IMMERSIVE DIDACTIC APPROACH: TEACHING WITH VIRTUAL REALITY AS INTEGRATED LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

Recently, the term immersive is commonly used. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that it has become a hot word, used-sometimes abused- in different areas, including educational one, and often associated with another word: experience. In a typical perception, an immersive experience is a simulation in some forms of virtual reality, supported by particular technologies. Since it has been introduced in some school lessons, it has certainly represented a great challenge for teachers. But…what is exactly the Immersive approach? It is a didactic methodology, a project for primary and secondary schools, that includes the study of a subject through Virtual worlds. These are online simulated 3D domains from the computer on which users – mediated by an avatar – can explore environments, realize them, participate and create activities, communicate with other users. In Italy it is experienced by INDIRE. Its goal is to explore and consolidate the educational potential of so-called "virtual worlds". The article is aimed at describing the most important steps of this innovation, with its implications for teachers and students. After a brief overview of the main theoretical frameworks, we will try to describe the current status of this methodology, its characteristics, its objectives and the roles of the actors involved. This work is an exploratory paper that used the qualitative research techniques, a random and nonparticipant observation, to critically evaluate and verify how, through a constant and widespread use of technologies in daily teaching practice, the environment and the way of learning can be transformed. It attempted to “live in person the situation” to critically consider advantages and disadvantages of this new didactic approach.