Coding La Traviata

How to use technology to facilitate history and cultural heritage learning, in education environment like: schools, libraries, afterschools labs.

As STEAM educator and EdTech R&D designer, I often ask myself this question, with the aim of generating new ideas and designing learning environments suitable for the purpose.

Of course you can design a lot of different activities related to history & cultural heritage using technology (low tech or high tech), but what I want to stress here is the importance of the method before the tech; the way technology is used in education is the key point to reach the scope of learning.

Technology in Education

When I talk about technology in education I mean both low tech and high tech; as educator you can use low tech for crafting and unplugged activities (like: sticks, cardboard, caps, cans, elastic bands) and high tech for coding, robotics and tinkering/making activities (like Scratch platform, App Inventor, Processing, P5js online editor, Robotic kit like Lego Mindstorm, electronics boards for education and making like microbit or arduino). Whatever technology you intend to use in your learning environment, it must allow learners to express themself and to create manufacts and/or digital artefacts in a creative way.

The true power of technology for teachers educators & learners

When teachers and educators only use technology: 1) as new mean to transmit informations; 2) only as a new tool to explain the lecture’s topic, as in the classical teacher-centric scenario, they are not grasping the true power of technology in education and there on the wrong way, to me.

On the contrary, we must give the technology to the student’s hands, so that they can use it to create their own projects related to the themes of the lessons.

Let me show you an examples of my experience in using technologies to create learning environments on history and culture heritage issues.

Coding The Traviata

Some time ago I held a Creative Coding’s course with Scratch at a primary school in Rome to 5 grade girls (sixteen hours, two hours a week). We addressed the theme of storytelling and used Scratch to learn how to create multimedia animations and interactive comics&stories through coding. The course was held during English lessons, so the girls had to do their stories in English. During the course, while we are experimenting how to make dialogues, how to move characters (sprites) on the canvas, how to use the editor for drawing the sprites and so on, the principal came to me with a specific request. She wanted them to use Scratch for a cross curricular activities related to the La Traviata opera.

I’d already talked about doing a final project based on their passions, but I had to say them that the theme was La Traviata. Their first reaction was disappointment. I asked why and they answered: “Because it’s ugly and boring”. I was expecting that.

I told them that with Scratch they had the opportunity to represent La Traviata in any way they wanted. They didn’t have to do the classic homework, but they could give their own interpretation, as much creative as possible; they could hacking the story, set it in another time; decide what to say about La Traviata and how. I also said that I didn’t know anything about the opera, which was true enough, and that I would use their projects to learn more.

In the last three lessons they worked on making their own La Traviata representation via coding.

The Results

I’ve seen them engaged looking for images and mp3 sounds on the web to upload on the project. They have experimented a real “hard fun” in making the code, for moving the sprites on the stage, changing the scenes, editing the images, creating the dialogues.

They cooperated and took comfort each other in remembering what they had studied. They deepened the original dialogues and studied the characters better in order to be able to do their project in the best possible way. They also loved to record their own voice to be used inside the project

It was exciting to see how much commitment and passion they put into their final projects.

Angelica, Elisa and Matilde, worked on a funky version of the opera (La Traviata Funky). This project was among my favorite.

Ludovica and Prisca created an animation of a scene from the opera.

Allegra and Maria Clotilde have made and animation to summarize the opera

While Giulia and Gloria decided to create something like an interactive slideshow to explain the characters and the story’s theme.

Each group has freely decided how to use Scratch to create and express their vision of La Traviata

Conclusions

Coding La Traviata is an example of the use of technology in a constructionist approach, where students are the main actors of their learning; using the technology not passively, but to create things. And while they are creating things, they are learning about the specific topic and about the world in general. Mitchel Resnick, Professor of Learning Research at the MIT Meda Lab is used to say: “Not learn to code, but code to learn”. This is the essence of the constructionist method; this is the main goal of the Creative Learning way to learn.
I could make a lot of other examples.
I have used 3D modelling tools (like Tinkercad, Blockscad) to explore with my students during afterschool labs, the different architecture of ancient civilizations. We used javascript software library like threejs to create 3D scenes about Roman’s cities, Babylonian pyramids, Greek temples.
To explore art and artists I often use to propose learners to create a painter simulator like Mondrian’s simulator, using Scratch or Processing or App inventor depending by the age and the preference of learners.

Coding, Robotics, 3D model software, Digital Fabrication machines, are very powerful tools to learn about history and cultural heritage if used in creative and proactive way.