emmeciquadro The impact of New Technologies on the education of the young Mario Gargantini director of emmeciquadro, quarterly of Science, Education and Teaching

emmeciquadro A criterion for evaluating the NT the education of the person Expansion of possibilities Under which conditions? A strategy for e-ducating

emmeciquadro 1. Expansion of possibilities Learning not only symbolic and conceptual but perceptive and hands-on = more personal involvement of the student learning by doing “Multimedia practice means not only to reproduce, analyse, explain but to produce, manipulate, simulate, transform. In a word: to construct. For an instructonistic school, abstractaly adult, one substitutes a constructonistic school, positively child-like”. (R. Maragliano, Compagno di banco, 1997)

emmeciquadro Not static contents but interaction with a variety of contents = continuous comparison with reality From bidirectional teacher-student communication to multiplication of the communication channels Beyond the limits of the classroom = total communication experience Possibility of non-predetermined paths, active role of the student in the educational process = enhancement of creativity

emmeciquadro Learning as exploration Data mining, Information hunting … fundamentally unlimited expansion on the web = experience of continuous choice = experience of continuous re-elaboration and re- organization of the contents Amplifying:  quantity of information,  its variety,  its updateability

emmeciquadro Contents vs Process “ It is no longer important, today, to learn something, but to know how to access the knowledge. That which counts is not the contents but the process... To think and remember become collective processes that can be shared in real time... " (De Kerckhove, Telema 12/98) = capacity to confront new things, flexibility of learning

emmeciquadro 2. Under which conditions? If one really wants to propagate ICT culture, it is not enough  grant the access  furnish the instruments  train in the use One needs to intervene from the beginning on some pedagogical nodes connected to the special nature of the NT

emmeciquadro Focus on knowledge Man-machine interaction cannot be the aim but an instrument for the encounter between the person and reality Web =  new windows on reality  one of the possibilities for modern man to approach reality

emmeciquadro Focus on questions The comparison with reality is effective if it is the verification of an hypotesis Otherwise it is information chaos Web = many answers But who teaches to pose the questions?

emmeciquadro Focus on discovery Exploration new paradigm of learning “Internet: many roads, no destinations” But exploration requires: a point of departure points of reference destinations … which the technology cannot give

emmeciquadro Focus on choice “With the Internet we set out to know all without having to learn anything: we do not have to do anything except connect to the web“ (De Kerckhove, Telema 12/98) Is it really so? A new problem for 21st century man: the management of the quantity of information

emmeciquadro In the normal use of the NT the number of options grows disproportionately:  hypertext and multimedia offer a multiplicity of languages, paths, actions…  the navigation of the Internet is a continuous choice of links, buttons, icons… A subtle pedagogical misunderstanding: the capacity to choose does not grow only because one must make many choices A paradox of contemporary man: the criteria of choice disappear just as the number of opportunities grows

emmeciquadro 3. A strategy for e-ducating The success of e-learning depends on e-ducating And this is based on the role of teachers

emmeciquadro Two models A. “weak”, “student centered” the teacher limits himself to suggesting and stimulating autonomous learning activities B. “strong”, “teacher centered” the teacher is, in the first place, the protagonist of a creative use of NT

emmeciquadro Consequent actions A. top-down Centralized creation of archives (off/on line): materials, contents, models, paths, courses pre-packaged, structured and ready for use teacher = distributor/assembler of modules

emmeciquadro B. bottom-up a.Collection (via web) of needs and ideas from the life of the schools and redistribution of tools and partially prepared material to integrate in the teaching c. ICT tools supporting free initiatives of educators (not only teachers), expressions of social and cultural identity b. ICT tools emphasizing experiences and original proposals teacher = creative witness of the effectiveness of the NT

emmeciquadro … about creativity the student does not become creative only because many occasions “to do” are offered Creativity is a dynamism of the person that needs a motive… …to search at the level of interpersonal relationships (master-disciple)

emmeciquadro Exemple Medieval abbeys, workshops and universities the deep roots of European culture and technology