Università degli studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia

Unimore helped draft guidelines on the use of media and technologies in educational services for children

Professors and researchers of the Department of Education and Human Science of Unimore have participated as partners to the drafting of European guidelines and good practice of education to media and digital technology in educational services for children.

The initiative is the result of an Erasmus Plus STORIES (foSTering early childhOod media liteRacy competencIES) European project  financed by the European Community, ended in August 2018 and coordinated by Cooperativa Sociale Coopselios.

Professor Annamaria Contini of Unimore, scientific responsible for the Unimore research unit of the project, explains that “Children get in touch with the so called ICTs (Information and Communication technologies) from their early age, in the family context. Starting from the early childhood, school may even facilitate the development of an active and critical behaviour and therefore leverage the expressive potential of the various media. One of the most original aspects of the project was the digital storytelling used as teaching methodology, in order to combine the development of the ability to tell stories with the development of the media literacy and the digital skills”.

During the project, which started in 2015 and involved seventeen primary schools located in Finland, Germany, Italy and Turkey, more than 600 children between 3 and 6 years old, brought to life a total of 174 digital stories.

The European research group, made of professors, researchers, PhDs and pedagogues from the four countries, has developed various educational and assessing tools, such as the design sheet used by teachers, the document sheet of experiences, the activity observation grids, the teacher self-assessment questionnaires, and an analysis sheet of digital narrations made by children, aimed to explore aspects such as the narrative structure, the blend  of languages (verbal, visual, etc.) and the digital aspects of the product.

Therefore, in the final phase of the research project, the reference guidelines at European level were drawn up and published in five languages.

More specifically, the research unit of Unimore, coordinated by professor Annamaria Contini and made including Chiara Bertolini, Roberta Cardarello, Lorenzo Manera, and Andrea Zini provided multiple and essential contributions in all project phases, specifically focusing on creativity and integration between digital language and art languages. In addition to the participation to several conventions, conferences, seminars and study days both in Italy and in Europe, and to the dissemination of scientific results by publishing various scientific contributions issued at national and international level, the research unit of Unimore created the toolkit “Tell a story”, a practical guide to experiment activities of Digital Storytelling in educational services for children, made available by the Ministry of Education, University and Research on the “generazioniconnesse - educazione civica digitale” platform.

PROJECT ENVIRONMENT

Erasmus+ is the Programme of the European Union for education, training, youth and sport in Europe. It is addressed to a wide range of people (not only students) and organisations, and gives the opportunity to study, train, make experience and create teaching methodologies (front and online classes), as well as exchange good practices between Universities of various Countries in Europe and outside Europe. The current Erasmus+ programme (2014 - 2020) includes multiple topic areas and financing lines, and specifically the Strategic Partnerships form part of the Key Action 2 (KA2). They are small and wide scale transnational cooperation measures aimed at implementing and transferring innovative practices to a local, regional, national and European level; modernising and strengthening the education and training systems; supporting the positive effects generated and ensuring a long permanence on participating entities, on the relevant educational systems and on the individuals who are directly involved.

Categorie: International - english