Rosa Maria Bottino

Italian National Research Council | CNR · Institute for Educational Technology ITD

According to the Italian pedagogist Loris Malaguzzi, children use a hundred different languages to express themselves. In order to be literate in today’s digital world, one further language is needed: programming. The creative construction of multimedia stories offers children and teachers alike a rich context for the introduction of computing educ...

At present there are some opportunities for innovation: rapid development in technology over the last few years has offered a concrete stimulus for the modification of both teaching methods and content. In this belief we are working at a project consisting of a gradual introduction of Computer Science into the Mathematics course for students at the...

Computational Thinking (CT) and related concepts, as programming and algorithmic thinking, have been recently advocated as abilities that are as fundamental as numeracy and literacy, and many countries all over the world are introducing programming activities in education. In Italy, even if the introduction of CT and programming in schools is on th...

Computational Thinking is one of the main topics on the educational policy agenda of many countries throughout the world. Its introduction into compulsory education is on the way, and there is an urgent need to define how it can be integrated into the class activities. This chapter discusses several advantages and some drawbacks of the use of a vis...

This paper proposes a reflection on the evolution of educational technologies and on its impact on school education. Over time, even though with different approaches, methods and tools, educational technology as a field of research has followed substantially two main directions. The first direction has resulted in studies on the new technical and c...

The introduction of Computational Thinking (CT) in Italian compulsory schools is on the way, and there is a general need for new methodologies to support teachers’ work. A one-year long learning path supporting the development of CT skills in primary school students through game making activities was defined and tested in a case study with one grad...

Digital games are becoming more and more popular worldwide, arousing children’s interest and fostering their motivation. Furthermore, tablets and smartphones are increasingly popular and widespread all around the globe, guaranteeing access to the web and to an ever-growing availability of games. This paper is based on the assumption that introducin...

This book constitutes the refereed post-conference proceedings of the IFIP TC 3 Open Conference on Computers in Education, OCCE 2018, held in Linz, Austria, in June 2018. The 24 revised full papers and 3 short papers included in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 63 submissions during two rounds of reviewing. The papers discuss...

The “A me gli occhi” project was organized to support the development and consolidation of visuospatial abilities in students of the last two years of the Italian primary school, with the hypothesis that such a training would have a positive impact on their performance in mathematics. Twenty game based training sessions were set up along the whole...

We can see maths teaching at the ages 14-16 as a passage between two different levels of learning: on the one hand a completion of the first stage, and on the other hand a gradual passage to the successive stages of formalization and application. The aim of this paper is to analyse the way in which teachers face some of the problems related to this...

The “A me gli occhi project” has been organized to support the development and consolidation of visuospatial abilities in students of the last two years of primary school, with the hypothesis that such a training would have a positive impact on their performance in mathematics. The present paper focuses on the second phase of the project, during wh...

The present paper presents the results of an experiment aimed at assessing the impact of different levels of immersion on performance in a Spatial Perspective Taking (SPT) task. Since SPT is an embodied skill, the hypothesis was that the more immersive a tool is, the better the performance should be. Ninety-eight students from a local primary schoo...

This article theorises the functional relationship between the human components (i.e., scholars) and non-human components (i.e., structural configurations) of academic domains. It is organised around the following question: in what ways have scholars formed and been formed by the structural configurations of their academic domain? The article uses...

The present paper presents the results of a first experiment aimed at assessing if different levels of immersion can affect performance in a Spatial Perspective Taking (SPT) task. Since SPT is an embodied skill, the hypothesis was that the more immersive a tool is, the better the performance should be. Ninety-eight students from a local primary sch...

Small and medium sized research labs (SMLs) are dominating European TEL research. This is justified by the great numbers of countries and regions in Europe needing to develop a research and innovation competence to facilitate the diverse educational systems contextualized in various institutional settings across Europe. However, to strengthen the v...

Results in literature suggest that immersion and presence in virtual reality facilitates spatial reasoning, but is it really so? The present paper describes a methodology and the setup of an experiment aimed at assessing the relation between immersion in virtual reality, presence and performance in spatial reasoning. " In Your Eyes " is a virtual r...

This article theorizes the functional relationship between the human components (i.e., scholars) and non- human components (i.e., structural configurations) of academic domains. It is organized around the following question: in what ways have scholars formed and been formed by the structural configurations of their academic domain? The article uses...

Didattica in ambito matematico, scientifico e tecnologico nella scuola

Questo contributo propone alcune riflessioni sull'uso educativo dei giochi logici digitali. In particolare fa riferimento ad alcune esperienze di ricerca condotte dall'Istituto di Tecnologie Didattiche-Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (ITD-CNR) che hanno evidenziato le interessanti potenzialità dei giochi digitali per contribuire allo sviluppo e/...

This article theorizes the functional relationship between the human components (i.e., scholars) and non-human components (i.e., structural configurations) of academic domains. It is organized around the following question: in what ways have scholars formed and been formed by the structural configurations of their academic domain? The article uses...

A first experience of use of “In Your Eyes”, an Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) game to foster Spatial Perspective Taking (SPT) skills in young adults with mild cognitive impairments is described along with a brief discussion of the outcomes. IVR is an innovative tool thanks to which a new chapter in the history of e-learning begun. It is now possi...

Education is facing challenges and issues that arise both on the changing needs of modern society and on difficulties to which it has always been difficult to offer effective solutions. This paper, considering this general context, briefly introduces the research field of Educational Technology and identifies and discusses two main lines of evoluti...

There is not a unique definition of “empowerment”, nevertheless the idea that it involves, on the one hand, people having control over their own lives and, on the other, some social aspects seems to be a common characteristic. Most authors recognize three levels of empowerment: individual, group, and community level, which are interconnected and ch...

La realtà virtuale immersiva offre uno strumento innovativo che apre un nuovo capitolo nella storia dell’e-learning. Ora è possibile esperire direttamente con i propri sensi situazioni virtuali come se fossero reali, stimolando l’apprendimento cinestesico e favorendo l’acquisizione di tutte le capacità che presentano una componente embodied. Il pre...

A cloud-mobile platform under development in the framework of the SMART ANGEL project co-financed by the Italian Liguria Region is presented 1. The platform is meant to address the needs of people with intellectual disabilities; it is oriented to support and enhance their autonomy and in particular their mobility in urban environments, and can be r...

The concept of Serious Gaming refers to the adoption of classical entertainment games for purposes other than entertainment, including learning and instruction. In this paper the authors report on a Serious Gaming field experiment where typical board games (such as battleship, master mind and domino) were employed with the shifted purpose of trigge...

Digital technology has radically changed the way people work in industry, finance, services, media and commerce. Informatics has contributed to the scientific and technological development of our society in general and to the digital revolution in particular. Computational thinking is the term indicating the key ideas of this discipline that might...

Research in educational technology has revealed that technology can be an important resource for the quality of teaching and learning processes both for the learning of disciplinary contents and for the acquisition of transversal cognitive competencies. However, many research studies have also demonstrated that new technologies only have an impact...

Due to its interdisciplinary nature, the field of educational technology is characterized by approaches, models and methodologies that derive from a number of different disciplines. Consequently, to understand how the different approaches have been concretely applied to the design, practical implementation and analysis of learning environments inte...

The paper presents SMART VIEW a serious game developed with the aim of helping young people with moderate cognitive disabilities acquire those spatial abilities that are key prerequisites to autonomous mobility. The game was conceived for cognitively impaired teenagers; it proposes exer-cises supporting the acquisition and consolidation of compete...

This paper analyses the case of the Theme Teams, i.e. one of the instruments used within the STELLAR Network of Excellence to develop human capital and support research capacity in the Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) field. Qualitative and quantitative data about how this instrument worked are presented in the paper, with the aim to demonstrate...

In this paper we discuss a theoretical framework which aims to specify the conditions under which the mediation offered by an educational system (based on a direct manipulation interface) is effective for teaching and learning activities. We have worked out this framework on the basis of experience we have developed in designing, implementating and...

The concept of Serious Gaming refers to the adoption of classical entertainment games for purposes other than entertainment, including learning and instruction. In this paper the authors report on a Serious Gaming field experiment where typical board games (such as battleship, master mind and domino) were employed with the shifted purpose of trigge...

Due to its interdisciplinary nature, educational technology research is characterized by approaches, models and methodologies that derive from a number of different research traditions, disciplines and approaches. Thus, the numerous research studies in this sector are characterized by a wide range of paradigms and methodologies that needs some over...

Is there any relationship between school performance and the ability to play digital mind games? This paper tries to answer this key question and in doing so, it draws on a long-term research experiment conducted in primary schools and dealing with the use of mainstream mind games (namely those games that deeply require the enactment of thinking an...

This paper investigates the relationship between the possession of some of the reasoning abilities required to play digital mind games and the school performance of primary school pupils. It draws on an in-field experiment involving 60 Italian primary school children; the experiment was based on the use of the standardized test LOGIVALI which fores...

Partendo da un libro sul web 3.0, si fa una panoramica dei cambiamenti profondi determinati dalla progressiva integrazione delle nuove tecnologie nel sistema scolastico, con la finalità di sviluppare le competenze adatte al XXI secolo

This paper examines pedagogical planning as a means to foster the introduction of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) tools into classroom practice. The authors illustrate IAMEL, an ICT-enhanced system aimed at supporting teachers in the process of designing, structuring and planning educational activities. Pedagogical planning, which...

This proposal describes the aims and the expected outcomes of the MAGICAL (MAking Games In CollaborAtion for Learning) project that was funded in 2011 under the LLP transversal ICT Programme. MAGICAL is proposed here as an example of how digital games can fruitfully be employed to support students' intellectual development, which actually represent...

This paper, based on a long term experience conducted in primary schools, investigates the cognitive abilities involved in playing with digital mind games. The experimental work with pupils was first focused on game dynamics and aimed to identify some general cognitive skills required to children to successfully interact with the games. Subsequentl...

The paper analyses the case of the Theme Teams, i.e. one of the instruments used by the STELLAR Network of Excellence to contribute to the achievement of its aims, i.e. overcoming the fragmentation of the Technology Enhanced Learning research field and drawing the road map for future research. Qualitative and quantitative data about the way this in...

This paper focuses on pedagogical planning; it presents IAMEL (teaching and learning Mathematics and e-learning), an ICT-based system designed and developed by ITD-CNR in the framework of the PRIN 2007 project “E-learning and the teaching and learning of mathematics”. IAMEL is aimed at supporting teachers in the process of designing, structuring an...

In this paper four main perspectives are sketched as a framework to consider accomplishments in the educational technology research field and, in particular, in the school education sector: (a) the computational per-spective which is focused on what technology makes possible; (b) the cog-nitive perspective which is focused on what the individual ca...

Abstract This paper examines pedagogical planning as a means to foster the introduction of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) tools into classroom practice. The authors illustrate IAMEL, an ICT-enhanced system aimed at supporting teachers in the process of designing, structuring and planning educational activities. Pedagogical plannin...

This paper reports on the research work carried out by the authors in the framework of the IAMEL project, supported by the Italian Ministry of Education. The project was mainly aimed at enhancing the teaching/learning of mathematics by providing teachers with specific e-learning platforms endowed with a number of dedicated tools supporting the sett...

This paper focuses on pedagogical plans intended as objects to support human communication. Its purpose is to describe a structural model for pedagogical plans which can assist both authors and users. The model helps authors to engage in the design of a plan as a communication project and helps users in the process of understanding, customizing, en...

Technologies in mathematical education has been a theme present at CERME from the first edition. The available technologies have evolved a lot during these years. At CERME 5 conference, the conclusions of the technology Working Group (Kynigos et al. 2007), as well as Artigue's and Ruthven's interventions (Artigue 2007, Ruthven 2007), signal perspec...

The present contribution tackles the issue of the evaluation of models and systems in the field of technology enhanced learning (TEL), with specific reference to pedagogical planning. It presents an evaluation model designed to evaluate the work carried out by the authors in the framework of the EU project ReMath, where a web-based pedagogical plan...

This paper focuses on the use of digital mind games (also called puzzles or brainteasers) to investigate and assess students' logical and reasoning abilities. It draws on LOGIVALI, a research project whose main objective was that of verifying whether digital mind games can be employed with the aim of understanding and evaluating primary school...

This paper introduces the IJCML Special Issue dedicated to digital technologies and mathematics education and, in particular, to the work performed by the European Research Team TELMA (Technology Enhanced Learning in Mathematics). TELMA was one of the initiatives of the Kaleidoscope Network of Excellence established by the European Community (IST-5...

The present contribution tackles the issue of the evaluation of research results in the field of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL). It presents an evaluation model designed to evaluate a web based Pedagogical Planner and the theoretical model underpinning it. The evaluation model, designed and tested within a European project, proved to be able t...

This paper addresses the area of games based learning; it refers to digital mind games and explores what design and interface features best serve the educational purpose of enhancing reasoning skills, which are actually "key abilities", transversal to any kind of learning. The considerations at the core of the paper draw on a small-scale, long-term...

This chapter is concerned with the work that Kaleidoscope Network of Excellence made possible on technology-enhanced learning in mathematics. It presents some findings from two complementary initiatives that were carried out in this field: TELMA European Research Team and the Special Interest Group on Learning and Technology at Work. TELMA initiati...

The paper aims at contributing to the understanding of whether digital games can be considered suitable and effective tools for enhancing learning. It thus aims at providing grounds for reflecting if their school use can provide a significant added value with respect to traditional school activities. The paper draws on a longterm research experienc...

Pilot actions for introducing ICT-based innovation in school education generally involve a multitude of elements and a range of different actors. Accounting for and grasping this complexity calls for systematic pedagogical planning efforts that provide a solid basis for accommodating the different perspectives, for analysing the factors at play and...

The advent of the microcomputer in the early 1980s brought with it high expectations regarding this tool's potential to drive change and innovation in schools. Although a number of projects have produced significant results at a research level, it is nevertheless true that these expectations appear to have remained largely unfulfilled (see Pelgrum,...

The paper reports a Logivali project aimed at developing evaluation tools to support comprehension and evaluation of logical and strategic reasoning abilities of children attending primary school by engaging them in a number of computer games called mind games (brainteasers, puzzlers, etc.). In this paper, the objectives, work methodology, experime...

The paper reports a small-scale, long-term pilot project designed to foster strategic and reasoning abilities in young primary school pupils by engaging them in a number of computer games, mainly those usually called mind games (brainteasers, puzzlers, etc.). In this paper, the objectives, work methodology, experimental setting, and tools used in t...

The paper discusses the results of a research project based on the field testing of a course aimed at developing arithmetic problem solving skills in primary school pupils. The course was designed to incorporate e-learning techniques, including the use of ARI@ITALES authoring tools. These tools allowed the integration in the course of constructivis...

The idea of using the internet as a platform to mediate social interactions and learning at different levels has progressively affirming itself, and this has given rise to a huge number of spontaneous and planned collectives, which are often described as on-line learning networks. On-line learning networks create value through the combination of co...

The paper reports a small-scale, long-term pilot project designed to foster strategic and reasoning abilities in young primary school pupils by engaging them in a number of computer games, mainly those usually called mind games (brainteasers, puzzlers, etc.). In this paper, the objectives, work methodology, experimental setting, and tools used in t...

A l'occasion de la conférence de l'International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP), Rosa-Maria Bottino fait le point sur les travaux menés sur l'usage de l'informatique dans l'enseignement des mathématiques.

This contribution deals with the work of TELMA, a European Research Team of the Kaleidoscope Network of Excellence. In particular the "cross-experimentation" project is presented. Such project was developed by TELMA to understand the role played by theoretical frameworks in setting up experiments using Interactive Learning Environments (ILE) for ma...

The objective for this document is to develop a reference text for the Network's scientific development, and for communication to others of the shared perspective of its participants. For its internal focus, it will lead to a stronger integration of the disciplines and cultures represented by the scientific communities within the Network. For its e...

This paper reports on a pilot research project aimed at helping to develop some strategic and reasoning abilities in primary school pupils by engaging them in educational itineraries based on the use of a number of computer mind games. The paper briefly describes the project’s aims and organization, the kind of games used and the working methodolog...

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This deliverable summarizes the collaborative work developed by TELMA teams on theoretical frames, and presents a methodological tool for systematic exploration of the role played by theories in technology enhanced learning in mathematics.

In recent years the development of skills which are not strictly associated with technical abilities or specific subject contents has become a central focus of education and the debate on how to define and promote what is usually indicated as "core" skills or "key" competencies is involving national educational Institutions and systems, especially...

In recent years the development of skills which are not strictly associated with technical abilities or specific subject contents has become a central focus of education and the debate on how to define and promote what is usually indicated as "core" skills or "key" competencies is involving national educational Institutions and systems, especially...

This paper briefly outlines the evolution of ICT-based learning environments discussing some of the main aspects that have characterised such evolution (eg, technological evolution, changed cognitive and pedagogical frameworks, changed role assigned to ICT-based systems in education). The objective is to point out how the implementation of innovati...

The paper discusses the results of a research project based on the field testing of a course aimed at developing arithmetic problem solving skills in primary school pupils. The course was designed to incorporate e-learning techniques, including the use of ARI@ITALES authoring tools. These tools allowed the integration in the course of constructivis...

How ICT-Based Learning Environments Have Evolved and Which Are Current Perspectives? Research on ICT-based learning and instruction has undergone a deep transformation in the course of time, due in part to the parallel evolution of pedagogical and cognitive science theories. In the following I briefly consider some of the main orientations that