Isabella Bruni

Mobile storytelling and informal education in a suburban area: a qualitative study on the potential of digital narratives for young second-generation immigrants

The article discusses an action-research study focused on developing participatory attitudes and the self-expression skills of a group (N = 15) of second-generation immigrant adolescents who live in an urban suburb in Italy. The research study was based on mobile storytelling, a practice of personal multimedia storytelling conducted through mobile devices in connection with social networking services. The findings reveal that encouraging certain uses of the media can have positive effects on the expression of identities and collaborative practices, particularly for marginalised groups. At the same time, a certain laconicism and misspelling tends to characterise the mobile stories created by the teens, which reveals their difficulties in linguistic communication. From this perspective, it is evident that the use of digital media can reinforce pre-existing divisions and therefore there is now a need for public education to play a more active role in balancing inequalities with the development of technical, social and linguistic skills.

Promoting Digital and Media Competences of pre- and in-Service Teachers. Research Findings of a Project from six European Countries

This paper presents the results of e-MEL, a European project aiming at promoting the development, implementation and testing of training scenarios for pre- and in-service teachers’ training in the field of digital and media literacy education. The analysis of the results led the research team to identify the critical and successful aspects of the testing, and to draw some recommendations for the future implementation of teacher training interventions. The final goal is to reflect on sustainable models of media and digital skills training both in terms of teacher education and teachers’ professional development.

Teachers’ Professional Development on Digital and Media Literacy. Findings and recommendations from a European project

Abstract Media and digital literacy are being increasingly recognized as a fundamental competence for teachers of 21st century, but teachers’ professional development is still far from coping with this emerging need. This paper aims at providing some recommendations for integrating media literacy into in-service teacher training programs. To this purpose, it will present the results of the experimentation carried out in three European training institutions within the framework of the European project e-MEL (e-Media Education Lab, 2014–17). The overall training process was monitored and evaluated ex-ante, ongoing and ex-post. This paper illustrates and discusses the main findings of the experimentation focusing on strengths and challenges for implementing a teacher training program on digital and media literacy. It concludes with some recommendations and more general reflections on future research directions.

“Oltre lo specchio dei desideri”, learning sequences in new media literacies for italian lower secondary school

“Oltre lo Specchio dei Desideri” e un ampio progetto di formazione rivolto ad insegnanti e studenti di alcuni istituti scolastici di Cecina (LI), al cui interno sono stati proposti percorsi riguardanti le new media literacies, ed in particolare la riflessione su questioni etiche chiave per la cittadinanza digitale quali l’identita, la privacy, la partecipazione, la credibilita, la creativita e l’autorialita. Il percorso si e svolto in classe, ma si e avvalso anche di una piattaforma di social networking per l’apprendimento e la comunicazione a distanza. A fronte della imperante retorica dei “nativi digitali”, il percorso ha messo in luce come i giovani tendano spesso a sovrastimare la propria competenza digitale e ad avere una limitata capacita di autoriflessione sulle proprie pratiche in rete, confermando cosi la necessita di politiche pubbliche di mediazione e di promozione di un uso corretto, consapevole e creativo del web.

Piagge mobili: digital narratives through Facebook Mobile

Un’esperienza innovativa sull’utilizzo da parte di adolescenti di dispositivi mobili e strumenti di Social Network nella produzione di brevi narrazioni multimediali