Paola Aiello

Can I Consider the Pong Racket as a Part of My Body?: Toward a Digital Body Literacy

Up to which point can people consider as part of their body the Pong racket, or an avatar on the screen, on which do people exert direct motor control as well? When individuals move in a virtual environment, do the proprioceptors convey information about the location of which body? In which environment? How will the information contaminate each other? How does the temperature felt on the real environment influence the interaction in the virtual environment? This paper is not intended to answer these questions, it is rather intended to raise fundamental questions of perception and phenomenology in a digital context in which bodies “are not born; they are made†(Haraway, 1991). The work should act as a positio quaestionis, with the aim of affirming the urgent need for a necessarily interdisciplinary reflection on the overall design of the body - perception - cognition - technology perimeter; it also identifies in the Berthoz simplexity and Ginzburg evidential paradigms, and in the Hansen concept of mixed reality, the building blocks of a theoretical framework aimed to the solution of these questions.

A Constructivist Approach to Virtual Reality for Experiential Learning.

Consideration of a possible use of virtual reality technologies in school contexts requires gathering together the suggestions of many scientific domains aimed at understanding the features of these same tools that let them offer valid support to the teaching-learning processes in educational settings. Specifically, the present study is aimed at creating a theoretical framework for the didactic use of VR technologies in schools, highlighting the characteristics of these tools that are supported by a view of teaching that enhances sensorimotor activity in learning. The theoretical approach, through the study of the international scientific literature on this topic, offers interdisciplinary suggestions for realising teaching-learning practices that are supported by scientific principles and a concept of learning that is consistent with the processes that these tools may activate.

In-service teachers’ attitudes, concerns, efficacy and intentions to teach in inclusive classrooms: an international comparison of Australian and Italian teachers

Abstract The paper examined whether in-service teachers from Australia to Italy differ in terms of their attitudes, concerns, efficacy beliefs and intentions to include learners with disabilities in their classrooms. An attempt was also made to determine predictors of the participants’ intentions to include learners with disabilities in their classrooms. Participants for the study consisted of 153 Australian and 156 Italian in-service teachers. Results revealed that Italian teachers had significantly more positive attitudes, lower degree of concerns and higher level of intentions to implement inclusion in their classrooms. In both countries, attitudes and efficacy emerged as significant predictors of participants’ intentions to include learners with disabilities in regular classrooms. Reasons that could explain differences in the teachers’ beliefs from the two countries are explained using historical-cultural and legal frameworks prevalent in Australia and Italy. Implications of the findings for policy-makers, university teachers and researchers are presented that may have relevance in guiding the implementation of inclusive education in Australia, Italy and beyond.