The Role of the Virtual Museum in the Foreign Language Teaching. A Case Study of Teaching Italian as a Foreign Language in the University Setting

The virtual museum focuses on the importance of information and displays the exhibits of 'natural' museums. It can be used as a constructive way of education that transforms digital users to a community interaction with their cultural and intellectual heritage, activating experiences for aesthetic and objective as well as experimental and playful learning. Museum education gives the opportunity to activate the senses and to achieve the cognitive, emotional and social development of persons, a multi-sensory experience that stimulates the passion for discovery, remembrance, multiple knowledge and free expression, lasting for life. In the above-mentioned framework, Internet technologies can provide the means to create an efficient, cooperative learning atmosphere for online courses. Social networks and wikis can build online collaborative learning communities for dynamic interventions and contributions, co-creation of knowledge and learning materials. Following the above theoretical framework, a research was carried out in the Department of Italian Language and Literature of the University of Athens aiming at the creation of alternative learning environments using Web 2.0 tools for the teaching of the Italian culture and the Italian as a foreign language in the context of university language education. More specifically, our research aimed at linguistic and cultural education of students through alternative cultural environments, such as virtual museums, as well as the dynamics of online activities in cultural subjects.