves creating and testing active learning environments using social software. Students and teachers collaborate with the local community to create digital artefacts that are highly contextualized in the real world, making them useful to the whole community.

Learning objects: the sharing of teaching materials as a natural evolution of the Web

Discussion of Learning Objects (LO) and sharing of educational materials. In addition to the standards that exist today, some issues are dealt with the emergence of these new objects of learning.