Bridging educational technologies and school environment: Implementations and findings from research studies

The aim of this chapter is to present educational technology experiments with school students, organized as laboratories. Among these laboratories, we introduce arrangement and findings of the Virtual Theatre and the Edutainment Robotics Laboratories, also presenting that based on the construction of Chua's circuits. Regarding the first one, the objective has been the manipulation of virtual contents, as well as the measure of both acceptation of technology and learning. In particular, we have tested a Virtual Theatre software as an educational tool in grammar classes of different schools in Cosenza (Italy). The system has been presented and a list of tasks has been provided, including the manipulation of:-the content "script of the story" in a group writing laboratory;-sounds for the recording of dialogues;-virtual agent to model/animate on the basis of the script to perform;-the performance in the virtual theatre. As regards the Edutainment Robotics Laboratory, the objective has been the investigation of the cognitive strategies showed by students in building and programming a Lego MindStorms Robot, adopting a systematic methodology in data collection. The aim has been the leading of subjects in the acquisition of new knowledge as well as the development of advanced cognitive skills in problem solving, in thinking strategies and in the acquisition of new concepts. The Robotics Laboratory has consisted in two parts: the first phase has foreseen some key theoretical lessons about Robotics and the programming language; in the second phase, the task "to build and program a robot able to cross an arena in order to take part in a race" has been assigned to each group. At the end of the educational activities, subjects have tested the robot behaviour and presented a project report (a documentation on each phase of the work). Reports have showed the work strategies, the modalities of problem solution, as well as the cognitive strategies adopted by students in programming the robot. Regarding the laboratory devoted to the construction of Chua's circuits, its aim has been the dissemination of new science concepts among young students during the project "Chaos at School: building a Chua's circuit, simulating its behaviour and using it to create sound and music". The purpose of the project was to familiarize high school students with chaos and complexity related concepts, motivating them to build the physical circuit, simulate its behaviour and then to create patterns and music by software applications. Results have showed that the direct contact with the circuit has encouraged students to think, to formulate hypotheses and to test their hypothesis through experiments. Hence, results of all experiences have shown that an active learning can remarkably enhance students' learning efficiency; moreover, a rich interaction can provide fruitful feelings of participation in the educational process. In this view, the tension between new forms of learning and old forms of schooling could not be solvedwith the victory of one on the other, but through a bridge between the two. © 2011 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.