There is a somewhat rhetorical and somewhat non-rhetorical question at the heart of Marius Bogdan Spinu’s talk during Smartbuilding.edu at Didacta in Florence, in the morning dedicated to connectivity and multimedia. Because, in the end, every piece of technical data must be functional for its use
Smartbuilding.edu is the new project of Smart Building Italia and Connessioni that took place during the Didacta expo between last 8th and 10th of March. The morning of the 9th carried the title “We are all connected”, with focus precisely on connectivity and multimedia, which were, however, only the starting point for a broader reasoning on the evolution of didactics.
The talk by Marius Bogdan Spinu, Director of the Area for Innovation and Management of Information and Computer Systems and contact person for the digital transition of the Florentine Athenaeum, began with a video that nicely rendered the sudden disorientation and the need for emergency intervention to restore teaching in the pandemic period. This was followed by data on the use of distance education services, which obviously showed a sudden and sharp spike (44,950 online meetings/lessons were conducted between September and November 2020). However, after the first few months in which universities devoted themselves to structuring themselves to best replicate previous forms of teaching, there followed a phase of reflection on how to improve online or blended teaching, encouraging interaction and collaboration and according to new evaluation strategies. Indeed, today it is believed that there is no longer a single useful method, but new methodologies to be applied on a case-by-case basis for online, blended, or in-presence training, starting with “asynchronous” teaching and ending with teaching in immersive environments.
So starting again from the initial question, what will the new didactics look like? According to Marius Bogdan Spinu, it is too early to give unequivocal answers, but already some elements are evident: the use of technologies, past the emergency, must be carefully evaluated, experimented and planned, considering the needs not so much of today but of tomorrow. And, just looking at tomorrow, it can already be guessed that the new forms of teaching (distance, video, immersive environment, etc.) constitute first of all a challenge to the traditionally in-presence teaching models of public universities (so much so that even telematic universities are changing roles), requiring different skills from the teachers themselves. Italy lags far behind on this: lecturers’ skills rank third to last in Europe*. Lastly, a final question concerns the patterns of use of educational environments, and the dynamics and contexts in which students experience their university journey: if changing cities to study will be less necessary, and there will be different motivations for doing so, if going to classes at the University and attending departments and libraries will be less in demand and less useful, will we therefore have less need for universities, classrooms, canteens and university residences, and will the very idea of a “university city” change?
* Source DSEI 2021
