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In this special issue we collect five papers covering different topics, all very relevant and at the core of the scientific debate within the Technology-Enhanced Learning research community.

This study compares two versions (one digital, one hybrid) of a serious board game for teacher training called the “4Ts game”. Teachers play the game in groups to learn about—and directly engage in—the joint design of collaborative learning activities for their students by choosing the Tasks to be proposed, the Timing of activities, the Technologies to be used, and the Team composition, in an iterative process of decision making. The game comes in three versions: fully tangible, digital, and hybrid. This paper focuses on the interaction design of the digital and hybrid versions. In both cases, teachers pick cards up from four decks, read the prompts provided in the cards, and place them on a board to design a learning activity together. Their decision-making process is scaffolded by the digital or hybrid game versions, which provide feedback and suggestions and guide teachers toward the creation of a coherent design. The user experience is quite different in the two formats. In the hybrid game, teachers physically manipulate tangible cards on a tabletop board, and the board status is replicated on a laptop application that displays automatic feedback and guidance. By contrast, the digital version is played using an Interactive Whiteboard with touch-screen capabilities, thereby allowing teachers to manipulate digital cards on a digital board. The game was used in the context of two training initiatives targeting in-service school teachers (N = 42). Data were collected on acceptance of the model upon which the game is built, acceptance of the game itself, overall user satisfaction, and knowledge gains. Results show that teachers generally liked both versions of the game, especially the opportunity provided for receiving guidance in the design process. Additionally, teachers’ knowledge about learning design and collaborative learning increased significantly between the pre- and post-test for both the digital and the hybrid game groups. However, few significant differences were found between the groups that used the digital and hybrid versions of the game: the digital version was perceived as being slightly easier to use (p < 0.001). Overall, the study suggests that both versions of the game have the potential for teacher training, while the user interface of the hybrid version should be further refined to fully harness the game’s potential.

In the last decades, an increasing scientific interest has been growing in the elusive population of dark (i.e., lacking an optical/near-IR, hereafter NIR, counterpart) dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs). Although extremely promising for their likely contribution to the cosmic star formation rate density (SFRD) and for their possible role in the evolution of the first massive and passive galaxies around z ∼ 3, the difficulty in selecting statistically significant samples of dark DSFGs is limiting their scientific potentialities. This work presents the first panchromatic study of a sample of 263 radio-selected NIR-dark (RS-NIRdark) galaxies discovered in the COSMOS field following the procedure by Talia et al. These sources are selected as radio-bright galaxies ( S _3 GHz > 12.65 μ Jy) with no counterpart in the NIR-selected COSMOS2020 catalog ( Ks ≳ 25.5 mag). For these sources, we build a new photometric catalog including accurate photometry from the optical to the radio obtained with a new deblending pipeline (Photometry Extractor for Blended Objects, or PhoEBO ). We employ this catalog to estimate the photo- z s and the physical properties of the galaxies through an spectral energy distribution-fitting procedure performed with two different codes ( Magphys and Cigale ). Finally, we estimate the active galactic nucleus contamination in our sample by performing a series of complementary tests. The high values of the median extinction ( A _v ∼ 4) and star formation rate (SFR ∼ 500 M _⊙ yr ^−1 ) confirm the likely DSFG nature of the RS-NIRdark galaxies. The median photo- z ( z ∼ 3) and the presence of a significant tail of high- z candidates ( z > 4.5) suggest that these sources are important contributors to the cosmic SFRD and the evolutionary path of galaxies at high redshifts.

This explorative case study investigates a game-based approach to the professional development of in-service teachers in Self-Regulated Learning. The impact of this approach was assessed in terms of acceptance of the game, knowledge gain and changes in teachers’ beliefs concerning the importance of nine design principles that can be adopted to foster the development of students’ SRL skills. Our findings suggest that the game-based approach adopted in this study was well-accepted, with Wilcoxon tests revealing that the mean rating is significantly different from the median point of the scale for all items measured after game use. As for teachers’ learning gains and changes in beliefs, a questionnaire submitted to participants before and after the gameplay showed significant changes in knowledge and a more varied but generally positive trend in terms of changes in beliefs. Thus, the study’s findings advocate for increased dedication to researching and experimenting with the incorporation of games in teacher professional development, potentially extending these efforts to other educational domains.

Universities often carry out initiatives to assist upper secondary students in their choice of university faculties and courses. However, most of such initiatives are transmissive, and do not offer students hands-on experiences or opportunities for peer interaction. This paper instead presents an immersive, team-based experience on educational robotics offered to prospective students in Computer Engineering (N=88). Evaluation of the activity focused on: (1) improvements in students’ awareness when it comes to pick a faculty and a course; (2) improvements in basic Computer Sciences knowledge; (3) prospective students’ interactions and community-building. The results suggest that students' knowledge and skills are improved at the end of the experience and that this has a positive effect on their attitude towards the choice of a specific faculty and/or course. Student interactions proved to be more critical, as most teams displayed a low quality of social interactions.

Davide Taibi, senior researcher at the Institute for Educational Technology (CNR), has joined the editorial team as co-editor of the Italian Journal of Educational Technology

This study, focused on collaborative learning approaches, aims to contribute to our understanding of whether and how teachers propose these kinds of activities in their daily practice. Particularly, this study aims to explore teachers’ behaviour when designing such activities for their learners with respect to different learning settings (i.e., face-to-face and/or blended settings vs. fully online settings). With reference to fully online settings, the Emergency Remote Teaching that took place during the COVID-19 outbreak is used as a reference case. The results of a self-reported survey of Italian teachers (N = 268) are presented. Our conclusions indicate that Italian teachers do propose collaborative learning activities to some extent in face-to-face and/or blended settings as well as in fully online settings, with statistically significant differences both in reference to the approaches adopted and to the (technological) tools used. Nonetheless, the data also indicate that teachers’ design decisions are not always in line with recommendations widely proposed by the collaborative learning research community.

In the last years a number of transformations in the health care systems in Europe and beyond has occurred, which result in new demands and ways of working for health care professionals; roles in health professions have been subject to substantial changes and in some cases new categories of health professionals have been defined (Goldfield, 2017). As a consequence, new and multi-faceted needs are emerging in terms of education and training, calling for comprehensive, multidisciplinary and problem-based approaches. Higher Education institutions and Vocational & Training providers need to guarantee access to up-to-date, evidence-based medical and nursing knowledge and clinical practice, as well as the capacity to develop key abilities, competences and critical thinking skills and dispositions, so that health care professionals are able to plan and implement individualized heath care, to understand and manage complex health issues and conditions, to collaborate with fellow professional, and to interact with patients, in the effort to help improve their health status and quality of life. As a response to these changes and needs, in recent years the field of “Medical Humanities” has started attracting attention, by advocating positive impact of introducing humanistic elements, such as art, literature and storytelling in health education and training. In this evolving scenario, new technologies - as part of a digitalized society and e-health services - offer affordances that seem to fit well with the new needs of the healthcare training context; they can pave the way for adoption of innovative methods and approaches and can support meaningful and effective learning in such a challenging sector. The learning environments, if featured with high-tech devices and solutions, can support collaborative and active learning approaches, thus contributing to better prepare the future health care professionals. In this line, institutions offering education and training for healthcare professionals are increasingly adopting e-learning or blended learning approaches. Nonetheless, it seems the adoption of technological solutions does not necessarily imply innovation in terms of methods. This has emerged even more clearly during the recent Covid-19 pandemic, when most institutions were forced to suddenly move to online training; in those exceptional circumstances, it came out most of the training offer was primarily transmissive in nature, as most of the providers turned out to be unprepared to harness the strengths of online learning, nor deal with its limitations (Hodges, Moore, Lockee, Trust, & Bond, 2020). For these reasons, sharing research findings and experiences about how technologies are actually affecting teaching and learning methods in the healthcare professionals’ training, seems useful. In this special issue we have collected a number of papers, in an attempt to contribute to this debate.

About 12 billion years ago, the Universe was first experiencing light again after the dark ages, and galaxies filled the environment with stars, metals, and dust. How efficient was this process? How fast did these primordial galaxies form stars and dust? We can answer these questions by tracing the star formation rate density (SFRD) back to its widely unknown high-redshift tail, traditionally observed in the near-infrared (NIR), optical, and UV bands. Thus, objects with a large amount of dust were missing. We aim to fill this knowledge gap by studying radio-selected NIR-dark (RS-NIRdark) sources, i.e., sources not having a counterpart at UV-to-NIR wavelengths. We widen the sample of Talia et al. from 197 to 272 objects in the Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) field, including also photometrically contaminated sources, which were previously excluded. Another important step forward consists in the visual inspection of each source in the bands from u * to MIPS 24 μ m. According to their “environment” in the different bands, we are able to highlight different cases of study and calibrate an appropriate photometric procedure for the objects affected by confusion issues. We estimate that the contribution of RS-NIRdark sources to the cosmic SFRD at 3 < z < 5 is ∼10%–25% of that based on UV-selected galaxies.

Technology-enhanced learning is being used in nurse education and training to promote active development of professional knowledge and skills among university students as well as among professional nurses. Although many studies have focused on enablers and barriers to e-learning in nursing education, there is still little knowledge regarding the specific functionalities that allow to instantiate flexible and effective learning activities as well as the user satisfaction of these functionalities. This study examines the students’ opinions about the ease of use and usefulness of the functionalities of the Open Online Tool (OOT) platform that was implemented and used for an online initiative for professional training on Family and Community Nursing (FCN) in Greece. The results of the research showed that most of the features of the OOT were considered by the participants to be easy to use and at the same time useful in contributing consistently to their training.

A multiwavelength study of galaxies is important to understand their formation and evolution. Only in the recent past, thanks to the Atacama Large (Sub) Millimeter Array (ALMA), were we able to study the far-infrared (IR) properties of galaxies at high redshifts. In this article, we summarize recent research highlights and their significance to our understanding of early galaxy evolution from the ALPINE survey, a large program with ALMA to observe the dust continuum and 158μm C+ emission of normal star-forming galaxies at z= 4–6. Combined with ancillary data at UV through near-IR wavelengths, ALPINE provides the currently largest multiwavelength sample of post-reionization galaxies and has advanced our understanding of (i) the demographics of C+ emission; (ii) the relation of star formation and C+ emission; (iii) the gas content; (iv) outflows and enrichment of the intergalactic medium; and (v) the kinematics, emergence of disks, and merger rates in galaxies at z>4. ALPINE builds the basis for more detailed measurements with the next generation of telescopes, and places itself as an important post-reionization baseline sample to allow a continuous study of galaxies over 13 billion years of cosmic time.

Concerns about the quality of education is nothing new. However, in the last decades it has become more apparent, especially with respect to National policies and International Organizations such as the OECD, who insist upon systematic quality criteria for education, and also establishing appropriate evaluation mechanisms for its periodic review. Evaluation of quality in higher education has therefore begun to be a key issue for higher education institutions’ accountability to society. Although there is no clear agreement about the meaning of quality in this context however, obtaining evidence of good practice to achieve quality outcomes has been widely adopted [...]

Gli strumenti di ranking sono ampiamente utilizzati per valutare e confrontare le università, anche da futuri studenti. Tuttavia, gli attuali strumenti di ranking non valutano la dimensione online delle università, che ha visto una recente crescita. Al fine di superare questo limite, il progetto Europeo Creating an Online Dimension for University Rankings (CODUR) ha individuato criteri e indicatori per la dimensione online e ha chiesto a esperti di didattica online di valutarli. In questo articolo, le valutazioni degli esperti sono confrontate con quelle fornite da 55 studenti di università telematiche. Il confronto evidenzia che le prospettive di studenti ed esperti sono complessivamente simili, ma presentano alcune importanti differenze. In particolare, gli studenti accordano maggiore importanza alla qualità del supporto agli studenti e minore alla qualità dell’esperienza d’apprendimento. I risultati dello studio rappresentano un primo passo verso l’integrazione della prospettiva degli studenti nella dimensione online del ranking.

University ranking systems are being implemented with the aim of assessing and comparing higher education institutions at a global level. Despite their being increasingly used, rankings are often strongly criticized for their social and economic implications, as well as for limitations in their technical implementation. One of these limitations is that they do not consider the specific characteristics of online education. This study used a participatory approach to define a set of criteria and indicators suitable to reflect the specific nature of distance education. This endeavour will help evaluate and rank online higher education institutions more appropriately than in current practice, where indicators are devised for traditional universities. To this end, several stakeholders and informants were involved in a Delphi study in an attempt to reach the broader higher education institutions (HEI) community. According to the study participants, apart from students’ achievements and general quantitative measures of HEI performance, which are quite common in traditional ranking systems, teaching and student learning experience turned out to be the most important criteria. Student support, teacher support, technological infrastructure, research and organization were deemed middle ground criteria, while sustainability and reputation were regarded as the least important criteria.

Despite wide-scale uptake of gamification in professional training generally, application in Teacher Professional Development (TPD) is still in its infancy. The few experiences reported hitherto mainly concentrate on fostering participation and engagement in the training intervention itself. By contrast, we believe that gamification of TPD can and should have a broader scope, helping to enhance teachers’ motivation to apply newly acquired knowledge and approaches in their daily practice. Accordingly, we have sought to gamify an existing TPD environment called 4Ts, which encourages teachers to design collaborative learning activities for their students via a specific theoretic approach (4Ts). In this paper, we describe the selection and integration of gamification mechanics in 4Ts following an existing methodology that, while generic, has nonetheless proved useful for gamification in the education field. The paper illustrates both the methodology and the experience of gamifying 4Ts with a view to potential transferability to similar, educational contexts.

This issue of IJET includes a special dossier on Educational Technology and Tangible-Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) has acquired a growing relevance in the last decades and in particular after the promulgation of the “Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage” (UNESCO, 2003). The convention itself highlights the importance of education to this scope and, for this reason, some projects have been proposed at national and international level. Nevertheless, ICH education remains a scarcely explored topic and poses several challenges, due to the intrinsic characteristics of the cultural expressions and the traditional transmission methods. Considering these challenges, we developed our research question related to which technologies and methods could be effectively adopted in the field of Cultural Heritage, to open up new opportunities for teaching and learning. In this paper, we discuss both the main challenges to be faced in the specific field and the results of our research carried out in the framework of the i-Treasures project. In the project, grounding on the opportunities offered by technologies, were developed innovative solutions in terms of methods and tools for ICH education.

One of the big challenges faced by research in the Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) field has to do with the injection of innovation into real educational contexts. Very often, innovative technologies fail to be taken up by practitioners because of difficulties in absorbing both methodological and technological innovation of the target contexts. This may be caused by resistance of the target users associated with conservatism of the contexts, but also by inadequate approaches to innovation promotion or even lack of evidence of the return of investment of the innovation itself. Thus, a crucial need of the TEL field consists in the ability to evaluate both the efficacy of a new technology in the specific context to permeate, and the effectiveness and adequacy of the intervention designed to inject this innovation into the intended situation. This paper contributes to fill in this gap by proposing an approach that joins aspects of Guskey’s model to evaluate the effectiveness of teacher training events together with indicators of the well-known Technology Acceptance Model, generally used to predict acceptance of a new technology. The approach proposed, called T&EAM (Technology & Event Acceptance Model), is illustrated. The discussion concerns its strengths and weaknesses and provides inputs for future applications and research.

Dear readers, it is with great pleasure that we announce some exciting news about our journal. First and foremost, TD Tecnologie Didattiche has changed title to Italian Journal of Educational Technology (IJET). While still in line with the former title, the new one will help us make the journal better known around the globe and improve outreach to an international audience. This change has not been an easy decision to make; founded in 1993, TD Tecnologie Didattiche was the very first journal on educational technology in Italy, and has developed an important tradition and reputation. However, we hope the new title will help us to retain our faithful national readers and authors and, at the same time, allow us to reach a much wider audience of researchers and practitioners outside the country. As you might have noted, the journal cover has also changed, together with its style, size and graphical/typographical layout. This brings the journal into line with scholarly publications in our sector and makes it more readable on mobile devices. In addition to this, we are working towards the objective of having the journal indexed in some of the major bibliographic databases (presently, we are on Google Scholar and DOAJ). We hope you will welcome these changes and keep reading and considering IJET as a possible avenue for your publications. Don’t forget to subscribe to the journal online (http://ijet.itd.cnr.it/) to receive the calls for papers and new issue alerts! You can also follow IJET on Facebook and academia.edu, if you wish to keep in touch with the latest news. Please spread the news and invite your colleagues to read and publish in the Italian Journal of Educational Technology! Donatella Persico, Stefania Manca and Francesca Pozzi

This paper presents and compares a variety of approaches that have been developed to guide the decision-making process in learning design. Together with the companion Learning Design Rashomon II (Prieto et al., 2013), devoted to existing tools to support the same process, it aims to provide a view on relevant research results in this field. The common thread followed in these two contributions is inspired by Kurosawa's Rashomon film, which takes multiple perspectives on the same action. Similarly, in this paper, Rashomon I, a lesson on “Healthy Eating” is analysed according to five different approaches, while the Rashomon II paper is used to exemplify the affordances of different tools. For this reason, this paper does not follow the conventional structure of research papers (research question, method, results and discussion), but rather it moves from an introduction providing the rationale for the paper, to a description of the five different approaches to learning design (the 4SPPIces Model, the 4Ts, the e-Design Template, the Design Principles Database and the Design Narrative) and then to a discussion of their similarities and differences to inform the choice of potential users.

This paper tackles the issue of learning design and pedagogical planning in the context of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL). In this sector, we witness the same variety of approaches and tools that we find in the technology-enhanced learning (TEL) research field. In particular, in the CSCL context, notions such as “Collaborative Learning Flow Patterns” (CLFP) or “collaborative scripts” have been used to describe and/or run online collaborative learning activities and, consequently, tools have been implemented to reify these concepts and visualise the designs. Despite the differences, most of the existing tools support the representation of learning designs that are already “in the designer's mind”, while fewer tools specifically aim to provide guidance and support to CSCL designers in the early phases of the design process, that is, when they have to make critical decisions concerning the educational approach, the tools to be used, and the ways to engage the target population. This paper, while focusing on this gap in CSCL research, proposes a unifying model, aimed at supporting pedagogical planning and decision making in the CSCL design process based on the interplay of four model components: Task, Teams, Time and Technology.

Editoriale

The Peer Review (PR) is a very popular technique to support socio-constructivist and connectivist learning processes, online or face-to-face, at all educational levels, in both formal and informal contexts. The idea behind this technique is that sharing views and opinions with others by discussing with peers and receiving and providing formative feedback enriches the quality of learning. In this study, a class of trainee teachers conducts an online PR. The resulting interactions are analyzed and evaluated by the researchers through the application of an evaluation model based on both quantitative and qualitative data. In particular, two conditions are studied, namely the PR in groups versus the PR in dyads. Results show that students who carried out the PR in groups were less active from the cognitive point of view, while they devoted more effort to deal with organizational matters and discourse facilitation.

Questo articolo si colloca al crocevia tra il settore del Learning Design (LD) e quello del Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) in quanto propone un metodo per supportare la progettazione di attività di apprendimento online di tipo collaborativo. Nel settore del CSCL, le ‘tecniche collaborative’ e gli ‘script’ sono considerati concetti fondamentali per progettare attività di apprendimento collaborativo online e le proposte di strumenti tecnologici basati su tali concetti sono numerose. Tuttavia, la maggior parte di questi strumenti nasce con l’obiettivo di rappresentare il progetto educativo, al fine di favorire la comunicazione attorno ad esso, partendo dal presupposto, talvolta implicito, che questo sia già chiaro nella mente del docente progettista, mentre più rari sono gli strumenti tesi a supportare il docente nella fase di ideazione e concettualizzazione di un’attività collaborativa. Il metodo presentato in questo articolo appartiene a questa seconda categoria ed è basato su un modello per la progettazione di attività collaborative e su un gioco ad esso ispirato. Il modello è uno strumento concettuale che supporta la fase di ideazione di un’attività collaborativa definendola in termini di quattro componenti (le 4T): il Task (Compito), il Team/s (Gruppo/i), il Time (Tempo), e la Technology (Tecnologia). Il gioco costituisce uno strumento tangibile costruito sulla base del modello, comprendente delle carte e un tabellone che vengono usati dai progettisti per dare corpo al proprio progetto. Il metodo proposto è stato sperimentato con successo da 44 insegnanti e costituirà la base per lo sviluppo di uno strumento digitale ispirato al metodo stesso.

The European approach to rural development policies is gradually shifting to spatial differentiation, blending the territorial dimension. A differentiation of the rural character based on specific attributes of the territory is required, including lifestyles, supply of services and amenities and competition in soil use. We present a classification of the municipalities in Lombardy (Italy) aimed at providing recommendations for the development of regional policies. Grounding on four different and independently developed thematic classification relating to the heterogeneity in urban-rural linkages, the social morphology, the economic geography and the geographical morphology we construct a unified classification of municipalities that considers the multidimensionality of the rural attribute.

There is clear demand for a global spatial public domain roads data set with improved geographic and temporal coverage, consistent coding of road types, and clear documentation of sources. The currently best available global public domain product covers only one-quarter to one-third of the existing road networks, and this varies considerably by region. Applications for such a data set span multiple sectors and would be particularly valuable for the international economic development, disaster relief, and biodiversity conservation communities, not to mention national and regional agencies and organizations around the world. The building blocks for such a global product are available for many countries and regions, yet thus far there has been neither strategy nor leadership for developing it. This paper evaluates the best available public domain and commercial data sets, assesses the gaps in global coverage, and proposes a number of strategies for filling them. It also identifies stakeholder organizations with an interest in such a data set that might either provide leadership or funding for its development. It closes with a proposed set of actions to begin the process.

Il progetto METIS (Meeting teachers’ co-design needs by means of Integrated Learning Environments) mira a promuovere l’adozione di strategie avanzate per la progettazione formativa mettendo a disposizione dei progettisti strumenti per la concettualizzazione, per la produzione e la condivisione dei loro progetti.

Questo contributo descrive il fenomeno dei MOOC e ne definisce il concetto, tenendo in considerazione le numerose varianti nate negli ultimi anni nel panorama mondiale. L’articolo guarda alle classificazioni e alle tassonomie proposte in letteratura fino ad ora, e ne evidenza alcune lacune; quindi propone una classificazione basata su 12 dimensioni. A questo punto l’articolo prende in considerazione il nostro paese, che non è rimasto insensibile al fenomeno: al contrario, in Italia i MOOC hanno già suscitato un certo interesse sia a livello accademico che politico; inoltre nel nostro paese alcune istituzioni hanno iniziato ad includere i MOOC nella propria offerta formativa. La classificazione viene quindi usata per analizzare due esempi di MOOC erogati in Italia, per riflettere più in generale sul contesto italiano e su quale potrebbe essere l’impatto di questi approcci innovativi sul sistema universitario del nostro paese.

Editoriale

Il progetto ALCESTI IN RETE, promosso dal Dipartimento per le Politiche Integrate di Sicurezzae per la Protezione Civile della Regione Marche, con la collaborazione dell’Ufficio Scolastico Regionale, ha creato una rete di 14 scuole impegnate nell’educazione alla prevenzione e mitigazione dei rischi. Il progetto si è svolto nell’arco di tre anni scolastici. Nel primo anno scolastico è stato realizzato un corso di formazione per gli insegnanti realizzato adottando un modello di e-learning, basato su comunità virtuali di apprendimento, Nel secondo anno, gli studenti delle classi coinvolte hanno realizzato collaborativamente le attività che i docenti avevano progettato l’anno precedente durante il corso di formazione. Infine, l’ultimo anno è stato dedicato alla disseminazione dei risultati. L’articolo descrive il contesto, gli scopi, i contenuti, l’approccio metodologico adottato per l’elaborazione dei progetti delle classi coinvolte, i fini e le modalità di svolgimento della formazione insegnanti, le attività svolte dagli studenti, che hanno lavorato in modo collaborativo secondo uno schema basato su un gioco di ruolo, ed infine la valutazione dell’intero progetto, realizzata da un valutatore esterno che ha seguito le attività nell’arco dei tre anni. ALCESTI IN RETE ha avuto un impatto fortemente positivo, seppure abbia incontrato alcuni problemi, comuni a molti progetti innovativi.

Questo contributo analizza il caso dei Theme Team, uno degli strumenti usati dalla Rete di Eccellenza STELLAR per raggiungere i suoi obiettivi, che includono in particolare il superamento della frammentazione del settore del Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) e la prefigurazione di una “road map” per la ricerca futura.

Descrizione di un approccio alla prima formazione degli adulti verso un uso consapevole ed avveduto delle tecnologie dell’informazione e della comunicazione, un approccio orientato all’acquisizione di quegli elementi concettuali stabili e profondi che precedono logicamente gli elementi di natura tecnica e procedurale.

Alcune considerazioni su come favorire la nascita di una comunita’ di pratica online. Le riflessioni qui presentate sono frutto dell’esperienze svolte nell’ambito del progetto AIR, una scuola online per lo sviluppo continuo della professionalita’ dei docenti pionieri.

Riflessioni sulla figura del "docente pioniere" come potenziale figura chiave del processo di innovazione della scuola, con particolare riferimento al progetto ULEARN del programma quadro europeo "eLearning".

Riflessioni sullo sviluppo di comunita' di pratica di docenti pionieri nel settore delle ICT.

Riflessioni sull'introduzione della modularita' nella scuola italiana

L'articolazione organizzativa del sistema educativo nazionale in Italia.

Analisi e riflessioni sui risultati di MEDEA2000, un corso di formazione in rete.

Un progetto educativo come laboratorio dell'innovazione scolastica nato in occasione del G8 a Genova

Un'analisi del ruolo e degli atti comunicativi del formatore in rete

Corsi per l'apprendimento della lingua inglese su CDROM.

Descrizione di tre prodotti software per l’apprendimento della lingua inglese: BBC New English Course, English Discoveries e Storyworld 2.

The use of ICTs in the field of education can promote the adoption of "social constructivist" approaches to learning. In these contexts of education (computer-supported collaborative learning, CSCL), a particular attention is paid to the creation of the "learning community" and to the relationships the members of the community establish among them.The post-graduate course in legal translation of the University of Genoa – carried out within the F@rum project – is underpinned by these same theories. To foster at its maximum the development of social presence among the learners, a socio-professional simulation game (Debyser, 1996 ; Rossi, 2002) is usually offered by the course staff within the learning platform.In this study, we will describe the initiatives carried out within the course, which are able, in our opinion, to promote social presence. We will discuss on whether and to what extent such initiatives have influenced the participants' social presence, whether they have stimulated the creation of the learning community and, finally, whether they have contributed to achieve the cognitive goals of the course.This contribution is based, in particular, on the analysis of learners' interactions revealing social presence (Garrison et al., 1999). The analysis of the forum messages relies on a "mixed" (i.e. both quantitative and qualitative) five-dimensional model of evaluation (Pozzi et al., 2007) which was in turn inspired by that of the "communities of inquiry" (Garrison & Anderson, 2003).