Computer Lab

Teacher of Humanities and expert in Learning Technologies. He collaborates with leading universities and research centres for the training of teachers in the technical and educational use of Web tools and environments, social networks and mobile devices. He has designed and delivered numerous in-person and online training courses for permanent and newly hired teachers.

He has coordinated digital education projects involving a network of over 100 schools, with institutions, municipalities, associations and foundations.

All these activities have been considered good school practice by the Italian Ministry of Education and have been studied by many media education bodies. Both national and international networks have reported on them and they have received prestigious awards, including the Medal of the President of the Republic and acknowledgments from the Italian Embassy in Washington and the Medea Awards in Brussels.

Leturer’s CV in brief: https://about.me/lucapiergiovanni

TABLE AND DEFINITION OF CONTENTS

The course comprises two phases of work corresponding to the two modules into which it is organised.

• Module 1 – Learning environments, with technology and the Internet

There are nowadays furnishing solutions for our classrooms (school design), which can facilitate learning and the real implementation of new technologies and the Internet: the relationship between the classroom space and the organisation and timing of activities, as well as the choice of teaching methods, is a very close relationship and all these elements influence each other.

At the same time, the physical classroom opens up to the world through user-friendly online environments. Real places for learning, sharing and interacting with students, but also with the community of teachers around the world.

In just a few steps you can structure a virtual class and manage it easily, even without being an HTML expert.

A shared online environment facilitates teacher-learner relationships, assignment of tasks, structuring of multichannel lessons, global student assessment.

With this module, the teacher will be able to explore the positive aspects, but also the critical aspects of the so-called laboratory classrooms, technology-enhanced classrooms, disassembled classrooms; as well as to analyse online environments, comparing the functionalities of the most used online spaces at educational level, such as Tes Teach Blendspace, EDpuzzle, Symbaloo and so on.  The aim is to be able to choose the best environment based on one’s own needs and those of students.

• Module 2 – 3 ECT – Social Networks in the teaching profession

In the second phase, the following topics will be explored: Social networks are nowadays frequented by millions of users, but it is of fundamental importance to know how to make critical and positive use of them.

Social media is a very useful tool for teachers and professionals in general. Every day it is possible to exchange ideas and projects with colleagues all over the world; to do quick, effective and measurable marketing; to provide political opinions or spread news (so-called “participatory journalism”); to search for jobs and offer them; to share online resources, articles, guides; to be always in touch with the world’s greatest educators and to build a tailor-made refresher course.

There are many groups of teachers that have sprung up on Facebook, lists of users that can be followed via Twitter, the network of professionals on LinkedIn, the culture pills spread via Snapchat or Instagram Stories.

And the school needs more than ever a social teacher: a communicator and motivator, ready to be constantly informed and updated via the Internet, able to produce digital contents and willing to share it on Social media.

Use of educational apps and social networks at school and at a professional level.

The course in “Computer and telematic skills” aims to make professionals autonomous and critical in the use of Social Networks both in the work field and in educational contexts.

It also aims to provide professionals with all the tools they need to structure both physical and virtual environments for effective and engaging learning.

A. Knowledge and understanding

Exploring 21st century classrooms, with the furniture solutions adopted by many schools around the world; recognising the most popular online environments for teaching; recognising the differences between Social Networks and Social Media; identifying informal and formal groups, communities of practice and thematic communities for professional use of Social.

B. Ability to apply knowledge and understanding

Knowing how to contextualise the requirements for redesigning learning with online tools and environments and, in particular, with innovative furniture and online platforms.

Apply the use of these environments in curricular activities, to create useful environments for exchange and interaction with their students.

Using Twitter, both in its technical functionalities and in its symbology and communication dynamics.

Apply the Netiquette principles of the Internet.

C. Autonomy of judgement

Knowing how to distinguish, according to the methodology adopted, the class group and other variables, the most suitable online platform for working from home and the most efficient social media.

D. Communication skills

To know the communication dynamics of some LSM and Social Networks.

E. Learning ability

Knowing how to organise learning in an online environment, through tutoring, coaching and counselling; knowing how to adapt Digital Social Content Curation to life on the Internet, through Social Bookmarking.

EXPECTED RESULTS

Use of advanced textbooks, knowledge of some avant-garde topics within the subject studied. Knowing examples from around the world of architectures and furniture that are more functional for learning and being able, with adjustments, to hypothesise their implementation in one’s own schools; knowing models and case studies in which certain online platforms have been successfully used in study and training, and then replicating the positive aspects in one’s own reality;

knowing how to replicate learning experiences using social Network.

A. Professional approach to work and possession of adequate skills to devise arguments, support them and solve problems within the subject studied.

To use online platforms and social networks on a daily basis.

B. Ability to collect and interpret data useful for making autonomous judgements.

Knowing how to compare the most popular LSMs for creating online classes in order to choose the most suitable one for the needs of the students; knowing how to choose those Social Networks that best suit one’s own professional profile and communication needs.

C. Ability to communicate information, ideas, problems and solutions to specialists and non-specialists.

Mastering the topics covered so as to be able to pass them on to colleagues, in a ‘cascade’ training perspective.

D. Ability to undertake further studies with a high degree of autonomy.
Being able to evaluate and classify new online environments still in the beta phase; being able to manage autonomously, in addition to the social network examined in the course (Twitter), other social networks for one’s own professional growth.

DIDACTICS PROVISION

• 1 video lesson presenting the course;
• 2 synchronous webinars;
• Recording of webinars carried out.

INTERACTIVE DIDACTICS

• 1 orientation forum;
• 2 thematic in-depth forums;
• 2 structured e-activities.

SELF-LEARNING

In addition to the recommended texts for each module, teaching materials will be presented in pdf format, with articles by the lecturer, open access readings, links to online resources and reference bibliography.

MODULE 1

Recommended texts

• Biondi G., Borri S., Tosi L. (2016), Dall’aula all’ambiente di apprendimento, Altralinea Ed.
• Piano Nazionale Scuola Digitale in which a number of different learning environments with technology are presented.
• L’aula del XXI  secolo  come ambiente  di  apprendimento
• La scuola senza classi: 5 soluzioni adottate in Europa

Optional texts

• La classe scomposta
• Indire: Architetture scolastiche
• Avanguardie Educative :  Aule laboratorio disciplinari
• Future Classroom Lab di European schoolnet

MODULE 2

Recommended texts

• Ranieri and S. Manca (2013), ), I social network nell’educazione. Basi teoriche, modelli applicativi e linee guida, Ed. Erickson.

Optional texts

• Fini A. and Cicognini M. E. (2009), ), Web 2.0 e social networking. Nuovi paradigmi per la formazione, Erickson.
• Boyd (2014), ), It’s complicated. La vita sociale degli adolescenti sul web, Ed. Castelvecchi.
• Insegnanti e tecnologie: l’aggiornamento docenti si fa social.

Access to the final examination is subject to the completion of the following 2 e-activities.

For each module the student should:

1. E-activity 1 – Building a study path with one of the online environments presented as Tes Teach – Blendspace, EDpuzzle and other educational tools;
2. E-activity 2 – Evaluate some Twitter users of students’ choice or do scientific research via Twitter.

The assessment of learning will take place through an oral interview on the course contents (at least three). The grade (min 18, max 30 with possible honours) is determined by the level of performance for each of the following dimensions of the oral interview: mastery of contents, appropriateness of definitions and theoretical references, clarity of argument, command of specialist language.

Oral interview in presence.

Italian