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Per consentire agli studenti a basso rendimento in aritmetica di migliorare la loro prestazione nel calcolo mentale di addizioni e sottrazioni a più cifre è stata realizzata una ricerca volta a elaborare e valutare un metodo riabilitativo finalizzato allo sviluppo di competenze di calcolo mentale di addizioni e sottrazioni a più cifre in tutti gli studenti e, in particolare, in quelli che presentano disturbi o difficoltà di apprendimento. Il metodo sfrutta la tecnologia touch-screen dei tablet per consentire agli studenti di sviluppare un'Esperienza Didattica Immersiva delle strategie che gli esperti utilizzano nel calcolo mentale di queste operazioni. In particolare il metodo si basa sull'uso di una app funzionante su ipad e iphone dal nome GimmeFive. Dietro la progettazione di GimmeFive vi è l'idea di usare la tecnologia dei tablet per reificare, attraverso semplici gesti (touch e drag), le strategie di calcolo mentale che le persone esperte usano nella soluzione di addizioni e sottrazioni a più cifre e consentire agli studenti di fare un'esperienza immersiva di queste strategie. Obiettivo della ricerca è la valutazione del metodo, cioè la capacità del metodo di migliorare la prestazione di studenti a basso rendimento nel calo mentale di addizioni e sottrazioni.

GimmeFive è una applicazione per iPad realizzata presso l'Istituto per le Tecnologie Didattiche del CNR nell'ambito di un progetto finanziato dal Fondo Sociale Europeo Regione Liguria 2007-2013 Asse IV, in collaborazione con la società DiDiMa srl. Questa applicazione è stata progettata per consentire a tutti gli studenti, compresi quelli che evidenziano un basso livello di apprendimento in ambito aritmetico (low-attaining students), di appropriarsi delle strategie coinvolte nel calcolo mentale di addizioni e sottrazioni a più cifre. In questo articolo presentiamo l'idea didattica che ha ispirato la progettazione e lo sviluppo di GimmeFive, evidenziamo le principali caratteristiche di questa applicazione e, attraverso lo studio di un caso tratto da una sperimentazione compiuta, illustriamo come queste caratteristiche possano supportare lo sviluppo di competenze nel calcolo mentale di addizioni e sottrazioni a più cifre.

The article presents the results of a controlled experiment designed to evaluate a teaching method aimed at developing mental calculation competencies in students with learning difficulties or disorder. The method exploits touch-screen technology to give students the means to have an Immersive Learning Experience of the strategies that experts use in mental calculation. The strategies that may be involved in mental calculation of multi-digit addition and subtraction are presented along with the ways in which these strategies are incorporated into the application used in the experiment. Ten students with learning difficulties or disorder were involved in the experiment and underwent three-months training by touch-screen application following a standardized protocol. Their performance was evaluated by a standardized test performed at the beginning and at the end of the experiment, by two questionnaires and by a final test of acquired mathematical skills. Statistical analysis showed a significant increase of the mean score at the standard addition/ subtraction test and most students, following the training, achieved a score in the normal range. The present findings indicate an effective and reproducible approach for the development of an inclusive teaching practice of mental calculation within the school context.

Fondata nel 1993, TD Tecnologie Didattiche è la prima rivista italiana del settore ed è, ad oggi, una delle più quotate, classificata tra le riviste pedagogiche di fascia "A" dal Gruppo Esperti della Valutazione (Area 11 - Scienze storiche, filosofiche, pedagogiche e psicologiche) dell'Agenzia Nazionale di Valutazione del sistema Universitario e della Ricerca (ANVUR). TD Tecnologie Didattiche si rivolge a ricercatori, docenti e operatori della formazione interessati alla ricerca e alla pratica nel settore delle Tecnologie Didattiche con l'obiettivo di contribuire allo sviluppo del settore in Italia, incoraggiando la condivisione dei risultati di ricerca e delle migliori pratiche educative.

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, 1996; Andrew, 1999; Bottino & Furinghetti, 1998; Venezky & Davis, 2002). This is true also for disciplines, like mathematics, which, from the beginning, has been one of the most affected by educational research concerning the development and the use of ICT tools (Artigue, 2000). One of the main reasons for this (disregarding factors related to hardware availability and management, and to the traditional resistance of both the school system and teachers themselves to change) is that technology has often been introduced as an addition to an existing, unchanged classroom setting (De Corte, 1996). Often the introduction of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in education has been linked to a vision of learning as an individual process whereby knowledge emerges from the interaction between the student and the computer. This vision is borne out by the terminology frequently adopted in the literature, where educational software applications are often referred to as learning environments, thus focusing attention on the fact that it is the software itself, through interaction with the student, that is to form the environment where learning can be developed. In this chapter, we analyze the relationship between advanced learning technologies and learning environments that arise from a different perspective. In adopting the term learning environment, we consider the teaching and learning situation as a whole. In other words we are interested in analyzing teaching and learning processes that happen within activity rich, interaction rich, culturally rich social environments, which the intelligent use of technology is making possible (De Figueiredo, 1999). In this framework ICT have an important role as Artefacts mediating teaching and learning processes, but they do not embody the entire learning environment. In the following, we briefly analyze the main aspects of evolution in educational computing research that have led to greater consideration for the learning environment as a whole (see also Bottino, 1994). Since different theoretical perspectives account for different ways of conceptualizing teaching and learning processes with ICT, it is necessary to explicit the framework from which the research questions discussed in this paper have been derived. Our work refers to Activity Theory and, in particular to the work of Cole and Engeström (1993). In this paper we analyze the main aspects of a methodology that has been derived from this theory. The Activity theory framework offers us an appropriate tool to instantiate the main relationships that characterized a learning environment. Practical examples of this instantiation are described making reference to a project involving the design, implementation and evaluation of an ICT-based system, the ARI-LAB2 system (Bottino & Chiappini, 1995). This system has been created for the development of arithmetic problem-solving capabilities with students in compulsory schooling. Hence, this project is reported here as an example of a practical application of the analysis methodology we have adopted to study the relationships between advanced technology and learning environment.