Abstracts - Earli

manufacturers would benefit from this study. In addition teacher’s views are essential in designingpedagogically meaningful contents for the PLE and in developing PLEs that meet the challengesof the future school.Virtual environment as a means to extend distributed cognitionMaria Beatrice Ligorio, University of Bari, ItalyDonatella Cesareni, University of Rome, ItalySabine Pirchio, University of Cagliari, ItalyVirtual environments are able to extend the space of interaction beyond the classroom. In suchextended space the distributed cognition process may be re-shaped. To understand the effects ondistributed cognition of being exposed to a virtual community the Euroland project is analysed.Euroland is a virtual land created and populated for nine months by students, aged from 9 to 14,and teachers of seven classrooms supported by a team of researchers, interacting both on-line andin presence. Participants were located in different cities of two countries – Italy and theNetherlands. At the end of the project the initial empty virtual world was filled by many virtualhouses. The virtual space used was composed by a three-dimensional software (Active Worlds)based on chat and avatars, combined with a web-discussion forum called Knowledge Forum. Oneclassroom – composed by students 13 years old – was observed during the whole project. Sevenvideotapes were recorded in this classroom. Through these videotapes we could trace thedevelopment of the project and a good array of different in-classroom and on-line activities werecaptured. Transcripts of the videotapes were codified through a category system able to tracerelevant aspects of the distributed cognition process. In particular two aspects are studied: a) theturn-taking and the addressee during in-classrooms activities; b) the occurrence during theinteractions of three episodes (collaboration, legitimization of differences, and reference to thevirtual community). These aspects are analysed by looking at the seven videotapes in order tounderstand the development of the project over time but also by comparing different types ofactivity(i.e. classroom discussions, hands-on activities, etc.). We found that participation to avirtual community produced two types of effects: made more intense the distributed cognition intothe classroom and extended the network of distributed cognition out-side the classroom.Children’s views on the ideal learning environmentMarjaana Kangas, University of Lapland, FinlandHeli Ruokamo, University of Lapland, FinlandThis paper reports an investigation on how schoolchildren view their ideal school and learningenvironment. The objective of the study was to find out children’s views on a school in which theywould be happy to study. Children’s own perspective on their school environment has not alwaysbeen taken into account, although we know that as the key participants in education their thoughtsshould be valued as well. The theoretical background of the study is based on the socio-culturalperspective; learning is seen as a tool-dependent phenomenon whereby people share theirexperiences of their environment through various forms of communication. The empirical datawas collected in autumn 2004 at five comprehensive schools in the city of Rovaniemi, Finland.Children (N = 93), aged 10 to 12, participated in the study by writing about the learningenvironment of their dreams. The data was analyzed qualitatively using the NVivo qualitativeanalyzing software. The results show that children would like to study in various places andspaces, and in a variety of ways. The children extended learning activities from the classroom tothe outside – to nature and to sporty places. Five main categories and properties were defined torepresent the children’s ideal learning environment: The school is seen as an extensive learning– 762 –