Mapping, Coding, Learning: When Infographic Meets Digital Education –A Pilot Programme in Design School

Media Literacy and Media Education are two concepts that are now endorsed and become part of the academic lexicon of contemporary society internationally and seem to be recognised for all intents and purposes as new processes of education within formal or informal educational contexts. This process, however, cannot be self-taught and entrusted exclusively to the experiential practice of everyone, but requires forms of cultural mediation in educational contexts, especially for the development and practice of more sophisticated transversal digital skills. In this sense, a growing number of researchers in different disciplinary fields claim the need for a 'design twist' in educational practices, with "Design" playing a leading role in terms of notions, processes, and no less distinctive intelligence. The discipline of Design, through the artefacts of Information Design - like infographics - can assist such pedagogical activities, facilitating storytelling in the acquisition of new content and tools supporting the educator in guiding the learning. Starting from these premises, the contribution - through the case study of the Digital Education programme of the master’s in design, Multimedia and Visual Communication at Sapienza University - aims at critically reflecting on the relevance of disciplinary trespassing in the reconstruction of the methodologies of Design applied to future Digital Education. Contaminations useful for the research of new models, methods and processes that allow the design of new learning experiences aimed at the construction of democratic educational systems, inclusive and more adherent to contemporary challenges

Eating with Type: Designing a Letterpress Workshop Based on Typeful Thinking Approach for Food Education

Starting from the observation of an evident precariousness in the contemporary relationship between man and food, this contribution is meant to show a new proposal of workshops for children in the K=12, Grade 4–5 category, aimed at stimulating in a creative and experiential way a critical and conscious thinking about food. Starting from the methodology of Artful Thinking and Object Based Learning, the project shifts the pedagogical focus from the interaction with the artistic object to the interaction with the design object; and in particular with the movable type, identified as an activating element of the educational process in the transition from Artful to Typeful Thinking. The Typeful Thinking workshop therefore represents a potentially innovative food education tool that leverages on the concretisation of critical thinking through five thinking routines that go from conceptual abstraction - through a physical artefact, the letterpress printing - to their tangibility

Eating with Type. Designing a Letterpress Workshop Based on Typeful Thinking Approach for Food Education

Starting from the observation of an evident precariousness in the contemporary relationship between man and food, this contribution is meant to show a new proposal of workshops for children in the K=12, Grade 4–5 category, aimed at stimulating in a creative and experiential way a critical and conscious thinking about food. Starting from the methodology of Artful Thinking and Object Based Learning, the project shifts the pedagogical focus from the interaction with the artistic object to the interaction with the design object; and in particular with the movable type, identified as an activating element of the educational process in the transition from Artful to Typeful Thinking. The Typeful Thinking workshop therefore represents a potentially innovative food education tool that leverages on the concretisation of critical thinking through five thinking routines that go from conceptual abstraction —through a physical artefact, the letterpress printing— to their tangibility

SOCIALITÀ DIGITALE E COVID-19. Service Design per l’analisi del coinvolgimento emotivo nella città digitale

La recente emergenza mondiale e la conseguente virtualizzazione della quotidianità che l’essere umano ha dovuto fronteggiare, hanno fatto emergere il ruolo delle tecnologie digitali nella vita di ognuno e le criticità ad esse connesse. L’articolo riporta l’analisi delle piattaforme digitali più diffuse durante il periodo di lockdown 2020, volta a evidenziare una correlazione fra il successo in termine di fruizione e la componente emotiva-relazionale dei servizi stessi. A tal fine, è stato definito uno strumento di indagine derivante dal Service Design in grado di affiancare a un’azione di analisi prestazionale del servizio i relativi effetti in termini di fattori emozionali: un’opportunità per la comunità scientifica di riflettere sul miglioramento delle componenti socio-relazionali di una metaforica città digitale.The recent world health emergency and the consequent virtualisation of daily life that human beings had to tackle, have brought to light the role of digital technologies in our lives and the problems linked to them. In this context, the article deals with the analysis of the most used digital platforms during the 2020 lockdown, aimed at highlighting the link between its success and the emotional-relational component of the services.To this purpose, an investigation tool coming from Service Design was created. A tool capable of supporting the action of a service performance analysis and its effects in terms of emotional factors: an opportunity for the scientific community to think on the improvement of the socio-relational components of a metaphorical digital city

Brand Design Strategy for Public Administration. An experimentation on Lazio Region’s Employment Centers in Italy

The paper deals with the theme of public services through the lens of Design and intends to report experiences and preliminary results of the research project aimed at the Employment Centers of the Lazio Region, which develops a Brand Design Strategy for the renewal of the service through an activity structured in distinct operational phases. In fact, the discipline of Design has the role of guiding a conscious structure of the brand in a systemic perspective, which, in addition to the visual identity, includes the service and spatial design, promoting accessibility, inclusiveness and usability. A case of methodological experimentation that aims to establish itself as a case of national best practice

Design for Outdoor Education: Redefining Schooling Through Design Oriented Experimentations in Outdoor Contexts

In the redefinition of the world's equilibrium in the post-pandemic context, it has become increasingly necessary to invest in the search for alternative or improved design systems of the educational experience with respect to remote learning. In the near future, therefore, innovative pedagogical practices oriented towards sustainability and safety, such as Outdoor Education - aimed at making outdoor space an educational environment - could meet the new needs for revision and redesign of educational experiences. Starting from this premise, the contribution intends to report the results of a research project financed by the funds for the Research of the Sapienza University of Rome, and carried out in collaboration with the ""Bosco Caffarella"" outdoor kindergarten in Rome, Italy, which is currently being tested. By setting up a network of interdisciplinary cultural exchange between Design, Sociology and Pedagogy, the research project set out to undertake an action-research path for the design of design-oriented educational actions and tools aimed at children in the 3-6 year age range. The objective of this experimentation is to propose a reinterpretation of the use of educational services and to demonstrate how the hybridisation of pedagogy, storytelling and design thinking, assisted by the educating role of the natural environment itself, would make it possible to facilitate the transmission of cultural values, catalyse knowledge, foster creativity or convey messages and emotional responses. Design for Outdoor Education, precisely, for a conscious, sustainable and futuristic design of the education of tomorrow's children

Feed: design for Eating Disorders prevention in pre-adolescent age

In the contemporary era, in which the hedonistic diet has been brutally replaced by the practice of nutritionism (Pollan, 2007), eating disorders are a serious threat to the new generation. However, still only 4 out of 100 primary prevention programs is effectively improving the position of young people in relation to the risk factors (Della Grave, 2013). Taking in consideration the picture of the incidence of eating disorders among the adolescents, this work has the purpose of investigating, by adopting an interdisciplinary approach, the existing systems of prevention and early diagnosis of ED and obesity, in order to analyze their effectiveness and development possibilities. The use of design methodologies allows therefore to systematize the data collected and to put forward a future proposal for school prevention services, in which the well-being of the teenager and his healthy awareness of food and body appearance can be seen as the result of the cooperation of different professional figures. The research ranges from pedagogy to clinical psychology, from the sciences of nutrition to the sociology of food, with a strategic focus on the phenomenon of gamification, which acts as a glue between the message transmitted by each individual discipline and the Generation Z’s user

Changing Prospects in Design Education. Rupture and Ties with the Legacy of the Ulm Model

Focusing on Maldonado’s role as an educator, what surprises is the depth of thought that characterises his writings as well as his theoretical competence. Trained as an artist, Maldonado was exceptionally cultivated, endowed with great critical attitude, and passionate for design, not merely as a practice, but as a form of education. To this type of education, since the 1950s, he dedicated a large part of his career and academic endeavours, working on the development of a philosophy of design. The weight that Maldonado’s work carries within the history of design education is exemplified by the prestige of what is known as Ulm Model, a benchmark for most schools of design still today. Understanding the legacy of the Ulm School of Design (Ulm HfG) – whose training approach owes much to Maldonado – in the contemporary landscape of design education became the starting point of our investigation. A critical reading of some of Maldonado’s writings on the theory of education helped us trace the connections between the traditional models and the current reform of education in the field of design. In this respect, the end point was the conflicted relationship that the current reform movement shows to have with the old paradigm of design education. While breaking with the past, most of the schools that are leading the change prove to be rooted in the pedagogical tradition of the Ulm HfG. Shedding light on this ambivalence is the aim of our research. In addition to examining the nature of the ambivalent relationship that some world leading schools of design have with the traditional models of education, this essay gives an overview of how design education as a whole is evolving and what possible course(s) it may take in the near future

Nature-centered design. Strategie design-driven per l’analisi e la valorizzazione del capitale naturale

Negli ultimi dieci anni il sistema internazionale degli enti parco e la rete dei numerosi attori coinvolti nella gestione del capitale naturale globale sta comprendendo la rilevanza del design nel progetto strategico di tutela e valorizzazione del principale patrimonio dell’umanità. Questa “attenzione” vede l’applicazione delle pratiche e dei metodi propri del design in molte delle sue declinazioni: dalla comunicazione visiva alla multimedialità, alla componente di spatial e exhibit design associata all’organizzazione di spazi sia esterni sia interni, alle strategie di product e del service design. La ricerca finanziata (la proposta interdisciplinare “Design-Driven Strategies for Natural Capital” è risultata vincitrice del bando competitivo per progetti di ricerca di Ateneo nel 2019) mira ora ad ampliare il lavoro di analisi finora condotto, valutando l’apporto che la cultura immateriale e le applicazioni del design della multimedialità può fornire alle strategie di “connessione” a un patrimonio di fondamentale valore