Lia F. Azevedo Nunes Scenes of the Monastery Social and active pedagogical practices applied to teaching history and cultural heritage Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Coimbra 2010 Scenes of the Monastery Social and active pedagogical practices applied to teaching history and cultural heritage 1 _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Lia F. Azevedo Nunes Scenes of the Monastery Social and active pedagogical practices applied to teaching history and cultural heritage Master Thesis in European Digital Media Arts and Cultural Heritage Studies Specialty of Digital Culture and eLearning, presented to Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Coimbra, oriented by Professor António Mendes and Professor Kimi Kärki Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Coimbra 2010 Scenes of the Monastery 2 Social and active pedagogical practices applied to teaching history and cultural heritage _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Scenes of the Monastery Social and active pedagogical practices applied to teaching history and cultural heritage 3 _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Summary Abstract .......................................................................................................................... 5 Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................... 6 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 7 PART I 1.1 Historical Interpretation and Discovery 1.1.1 Public History ....................................................................................................... 11 1.1.2 Cultural Heritage ................................................................................................. 14 1.1.3 Historical Reasoning ............................................................................................ 18 1.1.4 Publics interests .................................................................................................. 22 1.2 Multimedia possibilities: (Re) Constructing history scenarios 1.2.1 Edutainment ....................................................................................................... 25 1.2.2 Multimedia and eLearning plots .......................................................................... 29 1.3 Connecting the schools 1.3.1 Learning History .................................................................................................. 32 1.3.2 New skills, new materials .................................................................................... 36 PART II 2.1 Santa Clara - Study Case 2.1.1 Interpretation Centre .......................................................................................... 41 2.1.2 History offer ....................................................................................................... 43 2.1.3 The project idea .................................................................................................. 46 2.2 Pedagogical Practices - getting social, getting active 2.2.1 Active Knowledge ............................................................................................... 48 2.2.2 Collaborative Productions .................................................................................. 50 2.2.3 The proposal: Scenes of the Monastery Memo’ ................................................... 55 2.3 eLearning - Scenes of the Monastery 2.3.1 Concepts and Goals ............................................................................................ 65 2.3.2 Two Stages' Project: ........................................................................................... 67 2.3.2.1 Moodle: contents, multimedia - teaching/learning ....... 68 2.3.2.2 Logistic: scenes - creating together, actively ................. 75 PART III 3.1 Project execution 3.1.1 The students and the schools: who were they? ................................................... 81 3.1.2 Moodle Application ............................................................................................ 85 3.1.3 Scenes' Production .............................................................................................. 89 3.2 Successful practice? 3.2.1 Feedbacks and Results ........................................................................................ 96 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 101 References ..................................................................................................................... 103 Annexes ......................................................................................................................... 109 Scenes of the Monastery 4 Social and active pedagogical practices applied to teaching history and cultural heritage _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Scenes of the Monastery Social and active pedagogical practices applied to teaching history and cultural heritage 5 _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract: Scenes of the Monastery describe a pedagogical practice that aims a social and active relation between publics and Historical Heritage. New Information and Communication Technologies and Social Media allow a much more close and fast connection to any site related to history and cultural heritage. The Scenes of the Monastery shows that it is possible not only to attract more people to these places and its knowledge through a wide number of multimedia solutions, but also demonstrates publics’ curiosity and availability to produce active knowledge and develop historical consciousness. The project has a pedagogical goal, since the first participants of the activity were two schools that helped us to achieve the objectives of the activity. The use of a virtual learning environment, along with the stakeholder’s contents – in this case the Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Velha -, the students were able to learn, produce and perform (social and actively) a Scene of the monument, leading to an understanding of the capacity that history and cultural heritage have to create dynamics between places, communities and their legacies. Key-Words Public History – Cultural Heritage – Historical Reasoning – Edutainment – Multimedia – eLearning – Collaborative Productions – Active Knowledge Scenes of the Monastery 6 Social and active pedagogical practices applied to teaching history and cultural heritage _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Acknowledgments Academic Association of Coimbra - CEC/AAC – André Amador, Maria José Santos, Tiago Santos, Vítor Ferreira - João Luís Jesus Interpretation Centre of the Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Velha /DRCC - André Pereira - Armindo Rigueiro - Artur Côrte-Real - Diana Vaz Pedro - Francisco Martins - Hugo Barreto - João Pedro Santos - Leonel Rodrigues - Lígia Inês Gambini - Luisa Cardoso - Miguel Munhós - Paula De Almeida - Isaura Neves – Quinta das Lágrimas Schools - Escola Dr. Fortunato de Almeida: Prof. Alexandre Pinto, Prof. Lúcia Mendes Ribeiro - Escola Martim de Freitas: Prof. Filipe Xavier, Prof. Acácio Malta, Prof. Joana Lopes, Prof. Sílvia Pinto - Escola António José de Almeida de Penacova – Prof. Ana Gil University of Coimbra - António Mendes, Joaquim Ramos de Carvalho, João Carvalho - Thíasos Cultural Association - SASUC - Jorge Gouveia Monteiro University of Turku - Kimi Karki, Akseli Salmi, Jaako Suominen Junta de Freguesia de Santa Clara For revising: Alexandra Paulino Scenes of the Monastery Social and active pedagogical practices applied to teaching history and cultural heritage 7 _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Introduction The Master Programme in European Digital Arts and Cultural Heritage Studies (Euromachs) intend to generate dynamics between academic knowledge and institutions that manage contents related to history and cultural heritage through multimedia projects. Digital Media and Information and Communication Technologies live a time of constant developments and provide infinite possibilities of use. And this use is a requirement and necessity for Cultural agents, as a mean to pass on to their public the available contents. Euromachs has been created to use content management and production knowhow that naturally exist and can be potentiated in the university, in the conception of multimedia possibilities, with the help of designers which have the expertise to do it but don’t have those contents to field it with. The project and teamwork developed in this context promote the collaboration of multimedia conceivers and content producers, in order to get the best of both in creating commodities where the commitment made with the potential users/participants/consumers focus in the scientific quality of the contents and in the possibility to enjoy its apprehension at the same time. Scenes of the Monastery is an activity thought and planned during this Master Programme. It intends to be a social and active pedagogical practice applied to teaching History and Cultural Heritage. In this report we are presenting the project, from conception