Development of virtuual advanced learning environments

Scuola di Dottorato ""Archimede" in Scienze e Tecnologie dei Sistemi Complessi, Ciclo XXVII, a.a. 2015-2016The fact that the humanity is living in the digital era is undeniable. In fact, the advancement of the technology and the interconnection of everyday devices has become the Virtual Learning Environments in a powerful alternative acquiring knowledge. This is possible through an infinite access to information and also a dynamic interaction among people around the world. The capacity of these environments to transmit immersion sensations motivates the users to perform useful activities. Consequently, the users occupy their time on strengthening skills while enhancing their intellectual and social development. The literature review about advanced 3D virtual environments has been a useful and fundamental starting point. This has allowed deepen on the potentialities and possible benefits of the relationship between education and new technologies such as the Internet, multimedia systems, augmented reality, intelligent tutoring, 3D immersion systems among others. Hence, the study of educational games, mobile learning applications, virtual museums and laboratories, from a theoretical point of view, has to be linked to modern learning fields like STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) education and Special education as well. Based on the before mentioned approaches, an interactive Virtual Advanced Learning Environments (VALE) have been developed. It consists of different advanced 3D virtual scenarios devoted to the teaching of STEAM Education and Special Education fields. Inside these environments, several educational activities are performed in an entertaining way. These learning activities are carried out through virtual laboratories, interactive museums, games challenges, video-modelling activities and training/tests applications. In particular, the VALE for STEAM education includes three scenarios devoted to the Chaos Theory, Educational Robotics and Programming in Scratch. While the VALE for Special Education consists of two applications. The first one is aimed to enhance the Simple Social Skills, and the Social Communication Concepts in people with special needs. The second one is devoted to strengthen skills of Emotion Recognition also in people with special needs. All the activities available inside the VALE give to the users the opportunity of freely discover and learn interesting concepts and develop skills in a fun way while they develop knowledge. The results of the experimentation of the VALE have been satisfactory. In general, the participants showed efficient response during the development of the activities demonstrating an affinity with the knowledge learned. Furthermore, the developed applications for Special Education needs have proven to be useful in specific contexts such as emotion recognition. This has been demonstrated by assessments conducted with people with autism and mental retardationUniversità della Calabri