Paolo FerriAssociate ProfessorTechnology of educationUniversity of Milan BicoccaUniversity Milano-Bicocca Department of Educational Science and Early Childhood Studies

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Learning from Children how to use ITC: the project Bambino Autore

Research team: Susanna Mantovani, Paolo Ferri, Chiara Bove, Donata. Ripamonti, Anna Poli, Valentina Garzia www.unimib.it www.paoloferri.net paolo.ferri@unimib.it BLOG: http://paolomferri.blogspot.com/de.licius:  del.icio.us/Giobbe30 / by Paolo Ferri Slideshare http://www.slideshare.net/paoloferri

The contex of our research the Information society

About QUA_SI

The three year doctoral programme 'Quality of Life in the Information Society' (QUA_SI) entails advanced research and training activities in order to face the many challenges and opportunities presented by the Information Society on a multi-disciplinary basis, by emphasizing not only its technological aspects, but also its economic, social, human and legal dimensions.

The programme aims at studying the Information Society by integrating the many levels in which the current advanced research on the theme is being developed worldwide, by favouring a multi-disciplinary approach that ranges from psychology to modern information theory, and from the analysis of decision making processes to economic theory. It comprehends the analysis and simulation of complex systems, as well as the development of theoretical social approaches, in the fields of economics, organizational theory, information theory, and environmental sciences.

The main purposes of the QUA_SI Doctoral Programme are:- To train researchers capable of facing the theoretical questions regarding the Information Society on multi-disciplinary basis- To familiarise students with current technical production on e-learning and multimedia technologies - To provide the students with a interchange and stage research programme with international partners

The steering committe

he Steering Committee carries out the following functions:- it coordinates all the project activities, by giving particular attention to the strengthening of relationships between the Doctorate and the other programmes of advanced research;- it evaluates and approves all the activities of advanced scientific research and the organization of the Laboratories specifically assigned to the realization of the project;- it coordinates collaboration, exchanges and partnership with other institutions, Italian and foreign Universities; - it assures the scientific quality and verifies the progress of project activities.

The Steering Committee is made up of six members:

Guido MartinottiCoordinatorFrancesco ArchettiUniversity of Milano-BicoccaStefania BariattiUniversity of MilanIan ButterworthAcademia EuropæManuel CastellsUOC-Universitat Oberta de CatalunyaRaoul NacamulliUniversity of Milan-Bicocca

The Boarad of theachers The Board of Teachers has scientific, organizational and teaching responsibilities regarding the QUA_SI

Project.

Its main responsibilities are described as follows:- to supervise course works and to support PhD students in their scientific research.- to plan research and training activities carried out by the students in their research stage abroad.- to define the guidelines for the activities articulated along the research programme, as well as the students’ research advisor.

The proposals presented by the students are analysed and approved by the Board, and then discussed with the Steering Committee.

The Board is composed by the following members:

The Board of Teachers has scientific, organizational and teaching responsibilities regarding the QUA_SI Project.

Its main responsibilities are described as follows:- to supervise course works and to support PhD students in their scientific research.- to plan research and training activities carried out by the students in their research stage abroad.- to define the guidelines for the activities articulated along the research programme, as well as the students’ research advisor.

The proposals presented by the students are analysed and approved by the Board, and then discussed with the Steering Committee.

The Board is composed by the following members:

Stefania BandiniDept. Computer ScienceRoberto BisianiDept. Computer ScienceFederico ButeraDept. Sociology and Social ResearchCarlo CecchettoDept. PsychologyGiorgio De MichelisDept. Computer ScienceAndrea FabbriDept. Regional StudiesUgo FabiettiDept. EducationPaolo FerriDept. EducationGiorgio GrossiDept. Sociology and Social ResearchClaudio LuzzattiDept. PsychologySusanna MantovaniDept. EducationGuido MartinottiDept. Sociology and Social ResearchEnzo MingioneDept. Sociology and Social ResearchNadia OliveroDept. PsychologyEmilio ReyneriDept. Sociology and Social ResearchFrancesca ZajczykDept. Sociology and Social Research

The tasks

The activities undertaken by the Doctoral Programme in Information Society are articulated in four main thematic areas, which also represent the four programme's research areas.Each of these areas refers to a Scientific Council named TASCs - Thematic Area Standing Committees.The TASCs function is to ensure that the activities undertaken are in line with the programme's objectives and to assure the integrity of the research carried out through the participation of each responsible in the Board of Teachers.The latter is an advisory body to the Director of the Department of Sociology and Social Research.

The four TASCs aim at coordinating the programme's advanced research, more particularly:- to supervise activities such as seminars, workshops, conferences, laboratories and research stages abroad. - to supervise the research undertaken by the PhD students

The TASCs are described below, along with their respective members:

TASCs - Environment, Space and Society

TASCs - Cognitive Communication and Learning Our TASCs TASCs - Organization, Labour Market and Economy

TASCs - Multimediality and Information Technologies

multi-disciplinary in essence

The QUA_SI Project is multi-disciplinary in essence. It was planned in order to encourage the intellectual interchange between the theoretical, technical and methodological aspects of the advanced research programme in Information Society.

For that reason, it collaborates with many departments, doctoral courses, and other activities carried out at theUniversity of Milan – Bicocca. It covers a varied range of themes stemming from cognitive sciences, pedagogy and sociology in order to deal with the critical aspects regarding the development processes of modern information technologies and their impacts on labour markets, organizations, and the formation of the so called ‘knowledge economy’.

The Departments at the University of Milan – Bicocca which collaborate in the advanced research programme in Information Society are the following:

Department of Epistemology and Educational HermeneuticsDepartment of Computer Systems and CommunicationsDepartment of PsychologyDepartment of Environmental and Territorial SciencesDepartment of Sociology and Social Research

The Research Project “Children and Computer” University Milano-Biccocca

We are leading form 2004 the “Children and Computer” reaserch project coordinated by Professor Susanna Mantovani

This project has the following goals exploring the way the children of pre-school age (3-6 years old)

begin to use new digital technologies in educational contexts (family and school);

observing the first “natural” approaches to computer and web technologies;

Exploring the way teachers interact with children in digital augmented space of learning;

observing if/how the ICT introduce changes in interaction between children, teachers inside and outside the classrooms

Today this is a key issues in the early childhood studies

As you have seen about the project Bambino-Autore, engagement, effort pleasure, concentration, happiness in exploring, trying and producing ideas, experience and performance are very evident in young children working cooperatively with computer. In some way they loves tech.

Observing them, we understand that they love playing and learning with these special cultural objects: computers and networks

The computer as a “cultural object”

How we can observe it?

Are we capable of seeing it and uderstanding it ? We need a “motivation phenomenology” (Lumbelli, 2000) aimed to develop educational eyes capable of seeing the pleasure and satisfaction in children, who are experimenting and learning with ICT

This the basis for the organization of learning paths and tools in order to capitalize the energy and avoid the waste of the happiness to connect.

Some of our research question are:

how can we recognize describe and support these cognitive activity and emotions, a strong source of energy for producing experience, learning and knowledge ?

How can we organize context ICT oriented to support and maintain them (rather then provoke them when they are lost?)

How can the players who are deciders in such context intentionally promote ad support such attitudes and feeling

How computer is used in school? We try with our research to understand how computer is used

in early childhood education.

About this for example, Robert Taylor, in his book The Computer in the School: Tutor, Tool, Tutee, in the 80's, began to consider that digital technologies, at school, could have three different roles: tutor, tool and tutee.

It's obvious that each role depends on the epistemology you adopt and on the kind of dialogue between the teacher "computer" and the student.

Our epistemological point of view is socio-constructivism.

We think that hardware, software and ICT tools for education “must” simulate a real and intense dialogue, trough computer interface, between childs, teachers and also parents (Papert, Spiro, Jhonassen, Wenger)

Learn from the Children

It will be very important to study, to observe, the way children gain interest, explore and use computer, alone, with other children or with an adult, because this melts with: adults' educational ideas with related consequences in educational relations and in

didactics with the behaviours of children as mediators of shared

experiences In cooperation with Bambino-autore project we tray to do such

a work observing children (with video and other qualitative research methods)

using on line LCMS co-projected with teachers, children and technicians and also observing the way teachers and children explore other methods

of e-learning considered as cooperative construction tools for creating and sharing knowledge.

Learnig community

The oommunity of practic have the goals to solve problems trougut the exacange of experience

Leraning community have and “istructional” goal, the aim to acquire contents, capabilities

Learninig community

Comunity of practices

Learning community is also a community of practices

The reserch context and method The methodology adopted is "Ethnographic-Visual Dialogical“

mix qualitative research tools ( observations and interviews) with anthropological research

use of video as stimulus for the discussion focus groups Direct observation

(Tobin Wu, Davidson, Infanzia tra culture, Raffaello Cortina Editore, Milano 2000).

Discussion of observative highlights in focus groups to build and validate the first observative data through a dialogic and narrative method (Fabbri, Grassilli, 2003, Demetrio, 2003).

We use also some interviews to parents and teachers in order to gather information about hypothesis and reasons of informatic tools and about personal educational experience. With the aim to establish comparison and sharing with teachers and parents on collected material.

Research out-put new method of analysis to understand which is the best

way for Children and teacher to use computer and ICT technology in education;

The way to let digital tools (Hardware and software) be approachable for children of different ages. the keyboard, the mouse, the screen. It's also important to study the best way to project the shape of these tools;

good practices to introduce children to usage of cooperative tools for on line communication, in order to avoid communicative and learning new skills;

The cooperative developing of a new open source platform especially designed for children and teachers (Bambino Autore-Docebo)

good practices to introduce children to usage of cooperative tools for on line communication, in order to avoid communicative and learning new skills;

The cooperative developing of a new open source platform especially designed for children and teachers (Bambino Autore-Docebo)