This paper illustrates the results of research activities on collaborative learning and the virtual laboratories that are available in the International Telematic University UNINETTUNO’s platform. In particular, the interaction models, created in UNINETTUNO Island of Knowledge where the avatars of teachers and students contribute to realize environments characterized by a strong sense of reality that promote collaborative learning and learning-by-doing, are analyzed. Secondly, concrete applications, such as virtual laboratories controlled from remote and through smart phones, based on an in-depth study of the complex interrelations existing between communication technologies and cognitive models and between technologies and the theoretical models on which distance teaching and learning processes rely on, are illustrated. Thanks to virtual laboratories the students can apply the theories learnt in other learning environments of the cyberspace, they can handle and interact with virtual objects, formulate and test hypotheses. In this learning activity, the students, besides being assisted by a human teacher-tutor, can also have the support of automated pedagogical agents.

Additionally, I describe the UNINETTUNO University’s tridimensional virtual laboratories that are realized in the framework of international research programs allowing to connect with otherlaboratories worldwide as well as to redefine the geography itself of research and innovation.