New media in learning contexts

Margherita Di Stasio holds a degree in Philosophy from the University of Florence. At the Philosophical Sciences section of the Doctorate School in Contents, Tools and Problems of Communication at the University of Siena – Arezzo, she obtained a Scientific Master’s degree in 2005 and a PhD in 2007; in 2009 she also obtained a Master’s degree in Multimedia for e-learning at the University of Roma Tre.

She is the winner of the CNR (Research National Council) Research Promotion 2005 Youth Project – (Identity as a factor for integration).

Since 2007, she has been working as an instructional designer at Indire, and became a researcher in October 2014.

She deals with innovation in curricular didactics with particular attention to the humanities and technology, the evaluation, the training and development of teaching staff. She is the author of several contributions in Italian and English on these subjects.

Since 2021, she has been Head of Indire’s Research Structure 1: Laboratory didactics and curriculum innovation – Linguistic-humanistic area.

TABLE AND DEFINITION OF CONTENTS

The course consists of 3 modules covering the following topics:

Module 1 – Technologies, society, learning

• • Technologies and education: a brief history
  • Technologies and learning: theories and models
  • Technologies and mythologies

Module 2 – Online

• Internet: birth and spread, risks and opportunities
• Social networks, social media
• Credibility of technological sub specie

Module 3 – Active technologies

• Coding and computational thinking
• Making and hacker culture
• Technologies and digital citizenship.

The course focuses on the relationship between new technologies and media and education. It aims to provide a framework for analysing the use of ICT in teaching/learning processes from a critical point of view. In this context, there are two insights dedicated to:

• conscious use of the Internet and social networks as tools for the creation and dissemination of information on social networks;
• new cultures and active use of tools and languages for the realosation of digital citizenship.

The objectives of the different modules can be summarised as follows:

• Module 1 – Developing a critical, informed and conscious view of the evolution of technologies and media and their role in learning contexts.
• Module 2 – To acquire knowledge and skills useful for the conscious use of the internet and social media and social networking systems in social and educational contexts.
• Module 3 – Learning about hacker and maker cultures and their contribution to the cultural approach of digital citizenship education.

A. Knowledge and understanding

Knowledge of the main theories related to the introduction of technologies and media in learning contexts.

B. Applied knowledge and understanding

Ability to analyse contexts of use and introduction of technologies and media.

C. Autonomy of judgement

Critical approach to the use of media, technologies and tools.

D. Communication skills

Ability to consciously use tools and create contents in online, social media and social networking environments.

E. Learning ability

Ability to select and evaluate information sources and training materials in online and social networking environments.

A.  Use of advanced textbooks, knowledge of some cutting-edge topics within the subject studied.

Selection and use of reliable and authoritative online and open source sources for knowledge of developments in the topics under study.

B. A professional approach to work and possession of appropriate skills to devise arguments, support them and solve problems within the subject studied. Ability to collect and interpret data useful for making independent judgements.

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

D. Production and sharing skills also in the online and social environment with attention to concepts and regulations governing privacy and authorship.

E. Ability to undertake further studies with a high degree of autonomy.

DIDACTICS PROVISION

• 9 hours of recorded video lessons available on the platform.
• 3 synchronous meetings on the platform.
• Podcasts of all the above-mentioned video lessons.

INTERACTIVE DIDACTICS

• 1 course orientation forum;
• 3 in-depth thematic forums (1 per module);
• possibility to carry out work in groups;
• 3 structured e-activities (as described in the section “in itinere assessment methods”).

SELF-LEARNING

Teaching materials are provided for each module: in-depth thematic studies, articles and slides by the lecturer, open access readings, online resources, reference bibliography, etc.

• Ranieri, M. (2011). Le insidie dell’ovvio: tecnologie educative e critica della retorica tecnocentrica. Pisa: ETS.

• Csizmadia, A., Curzon, P., Dorling, M., Humphreys, S., Ng, T., Selby, C., & Woollard, J. (2015). Computational thinking-A guide for teachers. [Trad. It.

• Chioccariello, A., Pensiero computazionale. Una guida per insegnanti, ITD-CNR, Genoa] http://pensierocomputazionale.itd.cnr.it/pluginfile.php/957/mod_page/content/7/Guida%20al%20Pensiero%20Computazionale.pdf

• La Media Education nell’Era della Post-Verità. Vol 9, No 1 (2018): MEDIA EDUCATION – Studi, ricerche, buone pratiche. https://oaj.fupress.net/index.php/med/issue/view/588

The lecturer will indicate the parts of the texts of specific interest and bibliographical references during the lessons and in the slides.

Access to the final examination is subject to the following 3 e-activities:

• E-activity: Setting up a debate on the dichotomies addressed in the first module (in pair or in groups)
• Analysis of ‘information’ (individually)
• Short essay on digital citizenship (individually)

The assessment of learning will take the form of an oral interview on the course contents and on the final report submitted, if any. 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.

Italian