Abstract:

Schools are hardly equipping themselves with computers, intercative whiteboards, printers, softwares. What’s still missing? A academic training and up-daiting on knew cognitive possibility. Knowledge technologies might be integrated in pedagogical planning as they permit to obtain an increase in cognitive objectives. Integration of new media in pedagogical-planning permit the concrete application of multiple intelligence istruments (Theory of multiple intellligence; H. Garner).

Main purpose of our software: an approach of the human mind complexity; the comprehension of transversal competence and connections between intelligences as a subject of knowledge; the Integration of interactive design in the educational planning.

In this project we balance the relations between the cultural contents, the new tecnologies, the visual communication, and a new pedagogical way. The content’s cultural level reinforced itself in these interactive methods and with the grafic representation.
This sofware model has been utilized as a workshop in two exhibitions: “Il laboratorio di Leonrado. I codici, le macchine, i disegni “ and “Spendori di corte. Gli Sforza, il rinascimento, la città” (Vigevano Castle september 2009- june 2010). During the whole period a great public success permitted us to analize chidren from 8 to 16 answered to a complex modality of knowledge trasmission. Since today the software have beeen approached to 225 classes and around 4000 students. 50 % from the primary school and 50% of the secondary school.
During the multimedia worshop children choose and approach to the different subjects through text and hight definiton images; they can select, overwrite, elaborate and move animations in every moments of the workshop. So that, and thanks to multimedial tecnologies, they can reach an intuitive approach of contents.
The workshops goes on throught different steps:
First step in an approach to a public cultual communication of the city of Vigevano; the second step is a tridimensional map of Loernardo da Vinci’s mind complexity throught some of the fields where Leornado gave important contributions: geology, anatomy, fine arts, painting, sculpture, tales and riddles, renaissance performing arts, solid geometry, astronomy, botanic, fire-guns, flying research, marine engineering, mechanical engineering, construction engineering etc; and some themes like: Leonardo today, A genius, Leonardo’s Codex etc.,
In the third section the professor can choose which arguments will be developed: CHIAROSCURO (dark and light in fine arts); MOTI DELL'ANIMO (picture and emotions in the Renaissance), STUDIO DEL VOLO (the Leonrado’s flynig dream and his direct observation method). A digital resume with all the steps is automatically created. So the last step will be the creation of a conceptual map (Cmap software) of the complete knowledge process.

Keywords:

interactive educational software, learning by doing, Leonardo da Vinci, cognitive process technology, visual communication, interaction design.