Information
This workshop, the first of its kind, propose itself as a 'think tank' able to foster a reflection on how the way we learn may be influenced and change because of the development of 'smart cities', but also 'smart villages' and 'smart territories'.
From the Far East, to the Americas and to Europe, cities and their surroundings are evolving towards a new dimension in which the info infrastructure becomes an indispensable asset of our life, contributes to the development of info-ecosystems embracing 'smart mobility and last-mile logistics', 'smart health', 'smart government', 'smart culture and tourism', the sustainability of the natural resources and the green economy. Such integrated effort of info-urbanism is expected to produces social innovation and, inevitably, leads to wonder about what forms can take the smart education underlined by all pieces that compose the mosaic of the info-ecosystems. The virtual infrastructure - web and mobile - will be integrated more closely with the physical landscape - internet of thing and sensible physical places - incorporating the latter into a complex ecosystem which will bring forward opportunities to learn from everyday life.
Technologies, increasingly embedded into the everyday spaces and artefacts, will make the places not only more sensitive but also responsive and, potentially, coevolutionary (TEP - Technology Enhanced Places) will give rise to new landscapes in which one can experiment, seamless, the integration of physicality and virtuality.
The person, considered in all her/his complexity, will be placed at the center of educational contexts and scenarios increasingly ubiquitous, complex, organic. The perimeter of the physical space in which the educational experiences develop will become increasingly undefined, liquid and will host more and more nomadic and informal practices characterized by a high density of social interactions. In these scenarios, the mediating role of technology will widen over the time to: foster relationships with the natural environments, filter content needed to support meaningful experiences at glocal level, disclose feedback necessary to learn how to manage 'in action', the complexity of static and dynamic, of learning contexts and processes.
Through which educational path people will become participatory aware citizens of the future 'SimCities'? How will we learn from the open books that are represented by the cities of art? How will data flowing from sensorized areas will be elaborated to support awareness and learning? How will our behavior be influenced by knowledge of co-evolution mechanisms and limits of the ecosystems? Will the educational infrastructure be smart enough to readjust, even autopoietically, to satisfy the needs that everyone could develop life long, in different contexts?
The future perspective is that of territories that become increasingly open to awareness and participation and of a 'smart education' that becomes more and more spatially widespread and temporally continuous.
