Integration of External and Internal School Activities: Support from New Technologies

The paper examines some of the ways new technologies can be used to integrate external experiences (eg museums, natural parks) into traditional school activities. For this purpose, we present the main design approaches adopted in the design of: a) a system for highlighting the role of a museum in teaching natural sciences in primary schools; b) the technological infrastructure INformatic- TElematic- RObotic (IN.TE.RO.) for a Geopaleon-tology Museum; c) a methodology and a development system for presenting Cultural Heritage collections through "traditional" data (texts, images, films and animations) as well as through interactive 3D graphics. Both the methodology and the development system have been tested on widely different applications (historic buildings and architectures on the one hand, and natural fauna and paleontological examples on the other). From these experiences the most relevant choices and results on technical, organizational and didactic aspects are presented together with the rationale behind this approach.