Multimedia Technologies to Foster Ecological Skills

Abstract

The increasing exploitation of the planet's resources has important consequences on the environment. The ecological disasters, that always more often occur, remind to human how important is to foster ecological skills since childhood. In Educational Technology field, there are several of experimental evidences that prove the effectiveness of multimedia technologies in learning processes. In this context, the research herein presented describes two solutions implemented to provide children with the knowledge and skills necessary to promote and enhance environmental awareness. The learning path is composed of an Explainer Video, which illustrates the effects that marine litter can cause to health of both marine species and humans, and a Serious Game, in which the player has to help the characters to avoid junk in the sea. The serious game set is the Mediterranean Sea and the characters are four species estimated to be at risk of extinction. The pilot study conducted in order to evaluate the usability of the Serious Game pointed out the appreciation of both students and teachers.