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LORENZO MANERA

Ricercatore t.d. art. 24 c. 3 lett. B
Dipartimento Educazione e Scienze Umane
Docente a contratto
Dipartimento Educazione e Scienze Umane

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Pubblicazioni

2024 - Digital Objects’ Aesthetic Features. Virtuality and Fluid Materiality in the Aesthetic Education [Capitolo/Saggio]
Manera, Lorenzo
abstract

2024 - Exploring the senses of taste with young children: Multisensory discoveries of food [Articolo su rivista]
Coe, Jennifer; Manera, Lorenzo; Fooladi, Erik C.
abstract

Offering children multiple occasions and settings to approach new or least-liked foods has value both from a taste develop- ment perspective as well as a pedagogical one. New food experiences in positive atmospheres foster pleasure, curiosity and willingness to interact with these ingredients in multiple manners, not only eating or tasting them. This qualitative case study reports 4 and 5-year-old children’s articulation of their experiences in exploratory food ateliers at their preschool. During the study the children’s ideas and perceptions about their sensory experiences with food were documented, while keeping the children at the center of their explorations, in line with the Reggio Emilia approach. Results indicate that the chil- dren reflected on changes in their own attitudes and taste toward least-liked foods, as well as including meta-reflections on complex phenomena such as multisensory perception, cross-modal correspondences and taste development. Thus, by promoting multiple multisensory explorations, the study sug- gests that children can become more open-minded and self- aware, broadening the spectrum of food experiences.

2023 - Aesthetic perspectives on interactive art and Text-to-Image technologies [Articolo su rivista]
Manera, Lorenzo
abstract

By reconstructing the connections between different artistic forms, such as Art Sociologique, cybernetic, media and digital art, the paper addresses of how the concept of interactivity has evolved in relation to the development of aesthetic paradigms. Firstly, the paper problematizesthe concept of interactive art, by discussing connections and differences with media and digital art. Secondly, the paper shows how Flussers’ concept of participatory media, influenced by the artistic work of Fred Forest, together with the theoretical perspective developed by members of the “Group for an Aesthetics of Communication”, contributed to the development of new perspectives in interactive art. Thirdly, the paper shows how theoretical perspectives such as “Relational aesthetics” and the “Aesthetics of Communication” constituted the basis for the successive reflection on the potentialities of virtuality and immateriality from an artistic perspective. By drawing on such premises, the paper addresses the issue of the meta operational processes involved in the use of Text-to-Image technologies (TTI), discussing the level of interactivity and the creative processes involved in its use. Finally, the paper problematizes the features of interactivity that characterize emerging forms of art made possible by virtual devices.

2023 - Contemporary aesthetic perspectives on imagination and reality media [Articolo su rivista]
Manera, Lorenzo
abstract

The growing and ubiquitous presence of ‘digital reality media’, meaning technolog-ical devices that do not rely either on inner visualization or imagination – such as Augmented and Virtual Reality devices and 360º video (Engberg & Bolter 2020) – raises several issues. Such issues are related to the role played by the imagina-tive faculties both within emerging visual-motor and perceptive configurations and within the transformative process of remediation instantiated by the virtualization of reality. This contribution aims firstly to discuss the concepts of second-order media and reality media (Bolter, Engberg & MacIntyre 2021) by linking them to Pinotti’s concept of an-iconology (Pinotti 2021). By drawing on Tavinor’s digital aesthetics (Tavinor 2022), this contribution argues that the an-iconic condition of VR media might be better intended as a desirable outcome in current research, rather than a condition already achieved. In order to discuss whether the imaginative aspects and those that define the use of digital devices are characterized by an interactive statute, this contribution addresses Montani’s notion of ‘intermedial imagination’ (Montani 2022) and Flusser’s concept of Technoimagination (Flusser 2008). Thirdly, this paper discusses how the interactive concept of imagination – suggested by the re-definition of the relationship between distance and materiality, provenance and pertinence – is displayed differently in VR and AR. Finally, the contribution faces the topic of the fallout that the most recent technological development (in terms of reality media), such as BCI (brain computer interface), might have on human imaginative faculties.

2023 - From photography to synthography. Aesthetic remarks on synthetized images [Articolo su rivista]
Manera, L.
abstract

2023 - Jay David Bolter, Maria Engberg, Blair MacIntyre, Reality media. Augmented and virtual reality Cambridge (MA)-London, The MIT Press, 2021, pp. 248 [Recensione in Rivista]
Manera, Lorenzo
abstract

2023 - L’estetica del digitale e le matrici delle politiche culturali europee [Articolo su rivista]
Manera, Lorenzo
abstract

Several documents published by the European Commission in the last years concern the topic of digital humanities. In particular, the document “Contribution of the Creative Europe Programme to fostering Creativity and Skills Development in the Audiovisual Sector” and the one titled “Council conclusions on promoting access to culture via digital means with a focus on audience development” highlighted the importance of the promotion of skills related to a critical and active use of digital technologies. A further purpose indicated in the aforementioned documents is to design pathways that can qualify emerging technologies as devices capable of fostering the active role that different types of audiences can play, supporting an elaborative dimension of the skills related to the enjoiment of cultural contents. These aims can be configured within a conceptual framework that contributes to making explicit the relevance of issues related to the field of Aesthetics within the cultural policies promoted by the European Union.Through the examination of some theoretical issues that concern the relationship between visual culture, aesthetics and digital humanities, this contribution aims at outlining the primary connection between the European cultural policies and the contemporary aesthetic debate.

2022 - Art and aesthetic education in the Reggio Emilia Approach [Articolo su rivista]
Manera, Lorenzo
abstract

in the educational experience of Reggio Emilia, art education is held to be a central element in children’s knowledge building processes and the aesthetic experience is considered an activator of learning process. In the Reggio educational philosophy, the space dedicated to aesthetic education and the exploration of artistic languages and techniques is called the “Atelier”. The Atelier is a place closely connected to the other school environments, aimed at fostering children’s agency by allowing them to explore visual and expressive languages in close synergy with verbal, body and logical ones. This paper addresses the main characteristics and values of the Reggio Emilia educational philosophy that contribute to fostering children’s agency, by focusing on the aspects that are most connected to the aesthetic experience. From such a perspective, the visual and artistic languages are considered to be a means of inquiry regarding the world and as media that support children in building bridges and relationships between cognitive and expressive processes . Finally, the paper problematises such characteristics by drawing on recent developments and interpretations of Malafouris’ material engagement theory Montani, P. 2020. “The Imagination and Its Technological Destiny.” Open Philosophy 3 (1): 187– 201.).

2022 - Conoscere per metafore. Aspetti estetici della metafora conoscitiva. [Monografia/Trattato scientifico]
Giuliani, Alice; Manera, Lorenzo
abstract

La riflessione filosofica contemporanea, attraverso autori come Max Black e Paul Ricoeur, ha posto le basi concettuali per le teorie di ispirazione cognitivista che oggi attestano in modo pressoché unanime il valore conoscitivo della metafora e che sono un riferimento condiviso nell’ambito degli studi sull’apprendimento e nell’ambito specifico della science education. D’altra parte, sia nella riflessione teorica che negli studi sull’uso delle metafore in chiave didattica, emergono aspetti peculiari che sembrano sollecitare l’intervento di categorie estetiche. A partire da una ricognizione teorica e dalla discussione dei risultati di una ricerca empirica di impostazione transdisciplinare sull’uso della metafora nella didattica delle scienze, svolta presso il Dipartimento di Educazione e Scienze Umane dell’Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, il libro intende mostrare il contributo dell’estetica per chiarire l’impatto della metafora sulla conoscenza e la sua valenza creativa.

2022 - ELEMENTI PER UN’ESTETICA DEL DIGITALE. Media interattivi e nuove forme di educazione estetica. [Monografia/Trattato scientifico]
Manera, Lorenzo
abstract

2022 - ESTRANGEMENT [Voce in Dizionario o Enciclopedia]
Manera, Lorenzo
abstract

2022 - The Reggio Emilia Approach to Early Childhood Education. An Analysis to Its Inclusive Perspectives and Their Relationships to Aesthetic Aspects [Capitolo/Saggio]
Manera, Lorenzo
abstract

2022 - The notions of creativity and meta-operativity in Emilio Garroni. Recent interpretations in the Italian aesthetic debate on technology [Articolo su rivista]
Manera, Lorenzo
abstract

This contribution addresses Garroni’s notions of creativity and meta-operativity on three levels, exploring recent interpretations and relationships with contemporary aesthetic reflections about technology. Firstly, the paper discusses how Garroni (1976, 1977, 1978) developed a reflection focused on aspects of creativity and meta-operativity of human behaviour by drawing on Kant’s Third Critique. His conception of creativity refers to a form of ‘productive imagination’, a meta-operative process which allows us to deal with novelties by creating new rules and developing a dynamic relationship between creativity and legality. Secondly, the paper explores how the Italian philosopher (1986) foresaw the possibility of establishing meaningful forms of relationships with reality by analyzing the concept of experience, which allowed Aesthetic experience to be considered as a way of renewing the agency and the heuristic potential of creativity, intended as the main characteristic that defines the human behaviour. Thirdly, this contribution explores how, by drawing on an under-standing of aesthetics intended not as a ‘philosophy of art’ but, in a broader sense, as a ‘non-special philosophy’, the author (2005) developed a comprehensive reflection on the concept of perception that has led to the development of the concept of me-ta-operativity. Finally, this contribution discusses how the latter was reinterpreted in contemporary aesthetic reflections on perceptual aspects that define our relationship with technological devices.

2022 - Tra scienza e linguaggi del contemporaneo [Articolo su rivista]
Manera, Lorenzo; Cantadori, Camilla; sofia paoli, Elena
abstract

Esperienze di apprendimento in un gruppo di ricerca interdisciplinare

2021 - Digital aesthetics’ interactive and relational features [Articolo su rivista]
Manera, Lorenzo
abstract

2021 - Familiar Digital: Creating Bonds at a Distance [Articolo su rivista]
Manera, Lorenzo; Donnici, Barbara; DI ROCCO, Eloisa; Sofia Paoli, Elena; Selleri, Federica; Cavallini, Ilaria; Coe, Jennifer; Cavalieri, Simona
abstract

2021 - Prospettive contemporanee nel dibattito italiano sull’estetica del digitale [Articolo su rivista]
Manera, Lorenzo
abstract

2021 - Toward Innovative And Creative Use Of Participatory Platforms [Abstract in Atti di Convegno]
Manera, Lorenzo; Barbara Donnici, Maria
abstract

2021 - Towards Innovative and Creative Use of Participatory Platforms. Research Experiences Promoted by Fondazione Reggio Children. [Capitolo/Saggio]
Manera, Lorenzo; Donnici, Barbara; Sofia Paoli, Elèna; Cavallini, Ilaria
abstract

ABSTRACT: The importance of taking clear steps in designing online learning, rethinking the roles of teachers and students in digital interactive experiences and the limitations and possibilities of online learning, have been recently debated in the scientific context (Verawardina et al., 2020), also given the sudden changes imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. This contribution aims to describe recent research experiences developed by the research project Scintillae, jointly promoted by the Fondazione Reggio Children-Centro Loris Malaguzzi and The LEGO Foundation, and to discuss possible ways to design online workshops based on co-construction and children and adult's engagement in hybridized practices. The experiences described were intended to create and offer contexts where the creative potentials of play and digital tools generate ideas, connections, meaningful aesthetic experiences and new knowledge. In particular, the digital dimension was intended as a new interpretative context of the Hundred languages theory (Malaguzzi,1987). Learning contexts were designed by referring to an idea of technology diffused and integrated, involving adults and children in the active investigation and «movement» between digital, analogue tools and expressive languages, exploring new digital alphabets. During the online workshops designed and proposed by the research team, the active role of the young students and adults in the co-creation of learning processes through technologies was emphasized. The use of participatory and collaborative platforms was aimed at sustaining children and adults' creative strategies, by interpreting participatory online platforms as spaces where a collective design process could take place.

2021 - Tra pedagogia, architettura ed estetica [Capitolo/Saggio]
Manera, Lorenzo; Rinaldi, Carla
abstract

2020 - L’innovazione digitale tra didattica museale e didattica scolastica. Un’esperienza di riprogettazione a distanza di un percorso espositivo in risposta alla pandemia provocata dal Covid-19. [Articolo su rivista]
Manera, Lorenzo
abstract

As a result of the pandemic caused by Covid-19, in the Italian and international context, museums have faced the impossibility of physically accommodating visitors by developing digital museum's visits. The transition from transmissive forms of education to models centered on the constructive and collaborative nature of learning processes has contributed to the development of reflections on possible forms of interweaving between the use of digital technologies in school and museum’s education. An experimentation that goes in this direction has been realized for the exhibition What a Wonderful World. La lunga storia dell'Ornamento tra arte e natura, at the Fondazione Palazzo Magnani. Two classes of a middle school in Reggio Emilia took part to an experience designed by a group of experts. The experience included a visit to the exhibition and tow hands-on laboratories. After the suspension of teaching activities due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the visit was redesigned in virtual form by the research group.

2020 - Medial Environments, Virtual Images and Aesthetic Experience in the Digital Age [Capitolo/Saggio]
Manera, Lorenzo
abstract

The debate that characterizes aesthetics’ actual perspectives offers several elements to discuss the relation that we are establishing with pictures and images in the digital age, as well as its consequences on an educational level. We argue that, in order to determine the authenticity of the aesthetic experience as regards images in medial environments, looking at elements such as unpredictability, creative invention and the use of imaginative faculties are crucial.

2020 - Narrazioni multimodali nella scuola dell’infanzia. Uno strumento per l’analisi delle storie digitali [Capitolo/Saggio]
Zini, Andrea; Contini, Annamaria; Bertolini, Chiara; Manera, Lorenzo
abstract

Oggetto del presente contributo è lo strumento di analisi delle storie digitali elaborato nell’ambito del progetto di ricerca Erasmus Plus STORIES “foSTering early childhOod media liteRacy competencIES” (2015-2018). Sul piano delle intenzioni educative, la finalità perseguita nella realizzazione e promozione di attività di digital storytelling nell’ambito delle scuole dell’infanzia non è stata quella di esercitare i bambini nello sviluppo di abilità tecniche ma, al contrario, quella di trarre indicazioni per la possibile integrazione nel curricolo prescolare di un metodo operativo che miri a promuovere le competenze narrative multimodali (verbali e non verbali) dei bambini e la loro consapevolezza culturale nell’uso attivo degli strumenti digitali. Lo strumento è stato costruito dal gruppo di ricerca STORIES allo scopo di esaminare la qualità delle storie prodotte dai bambini durante i due anni di sperimentazione nelle scuole dell’infanzia. Lo strumento analizza le storie attraverso una molteplicità di aspetti che caratterizzano il digital storytelling, e che possono essere riassunti in tre principali dimensioni che possiamo intendere come altrettante lenti di osservazione: la struttura narrativa, l’intreccio dei linguaggi e gli aspetti digitali del prodotto.

2020 - Relational spaces in Architecture, Aesthetics and Education. The Italian neo avant-garde architecture and the case of the Reggio Emilia Approach. [Articolo su rivista]
Manera, Lorenzo
abstract

In the Reggio Emilia Approach, an internationally known pedagogical approach to early childhood education (Edwards & Gandini, 2018), spaces are considered “constituent elements of the formation of thought” (Rinaldi, 1998, p. 116), and the learning environment “takes on the role of one of the main and necessary educators” (Cavallini, Quinti, Rabotti & Tedeschi, 2017). The environment, in particular, is considered the third educator (Strong-Wilson & Ellis, 2007), right after teachers and families. An element still not underlined in the scientific literature regards the origin, in the Reggio Emilia approach, of the importance given to the environment, intended as a relational space and its close relationship with aesthetic reflections promoted by relevant exponents of Italian neo avant-garde architecture. As stated by Carla Rinaldi, direct collaborator of Loris Malaguzzi and president of the Reggio Children Foundation, the architect Tullio Zini has been “a great source of inspiration for the concept of environment and the aesthetics of the environment developed in Reggio Emilia” (Rinaldi, 2009, p. 61). At the same time, the architect and scholar Andrea Branzi played a central role in Reggio Children’s metaproject dedicated to the development of environments for young children (Zini & Ceppi, 1998). A relevant fact is that in April 1967, both Tullio Zini and Andrea Branzi were the protagonists, together with other young members of the architectural avant-garde, radical groups Superstudio and Archizoom1 , in an exhibition called “Superarchitettura”, organized in Modena at the main Municipal Gallery (Mello, 2017). The exhibition aimed to “propose the most relevant themes of the architectural culture of the 1960s through the projects of a group of young architects” (Branzi et 1 The exibition involved Andrea Branzi, Carlo Chiappi, Gilberto Corretti, Paolo Deganello, Claudio Greppi, Massimo Morozzi, Adolfo Natalini, Ali Navai, Marta Scarelli, Cristiano Toraldo di Francia, Tullio Zini. 108 SCENARI / #12 al., 1968). On that occasion, in addition to the projects, the group presented a Manifesto that declared the ideas that inspired their work. In the Manifesto, the group stated, provocatively, “Superarchitettura is the architecture of the superproduction, of the overconsumerism, of the superinduction to consumerism, of the supermarket2 (…)” (Branzi et al., 1968). As explained by Toraldo Di Francia, one of the most relevant exponents of Superstudio, it was a provocation aimed at investigating the “mind and language through the stoss, or creative shock, which Benjamin indicated as the prime function of art3 ” (Toraldo Di Francia, 2019). The fact that Toraldo Di Francia refers to Benjamin’s reflection on creative shock to define the poetics of Superstudio is particularly interesting, considering what Benjamin wrote in his essay The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (Benjamin, 1935). In chapter 15, he stated “Architecture has always represented the prototype of a work of art whose reception is consummated by a collectivity in a state of distraction4 ” (Benjamin, 2006, p.39). The exponents of Superstudio, on the contrary, wanted architecture to become something closer to what Benjamin saw in Dadaism, with a shock effect (Impuls), a movement (Bewegung) in the mind of the viewer. Moreover, Toraldo di Francia added that the radical avant-garde intended to trasform “the compositional techniques of Dada to new use and engage in cultural nomadism by intermixing disciplines and favoring ambiguity over unity of language” (Toraldo Di Francia, 2019).In the Reggio Emilia Approach, an internationally known pedagogical approach to early childhood education (Edwards & Gandini, 2018), spaces are considered “constituent elements of the formation of thought” (Rinaldi, 1998, p. 116), and the learning environment “takes on the role of one of the main and necessary educators” (Ca

2020 - STEAM and Educational Robotics: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Robotics in Early Childhood and Primary Education [Capitolo/Saggio]
Manera, Lorenzo
abstract

Abstract. In early childhood and elementary educational contexts, there is an increasing need to support the development of interdisciplinary skills such as creativity, digital literacy and critical thinking. Educational robotics can play a relevant role in this process, by providing contexts that involve design, construction and imagination. The STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics) approach offers a paradigm, which, by integrating educational robotics with scientific, digital and artistic perspectives, helps to undermine existing racial and gender inequality in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and STEAM-related contexts. Some relevant experiences regarding the possibility to combine these fields in educational contexts show promising results. By discussing the most relevant difficulties related to the development of curricula where educational robotics finds a relevant place, this paper argues that the use of robotics as experimented with in the Reggio Emilia Approach allows to overstep most of the difficulties reported. Furthermore, it is argued that in order to be more effective, educational robotics might be considered by teachers not as a subject to teach by providing instructions but, instead, as a medium to allow children to explore the affordances of digital technologies in playful learning environments. Some practical examples of this perspective are reported and discussed in the final part of the paper.

2020 - Stories about nature as aesthetic experience in science education [Relazione in Atti di Convegno]
Contini, Annamaria; Giuliani, Alice; Manera, Lorenzo
abstract

In recent decades, constructivist and cognitivist research recognized the important role played by imagination in science education. In particular, the potential of imaginative approaches to attract students to the scientific contents has been highlighted, in addition to the importance of routinely engaging learners’ imagination in everyday learning experiences. The function performed by emotions and, in particular, by the feeling of pleasure appears to be less investigated in scientific literature: it is still not clearly defined how it is possible to facilitate learning processes related to the scientific contents by making them more enjoyable. A branch of research is exploring the possibility of using metaphors and narratives for this purpose: to mobilize the emotional and affective dimension, integrating it with the logical one. This contribution aims to deepen the role that the feeling of pleasure can play in science education experiences in which metaphors and narratives are used systematically. There is an area in which the feeling of pleasure is intertwined in a paradigmatic way with the knowledge of peculiar elements: in the aesthetic experience, we consider an object (artistic or natural) to be beautiful to the extent that we perceive a feeling of pleasure aroused by it. In this regard, the more pleasant stories about nature are to read, the more effective they are in terms of educational effectiveness. Stories need to be not only clear, precise, explanatory; stories need in fact not only to be understood, but also aesthetically enjoyed. By taking “The Winter Story” as example (Fuchs, 2011), the paper focuses on the characters that make stories enjoyable. The pleasure of the text is indeed an essential ingredient in the narrative understanding of natural phenomena: the presence of metaphors, personifications, of a "grammar of stories", meaning the elements that are involved in the cognitive value of the narration.

2019 - Aesthetic Education [Curatela]
Contini, A.; Manera, L.
abstract

The problem of aesthetical education has represented, for a long time, a theme of major importance both in the fields of philosophy and pedagogy. Within the present framework, it has arguably become complex and more difficult to understand and explain what aesthetical education actually means: what characteristics and functions it has, which are its limits and preconditions. In an age characterized by mass media and by a widespread aestheticism, it appears that mostly anything can assume an aesthetical value. Therefore, if on one hand the clear boundaries between cultured and popular and art have disappeared, the role of art as an exemplar convey of certain kind of experiences is not at all obvious. Moreover, the crisis that has been affecting the idea of beauty – already begun in the Romantic period - has raised doubts not only upon the educational model based on the kalokagathìa (an ideal of moral and physical perfection), but also on the links between beauty and harmony (order, form, proportion, internal law, equilibrium): a system extensively assumed by those who recognized an formative value to the aesthetical dimension. Our discomfort in facing such an issue does not relate to an inherent outdatedness of the issue, but it rather depends on the impossibility to continue to define the issue itself in the usual terms. It would be perhaps necessary to rethink the idea of aesthetical education, by integrating the traditional approaches with the insights coming from new research areas. This issue of “Studi di estetica” aims at fathoming some interrogatives over the current state of the research. In particular, the major questions we intend to address in this issue of “Studi di estetica” are: - Given the fact that - as often underlined - the aestheticization can overturn in anesthetization, in a contraction of sensibility, is it still meaningful to propose an ideal or an educational project highlighted by an aesthetical dimension intended as a central element of formative processes? If it still has a sense, what role could Art play in the abovementioned process? - Given the crisis involving beauty intended as an ideal, is it still possible to associate it to an educative value? If it is still possible, on what concept/declination of beauty is it based on? - Is it still possible to affirm that education to art and trough art develops - among other things - a critical approach to the aesthetisation of both reality and the quotidian life? If it is so, through which modalities?

2019 - Digital storytelling [Articolo su rivista]
Bertolini, Chiara; Contini, Annamaria; Manera, Lorenzo; Pagano, Andrea
abstract

2019 - La narrazione multimodale: strumenti e competenze [Capitolo/Saggio]
Zini, Andrea; Manera, Lorenzo
abstract

Quali elementi narrativi e mediali si osservano nelle storie digitali create dai bambini? Questa è la prima domanda di ricerca del progetto Erasmus+ STORIES "foSTering early childhOod media liteRacy competencIES” (2015-2018). I principali dati attinenti a questa domanda sono i prodotti finali dei progetti di narrazione con strumenti digitali condotti in diciannove scuole dell’infanzia in Finlandia, Germania, Italia e Turchia. Durante la sperimentazione ogni équipe di insegnanti ha attuato ogni anno una serie di tre diversi progetti di narrazione digitale con il suo gruppo di bambine e bambini. La sperimentazione ha richiesto un lavoro di osservazione e documentazione sulla base di indicatori comuni nei diversi paesi. I dati sono stati raccolti durante l’intero processo, sia attraverso la documentazione prodotta dagli insegnanti, sia attraverso l’osservazione diretta nelle scuole da parte dei ricercatori. Durante la prima fase del progetto il gruppo di ricerca ha costruito gli strumenti per la raccolta e l’analisi dei dati, fra i quali vi è uno strumento per l’analisi delle storie digitali prodotte nei contesti educativi che ne considera distintamente elementi di contesto, narrativi, mediali e tecnologici. Al termine di ognuno dei due anni di attività di Digital Storytelling nella scuola dell'infanzia previste dal progetto Erasmus+ STORIES, ogni équipe di insegnanti ha redatto un documento di riepilogo e valutazione. Lo strumento per la raccolta dei dati è suddiviso in quattro sezioni. La prima sezione contiene informazioni descrittive riguardanti la scuola, l’insegnante (o l’équipe), la durata complessiva dei progetti attuati e il numero di sessioni di lavoro ad essi dedicate. Nella seconda sezione si chiede agli insegnanti di valutare quali conoscenze, abilità e competenze nel campo della media literacy sono state sviluppate dai bambini nelle attività di DST. La terza sezione del rapporto è dedicata alla valutazione delle abilità sociali. La quarta sezione contiene tre quesiti a risposta aperta, relativi (1) ai problemi incontrati nell’attuazione dei progetti, (2) all’impatto dell’esperienza sul proprio sviluppo professionale e (3) alla risposta dei bambini alle attività proposte. I dati raccolti hanno permesso di osservare che secondo la valutazione delle loro insegnanti i bambini hanno trovato nelle attività di DST opportunità per sviluppare ed esercitare varie dimensioni di quella che abbiamo definito, in modo ampio, "media literacy". Al pari dell’abilità tecnica nell’uso di apparecchi e programmi, l’attività di DST ha sollecitato le abilità narrative, visive e grafiche dei bambini, risultando inoltre adatta ad accrescere la loro capacità di pianificare un discorso narrativo e la loro consapevolezza nell’uso di diverse modalità espressive e del linguaggio audiovisivo in particolare.

2019 - Media literacy e media education: il digitale nell’infanzia. [Capitolo/Saggio]
Manera, Lorenzo
abstract

2019 - The aesthetic experience in the Reggio Emilia Approach [Articolo su rivista]
Manera, Lorenzo
abstract

The Reggio Emilia Approach is an educational philosophy in which the aesthetic dimension and the search for beauty are considered fundamental aspects. This paper explores the aesthetic education provided in Reggio Emilia educational centers for early childhood by deepening the relationship and partnership between the Reggio pedagogist Loris Malaguzzi and important exponents of the Italian Neo Avant-garde Gruppo 63, as well as international Avant-garde art experiences such as Fluxus and the Wiener Aktionismus. The paper reconstructs the important connections between phenomenological aesthetics and the Reggio Emilia Approach. Furthermore, it highlights how the epistemological basis of the Reggio Emilia Approach lies not only in constructivism but also in phenomenological aesthetics, exposing the fallacy of some of the main criticisms made about the Approach. Finally, it highlights that, regarding digital technologies, the Reggio Emilia Approach offers a significant possibility to interpret aesthetic education in the digital era.

2019 - Visual Metaphors and Pedagogical Practices in the New Century [Capitolo/Saggio]
Contini, A.; Manera, L.
abstract

In the chapter, by brawing on Lakoff and Johnson’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory, the concept of enactive metaphor is discussed in order to reinterpret early childhood symbolic play as a process of enactment based on children’s capacity to perceive new affordances in objects. This concept builds on the idea that seeing an object as something else demands a decentering process in representational terms, hence a participatory process generating new domains of social sense-making. In the chapter it is claimed that this process can be facilitated by designing learning activities in contexts where preschoolers are offered the possibility to augment their metaphorical imageries by exploring non-structured materials and are offered access to digital technologies for the purpose of creating narrative structures including visual components.

2018 - Esplorazione di ambienti sostenuti da tecnologie digitali in scuole dell’infanzia e primarie di Reggio Emilia [Capitolo/Saggio]
Manera, Lorenzo; Tedeschi, Maddalena
abstract

2018 - Il digital storytelling nell’educazione dell’infanzia: la formazione degli insegnanti nel progetto STORIES [Articolo su rivista]
Zini, A.; Bertolini, C.; Manera, L.; Contini, A.
abstract

Il progetto Erasmus Plus STORIES (2015-2018) ha come temi centrali la promozione della media literacy nei servizi educativi per l’infanzia e lo sviluppo professionale degli insegnanti in media education. Uno dei risultati già raccolti dal progetto è il percorso formativo sul Digital Storytelling nell’educazione dell’infanzia rivolto agli insegnanti in servizio nelle scuole che partecipano al progetto in Italia, Finlandia, Germania e Turchia, progettato in modo da stimolare tutte le componenti del modello TPACK. Sono oggetto di questo contributo la struttura del percorso formativo, i contenuti chiave e le attività del corso.

2018 - Visual Metaphors, Art Education and Pedagogical Practices in the Visual Age [Abstract in Atti di Convegno]
Contini, A.; Manera, L.
abstract

The abstract explains which approaches and theoretical references will allow to explore the links between visual metaphors, art education and pedagogical practices.