Back to the future:let’s bring schools to XXI century!

We live in a technological society: technologies can help us to be effective citizens and expand our human being potentialities, but they are poorly used at school due to different factors related to, on one hand, lack of infrastructures and, on the other, to adequate and uptodate technological and pedagogical competences owned by teachers. For example, it’s not too unusual to see a multimedia whiteboard used as a mere projector in a classroom, and personal devices as smartphone or tablet are not so welcomed between the majority of school desks, so their exploitation to didactic purposes isn’t really perceived by the most. As a part of the European Up2U Project, we designed a specific training for teachers to develop technological and pedagogical competences and then fruitfully integrate Up2U technologies in their professional practices. In fact, technologists can help to exploit technologies potentials in education creating new software, apps and environments useful for education or, better, integrating already existing tools and adapting them to educational purposes, while educational researchers and educators can provide teachers’ training courses which should present some characteristic to effectively get some results: they must be practical, collaborative practices supportive and focused on specific topics close to teachers’ professional needs, engaging their creativity. The teachers’ training in Up2U, based on these assumptions, is designed to build a teachers’ community of practice in which learn actively to integrate innovative virtual environments and tools in innovative daily teaching practices, building durable technological and pedagogical competences. Let teachers build their competences is the first step to get our schools… back to the future!

Speakers

• Ilaria Bortolotti Consortium GARR, University of Rome La Sapienza