On Friday 16 September, at the CNR (National Researches Council) in Rome, UNIMORE presented the workshop “Selecting Online Educational Resources for Museum Education,” within the Inclusive Memory project. More than 60 between international partners of IM project, teachers of different grade levels, in-training educators, museum educators, researchers, and, Postgraduate students attended the event.
The core questions of the workshop were: “How can I (we?) promote well-being and social inclusion through museum heritage? What educational resources available online can help me?” To do so, the main results of the IM project were presented during the event: the first action (PR1) conducted by the partners of IM focused on defining the state of the art on museums as inclusive spaces for health and wellbeing promotion and the (PR2), which consisted in the realization of a handbook on the use of technology for inclusive educational activities in the museum context.
The purpose of this laboratory was to provide participants with the knowledge and skills to select, use, modify, and evaluate tools for the implementation of museum educational paths oriented to the promotion of well-being and social inclusion of at-risk groups, such as first- and second-generation migrants, individuals with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, children and students with Special Educational Needs, etc.
The agenda included the following points:
– Brief presentation of the Inclusive Memory project
– Art-health-wellness: why heritage education?
– Activity 1: Case study 1 – SWOT analysis and collaborative discussion
– What are OERs? Why are they important for heritage education?
– OERs and inclusion: what perspectives?
– Activity 2: OERs repositories- How to use them.
– Designing to promote well-being through heritage education
– Activity 3: Designing pathways for specific categories through the use of OER
Professor Antonella Poce opened the workshop by introducing the Inclusive Memory project. Professor Poce presented the project objectives, the partnerships and the methodologies adopted, such as the ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation) methodology and the ABCD (Asset Based Community Development) approach. Later, Doctor Maria Rosaria Re discussed the importance of heritage education and how it can actually promote well-being. It emerged that heritage-related activities can have a beneficial effect in several areas: on sense of belonging, social bonds, self-confidence, empowerment, positive emotions, skills, and even learning. Then, Doctor Re introduced Activity 1, which consisted of a collaborative discussion on the case study of the Children’s Museums of Verona. The audience was invited to analyze this project through a SWOT ANALYSIS, highlighting its benefits and opportunities, but also its risks and dangers.
The second part of the workshop focused on OERs, Open Educational Resources), which include all kinds of educational materials, accessible for free, produced in any format, and that can be reused and modified. After presenting the types of OERs, their potentials, and critical issues, in Activity 2 Doctor Re provided a list of sources from which they can be identified and underlined their value in heritage education.
Finally, Doctor Re showed the results of PR1 and PR2 about the Inclusive Memory project. In particular, she focused on PR1.A1 “Desk research on the use of Museums as Inclusive Spaces and Learning contexts for Health and Well-being development,” from which emerged the need to implement forms of collaboration between museums, cultural sites, schools and universities, and research institutes.
Lastly, some tools used to assess wellbeing were presented: “Wellbeing, a guide for charities and social enterprises” and “UCL Museum Wellbeing Measure Toolkit”.
