Simulations, Case Studies and Role Playing: From Cognitive Technologies to the Creation of New Learning Environments. The Experimental Proposals by Telematic University Guglielmo Marconi

The pervasiveness of the network and the versatility of multimedia tools have profoundly changed the way the academic world performs its primary functions: Transmission and Construction of Knowledge. These are functions which are continuously subject to exploration by didactic researchers with the purpose of overcoming standard formulas, because the “super-speed” of our time implies a premature ageing of the scientific literature, and because it is also continually necessary to outstrip the relativity of cognitive path. In this paper we will illustrate two case studies (“Criminal Procedure” and “Art and Surroundings”) very different one from the other as far as the didactic design, educational objectives and content fruition are concerned. Although very different, those two multimedia learning paths could be considered as a possible interpretation of the concept of ‘simulation’; the concept itself might be finally considered on an interpretative line moving toward the concept of ‘representation’ and must be understood as: “Schematically simplified view” of real environments. Content “figurative representations”. The two case studies that will be explained in this paper might therefore be identified as multimedia experimental projects that have implicitly altered theories and cognitive models, in order to generate new semantic features.