Abstract:

Spurred by the UNESCO Convention (2003) ICH is becoming an emerging topic at all the levels and number of initiatives and projects have been developed in the last 10 years. Education seems to have a significant role in the safeguarding of ICH and UNESCO itself clearly highlights its value; nonetheless, looking at specific cultural expressions, it is difficult (often impossible in the case of rare ICHs) to find formal and structured training initiatives, being them online or face-to-face. This is due to the intrinsic nature of these expressions (that are alive and not stable) and to the traditional methods typically adopted for their transmission, which are usually based on imitation and apprenticeship.

In this paper we describe how, in order to maximize the educational opportunities and involve a wider public, the i-Treasures project (Dimitropoulos et al., 2014) tried to go beyond the current practice, by conceiving more structured and “standardized” training initiatives mediated by the technology.
To do so, a new methodology for ICH education is proposed, based on the idea that, in order to master any specific cultural expression, a learner needs to get through three main essential stages:
(1) s/he needs to acquire a background of knowledge on the cultural expression
(2) s/he needs to observe and explore experts’ performance in order become able to appreciate/ detect the main features of the ICH itself,
(3) s/he needs to practice, getting feedback in such a way to understand her/his mistakes and improve the quality of the performance.

The proposed methodology can be implemented either in formal or non-formal learning contexts and it can be applied in technology enhanced learning initiatives, as well as within face-to-face scenarios.

The methodology has been defined and tested within the i-Treasures project, together with an ad hoc tool (Ott, Dagnino, Pozzi, 2015), aimed to support the whole process of (co-)creation of learning paths (Asenzio-Perez et al., 2014 ) according to the methodology itself. The tool allows the creators (teachers, experts, etc.) to conceptualize the design at macro-level and then to author the sequence of activities to be proposed to learners. The resulting paths can also be automatically transformed in courses on a Learning Management System (LMS) (Pozzi, et al. 2015).

A particular case study (concerning the Italian cultural expression called Canto a Tenore) will be used as an example of application and use of both the methodology and the tool.

References:
[1] Asensio-Pérez, J. I. et al. (2014). From idea to VLE in half a day: METIS approach and tools for learning co-design. Proc. of the 2nd International Conference on Technological Ecosystems for Enancing Multiculturality, Salamanca, Spain.
[2] Dimitropoulos K., et al. (2014). Capturing the Intangible: An Introduction to the i-Treasures Project. Proc. of the 9th International Conference on Computer Vision Theory and Applications, Lisbon, Portugal.
[3] Ott, M., Dagnino F.M., & Pozzi F. (2015). Intangible cultural heritage: Towards collaborative planning of educational interventions. Computers in Human Behavior, 51, 1314–1319.
[4] Pozzi, F., et al. (2015). Supporting the ‘Whole Learning Design Life-Cycle’ through the Pedagogical Planner. Proc. of the 1st D4Learning International Conference, Aalborg, Denmark.
[5] UNESCO. (2003). Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. Paris.

Keywords:

Intangible Cultural Heritage, Pedagogical Planning, Technology Enhanced Learning.