Critical data literacies for good

This chapter offers an illustrative and generative example of a local social and pedagogical problem in a Global South context –students’ engagement with open data for coming up with a climate change solution– to reflect on the importance of understanding the nuance and complex nature of data literacy to transform different aspects of their social reality. This, in turn, opens up a discussion about how and why understanding the complexity of critical data literacy is the foundation of HE for Good

Learning Design as the base for adult educators’ professionalism in the field of intergenerational learning

The educational interventions dealing with the ill-defined educational problems frequently found in the field of adults’ education require high professionalism. Intergenerational Learning, a trend of growing importance for lifelong learning, is a case that illustrates particularly well this situation. Emerging strategies and technologies like Learning Design could support educators’ professionalism, aiming to work in a more effective way. In this article, the following research question was explored: Can the process of design for learning, intended as forward oriented and creative process, support the achievement of adult educators’ professionalism? The research consisted on a case study based on an European training programme, the “ALICE (Adults’ Learning for Intergenerational Creative Experiences) training of trainers”. The programme adopted several means, from more traditional residential and online training activities, to the deployment of an experimental idea based on the ALICE educational framework, the ALPP (Adult Learning Pilot Programme). Learning Design was introduced as concept entailing a set of tools along the whole process of implementation of the ALPP. The phases of this creative process (contextualizing, planning, implementing, evaluating and sharing) were analyzed through a holistic and mostly interpretivist (yet mixed methods) approach. As a result, the connections between learning design as forward oriented process and the adult educators’ professionalism were observed, documented and discussed

Una strategia europea per l’implementazione di spazi di apprendimento informale per gli adulti: Il caso del progetto ALICE

Questo lavoro mira a introdurre e discutere la strategia formativa adottata in una rete progettuale europea (LLP-GRUNDTVIG) di formazione dei formatori, cui obiettivo e preparare quest’ultimi per l’implementazione di forme di apprendimento intergenerazionale e interculturale. Il progetto, denominato “ALICE” (Apprendimento adulto per la generazione di esperienze intergenerazionali creative/Adults Learning for Intergenerational Creative Experiences), promuove l’apprendimento informale per arricchire le competenze degli adulti nella relazionalità bambino-adulto. La strategia formativa è introdotta e discussa facendo riferimento teorico al sociocostruttivismo e particolarmente al concetto di mediazione dell’apprendimento intergenerazionale a carico del formatore/educatore. Per promuovere tale approccio, si propone ai formatori di riflettere sul proprio ruolo come mediatori nell’implementazione di opportunità di apprendimento informale come dimensione chiave per migliorare la partecipazione di adulti con bassi livelli educativi nella società dell’apprendimento

Teachers’ creativity throughout professional life A model based on oer cycle

The new conceptions of teachers’ professional development (TPD) are based on personalized professional learning activities to be implemented in different moments of professional life cycle, in response to contextualized learning needs. As a result, it is expected that TPD yields creative processes that end up in transforming pedagogical practices through reflection and self-awareness on the new professional skills. However, creating and controlling TPD environments for teachers’ creativity is still a matter of discussion, since such environments are to be connected to the professional life-cycle, and this requires very fluid learning experiences. In this paper, the use of Open Educational Resources as dimension of teachers’ professional development environments, within and beyond the school is explored, attempting to understand if the participation to OER-cycle (as the cycle of using, remixing, creating and sharing OERs) can effectively contribute to creative practices linked to professional learning. Connected to this perspective, an example of practice (the Italian case CREAti by CISRE-University of Venice) is introduced. Within this case, TPD based on OER-cycle engagement can be connected effectively to differential elements of professional development along life-cycle because it gives focus, motivation and specific designing lines to promote situated creative and reflective teachers’ practices

EXPLORING RESEARCHERS’ DISCOURSES ABOUT PRODUCING, DISSEMINATING AND EVALUATING SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION ON THE WEB. THE CASE OF BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES

The development of the Web and the interest in promoting openness in education and science are leading to new professional practices and ways of fulfilling the academic profession, a phenomenon that has been denominated “Digital Scholarship”. However, research in the field is still at its infancy. At this stage, research studies that narrow down the focus on individual disciplines as well as phases of professional life may contribute to build the bigger picture of how digital scholarship is interpreted by academics in different countries, fields and stages of professional life. This paper aims to shed some light onto the meaning of digital scholarship in a field of science that deserves great attention for its crucial role in society: the bio-medical sector. With the aim of elaborating a preliminary study on the training needs to adopt web-tools for research activities, we collected qualitative data through a set of non-structured interviews with a group of 7 researchers and 3 librarians working in the field of the Life Sciences and Medicine in Italy. In order to explore how the main dimensions of the Digital Scholarship - defined as the production, dissemination and evaluation of scientific information with the adoption of web tools - are experienced in this group. The results show that the considered group of researchers and librarians only make partial use of the web-tools available for the different activities of a fully-fledged digital scholar. Their professional discourses are mostly linked to traditional practices and concepts rather than to the idea of Digital Scholarship. We conclude with some remarks regarding the reasons preventing the engagement of researchers in this sector to participate in professional practices aligned with the concept of Digital Scholarship, aiming at opening to further debate on the training needs and research

La sperimentazione MIFORCALUn modello formativo per il contesto culturale allargato

I processi di mondializzazione attraverso logiche di cooperazione trasnazionale così come dei flussi migratori espontanei, rivoluzionano completamente il setting accademico e di aula; fenomeno coadiuvato dallo sviluppo del web sociale come spazio di apprendimento informale e di comunicazioni fluide. Il suddetto cambiamento sociale, tecnologico e culturale plasma processi di internazionalizzazione educativa; nel livello dell’istruzione superiore, in particolare, esiste un profondo interesse per la promozione degli stessi, generando diversi tipi di esperienze dentro le quali può essere inquadrato il Progetto MIFORCAL. Una visione critica di tali dinamiche indica il rischio dell’implementazione di logiche egemoniche che orientano la costruzione del curriculum (classificazione di saperi potenzialmente insegnabili) ed i tipi di dispositivi pedagogici che da tale costruzione ne deriva, come compartimenti rigidi, generatori di logiche di esclusione e di colonialismo accademico (Mc Laren, 1996). Il progetto MIFORCAL ha esplorato nella sua prima fase un modello curricolare e pedagogico contra-egemone, puntando alla equa partecipazione di ogni stakeholder nella costruzione ed accesso alla conoscenza. In questo scenario si produce la prima ipotesi formativa verso la maggiore inclusione educativa: il modello si muove in un contesto formativo che può essere denominato “contesto culturale allargato” (Raffaghelli, 2008; 2009). E cioè, considerando la Teoria dell’Attività di 3za generazione ed il concetto di knotworking (Engestrom, 1987, 1999), possiamo concepire tale contesto formativo come ambito nel quale la cultura insegnata è decostruita, esplorata criticamente e ricostruita a partire dal particolare riferimento a “finestre” di espansione della conoscenza apportate dai soggetti in situazione di apprendimento e collaborazione a trama di rete (Engestrom, 2009), nella ricerca della generazione di un modello formativo equilibrato dal punto di vista discorsivo, semantico e per tanto eco-sociale (Lemke, 2005). L’ipotesi alla base è che tale modello può portare verso la giustizia pedagogica e curricolare (Connel, 1993, Raffaghelli, 2009). In questo articolo vengono descritti ed analizzate criticamente le caratteristiche del modello formativo MIFORCAL, attraverso la presentazione di esempi di costituzione del modello e pratiche pedagogiche nel contesto culturale allargato, in tanto che spazio di prassi pedagogica trasformativ