The V.A.I.F.A.R.M. (Virtual and Artificial Intelligence for Farming and Agricultural Resource Management) app explores the integration of collaborative virtual reality (VR) with generative artificial intelligence (AI), specifically utilizing ChatGPT, to enhance educational approaches within agricultural management and planning. This study aims to investigate the educational outcomes associated with the combined use of VR and AI technologies, with a particular focus on their impact on critical thinking, problem-solving abilities, and collaborative learning among university students engaged in agricultural studies.

By employing VR, the project creates a simulated agricultural environment where students are tasked with various management and planning activities, offering a practical application of theoretical knowledge. The addition of ChatGPT facilitates interactive, AI-mediated dialogues, challenging students to tackle complex agricultural problems through informed decision-making processes.

The research anticipates findings that suggest an improvement in student engagement and a better grasp of complicated agricultural concepts, attributed to the immersive and interactive nature of the learning experience. Furthermore, it examines the role of VR and AI in cultivating essential soft skills critical for the agricultural sector. The study contributes to the understanding of how collaborative VR and generative AI can be effectively combined to advance educational practices in agriculture, aiming for a balanced evaluation of their potential benefits without overstating the outcomes.

This paper introduces “ARFood,” a groundbreaking augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (AI) application tailored to revolutionize nutrition education for Generation Alpha. ARFood immerses users in a virtual supermarket shopping experience, guided by two AI characters: NutriBot, a hip-hop nutritionist robot, and CyberFlora, a new-age sustainability expert robot. These characters offer feedback on food choices based on nutritional value and environmental sustainability, promoting healthy and eco-conscious eating habits among middle school students. The application leverages the engaging potential of AR and the personalized interaction capabilities of AI to deliver scientifically accurate, age-appropriate educational content. This study examines the development, implementation, and preliminary impact of ARFood, highlighting its effectiveness in enhancing nutrition education and its potential as a model for future educational technologies. By bridging the gap between traditional education methods and the digital nativity of Generation Alpha, ARFood represents a significant step forward in adapting educational content to the preferences and needs of today’s youth.

It is important to involve young people in the conservation of urban heritage as they will be the next generation responsible for its preservation. The use of Augmented Reality (AR) based on Serious Game (SG) and GPS-guided applications has proven to be effective for heritage revitalisation. However, there are currently only a few applications that combine GPS AR and SG for urban heritage enhancement, and these are generally aimed at adult tourists rather than the young people of the alpha generation. This research describes a serious game based on the use of GPS-guided augmented reality in the Renaissance village of Caldana, Italy, to raise awareness of the importance of urban heritage and to stimulate its visit by the alpha generation. The application consists of a treasure hunt that children have to solve by meeting and listening in augmented reality to historical characters who built the Renaissance village at specific points of interest, following a route with increasing levels of difficulty. The application was tested using a questionnaire with a sample of 79 children. The results provide useful indications for the development of augmented reality applications to increase the awareness and attitudes of the alpha generation towards knowledge and conservation of urban heritage.

This research presents CaldanAugmenty, a GPS-enabled geolocalised augmented reality (AR) application. Applied to the historic village of Caldana, the application uses serious gaming elements to create an interactive treasure hunt that offers users an enriching journey through the local history and architecture of the region.CaldanAugmenty features a unique collection of 3D animated historical characters that bring the village’s heritage to life. In the treasure hunt, players must find these characters by exploring the physical landscape of Caldana; these characters appear within the AR interface at various points of interest. These characters delve into the local history and architectural heritage of the village and challenge users with intriguing questions that provide elements for localization of the treasures.CaldanAugmenty incorporates the village’s hidden treasures into the virtual gameplay. These treasures are located in four real underground passages that are physically inaccessible for security reasons. The application incorporates these dungeons into a ‘virtual tour’ function, complete with immersive photo spheres. As users discover treasures during their virtual exploration, these are manifested in AR at the entrances to the real dungeons.The effectiveness of the application as an interactive educational tool was evaluated using a comprehensive questionnaire administered to 79 middle school students. The questionnaire was designed to assess the dimensions of intrinsic motivation, ease of use and intention to use the application in the future. Preliminary results suggest that CaldanAugmenty is a highly engaging tool to facilitate learning about local history and heritage, with the majority of students expressing a high intention to continue using the application.KeywordsAugmented realityGPSSerious gameUrban cultural heritage

Wood harvesting operations represent one of the industrial sectors with the highest risk of accidents at work. In semi-mechanized logging operations, the great majority of accidents generally occur using chainsaws during tree felling. Unfortunately, these situations frequently cause serious injuries and even the deaths of workers. In numerous cases, the accidents occurred to people who were badly trained and inexperienced, with a short employment history. One solution to reduce these harmful events is to support workers employed in this sector with training applications. This paper presents a description of a research and training programme for operating with chainsaws in tree felling operations using a Virtual Reality (VR) application called ForestVRoom. This innovative education method was compared with the traditional theoretical lesson based on a slide show. The results of the training were verified through a statistical analysis of questionnaires administered to a sample of 45 students in undergraduate and master’s degree programmes at the School of Agriculture and Forestry at the University of Florence. We have shown that the combination of traditional didactics and symmetrical collaborative VR leads to an increase in knowledge and especially in the ability to understand situations in a real forest site. VR is a useful teaching tool that can complement conventional training methods because of its potential to provide an immersive and attractive experience that facilitates learning and recognition of situations in forest sites.

Immersive virtual reality (IVR) has proven to be a technology that can benefit the dissemination of cultural content. In 2019 was the five hundredth anniversary of the death of Leonardo Da Vinci. Given the few works that develop IVR technologies to explain the genius of the master, we decided to take advantage of the opportunity to learn about the master through the use of new technologies. To build an IVR application that aims to spread knowledge, it is necessary to define an educational paradigm and the type of application. Given the domain of the application and the need to convey complex/novel topics, the IVR application developed in this study is based on the constructivist framework and creates a serious game (SG). In order to explain Leonardo Da Vinci’s thinking and design approach, we decided to focus on urban planning and architecture studies by explaining the projects envisioned by Leonardo da Vinci. This paper investigates whether an IVR-SG application maintains the fundamental characteristics underlying disclosure processes, such as immersivity and a sense of presence. Two secondary school classes experienced this by evaluating the application through a psychometric questionnaire. The results show that immersivity and a sense of presence were evaluated positively.