Today, our phyrtual journey amongst the “Our School” Professors introduces us to Laura Mattioli, Professor of Spanish and researcher at the University of Seville. Prof. Mattioli works on digital transformation and especially on the evaluation of teacher’s digital skills and teaching-learning processes. She has written Italian as a foreign language textbooks and Spanish textbooks for children.
As usual, we share a short video in which Federico presents himself and then an interview with Ilaria Gaudiello, who coordinates the works of the open source community of teachers.
This is the seventeenth instalment of Professors in “Our School.”.
INTERVIEW
Laura, your professional career has led you to study a key issue for schools: the evaluation of teachers’ digital skills. What are the general objectives of your research and how is your research-action work applied to schools?
The main objectives of my research consist in analysing and describing the digital skills of faculties and then identifying and illustrating tools that can be used to improve these skills. More specifically, in teaching-learning processes, the objective is to identify strategies and methodologies that can be used to transform students into digitally savvy individuals. Then, I also examine the changes that take place in schools after the implementation of a digital action plan in order to transform the school into a digital expertise centre. Research plays a fundamental role in defining the “status quo” of digital skills, identifying valid examples of digital transformation in schools, and accompany them towards the change and innovation that is required.
This year, you are participating in the Fondazione Mondo Digitale’s “Our School” to devise a course for students on journalistic divulgation of the Agenda 2030 SDGs. What do you believe are the most interesting aspects of this course?
The course is being developed on-line with other teachers. The opportunity to collaborate, exchange ideas, projects and suggestions with other physically “removed” teachers allows us to look beyond our horizons and experiment with other realities. The combination of ideas and different practices enriches our work and will make it far more complete than any individual project could ever have been. Each teacher has a personal cultural and experiential baggage that makes our whole stronger, more global and thorough. The idea to develop digital skills along with civic ones is fundamental. Indeed, both are included by the European Parliament and Council amongst the 8 key skill areas for future citizens to adapt to continuous change and fulfil personal desires, social inclusion, active citizenship and employability in a new knowledge-based society.
As an author, researcher and teacher, is there a book that you would recommend to “Our School” professors that you believe is especially inspiring in terms of digital and inclusive pedagogic innovation?
I believe that before understanding and deciding what type of methodology and active pedagogy we wish to use in the classroom, it is important to understand our students, understand the “net generation” in our schools that represents tomorrow’s society.
“To develop intentional learners, the curriculum must go beyond helping students gain knowledge for knowledge’s sake to engaging students in the construction of knowledge for the sake of addressing the challenges faced by a complex, global society”
This phrase contains a guiding star for my career: “engaging students in the construction of knowledge”.
The quotation is from “Educating the Net Generation” by Oblinger D.G. y Oblinger J.L., (2005), that I full-heartedly recommend to anyone who wishes to understand this new digital generation. However, I must also mention “The Game” by Alessandro Baricco, (2018) that traces the history of a “mental insurrection” and that sparked off my interest in digital technology. So, good reading!
