"Numeri e Macchine" – A Virtual Museum to Learn the History of Computing

Considering a historical perspective may be not only, in Knuth's witty words, "one of the ways to help make computer science respectable,'' but also a valuable tool for education purposes. After outlining the main reasons for teaching the history of computing, in this paper we present a virtual museum on the subject, addressed to Italian students, developed in a cooperative project engaging both university and school teachers. It is meant first of all as an opportunity to experiment a learning environment suitable to explore the cultural roots of computer science, especially in the school ages. We are now planning classroom experiences to assess this tool, as well as proposing it in a curricular course on the history of computer science for training secondary school teachers.