It’s not really an important date. So, for the vast majority of readers, it won’t mean anything, but for us at Connessioni it was the date of the last stop of the Edu Tournée, the tour that took us to eight cities to try to create a bridge between those who design and set up technologically integrated environments, and those who use them in the educational field.
Through 2018 and 2019, in collaboration with Didacta, Connessioni visited Milan, Bari, Modena, Florence, Turin, Genoa and Naples with a program of testimonials, case studies, presentations and insights on the relationship between technology, its instruments and the world of education. In these two years we have met more than 700 professionals (teachers, designers, laboratory supervisors, managers, digital animators, architects, etc.), experts involved in e-learning and technological innovation from the principal Italian universities, and organised “experiences” of educational technologies.
But we have also learned a lot! And here’s what:
- In the first editions of Edu Tournée, we examined the role of technological learning environments, how to think of them and how to design them in the best possible way. But we have learned that content is equally important: technologies are not “just” a tool, but they allow new didactic models and cognitive paths. In fact, they not only allow them, but they stimulate them, in harmony with the increasingly pervasive use of technology in our daily lives.
- We have learned that, although we usually think of the university as the area of greatest interest for technology in the didactic field, in reality there is a whole world of schools, centres, training institutes, teacher training and the study of didactics, which often reveals an innovative energy and an unparalleled thirst for further education.
- But, most importantly, we have learned – or rather rediscovered – that audio-visual technologies, immersion and widespread connectivity can make learning more effective and can make the information and, above all, the methods learned, more long-lasting in the memory and over time. The famous “cone of learning”, proposed by the American pedagogist Edgar Dale, shows that we only remember 10% of what we read and that the percentage increases as our involvement becomes active: we remember 90% of what we do. Virtual reality enhances experience, so technology becomes synonymous with new knowledge.
- Finally, we learned that you should never forget your friends, because together you achieve the best results. We would like to thank those who supported and made possible the Edu Tournée: the companies and the associations that supported us (Avixa, Benq, Casio, Extron, Leading Technologies, Lightware, Sony); Didacta, for giving us the opportunity to collaborate and bring the project to the exhibition; the Professional Orders and Associations who granted the program, which is not common for them, continuing education credits for their members; WhatWe Are, for overseeing the Experience AV at Didacta. But we would also like to thank the speakers, in particular Daniela Scaccia, Director of the CTU of the University of Milan, Professor Marina Rui of the University of Genoa, and Luca Sancricca, an expert in the relationship between education and technology.
Now we are ready to move on to another phase, and perhaps to other themes.
