Già da qualche tempo avevo riunito gli elementi necessari per scrivere questo post e, come spesso succede, il caos generatore della blogoclasse mi regala l’assist per concluderlo. Questa volta ci ha pensato Gabriele con il post su PubMed e sull’inutile settarismo delle riviste scientifiche . Gabriele espone una perplessità importante:
Certo, è ovvio che non tutti si occupano di tutto, pertanto ogni ricercatore leggerà con attenzione soprattutto le pubblicazioni relative al proprio ambito. Tuttavia, precludere a ciascuno la possibilità di accedere a ciò che non è strettamente specifico del suo campo di ricerca, impedire la visione di gran parte dei documenti presenti su PubMed a chi, per interesse o per semplice curiosità, vuole leggere qualcosa di avulso dagli studi che abitualmente svolge vuol dire coltivare una visione settaria del sapere medico-scientifico, mirare ad una sua iperspecializzazione. Tuttavia, l’oggetto della ricerca, l’uomo, resta un organismo unico, in cui tutto è strettamente interconnesso.
Proviamo a vedere, con qualche dettaglio, cosa significhi in pratica produrre un lavoro scientifico e quale sia l’impatto della sua accessibilità.
Commento in margine ad una vigorosa discussione, che sta avendo luogo all’interno del network La Scuola Che Funziona, in merito all’opportunità di preferire una pubbicazione tradizionale oppure una di tipo open access per diffondere i risultati di pratiche innovative all’interno della scuola.
The blogroom materializes in one of our classrooms when needs arise. Yesterday I was in Empoli to discuss with some students. The university centre is new there and it is outfitted with advanced facilities, such as a sparkling computer room, the Aula Multimediale. We met there of course, being digital literacy the subject of the course for these students.
Our computer room
However, we used the Aula Multimediale as a normal classroom because we needed to use Web 2.0 tools and they were all blocked. When I had to show a couple of things to the students we went outside where, just in front of the institute, there is a nice gazebo were the signal strength was sufficient for my modem.
When I went home and browsed the news I found one in Stephen‘s OLDaily about the practice to block Web 2.0 tools in schools! This note points to an interesting article by Suzie Boss where I learned that the problem is very common all over the world.
I would feel like a crook by ignoring the exploding Web 2.0 world in a digital literacy course. So, we base our course on these tools and the results seems to be quite good.
As a matter of fact, I’m escaping from the university in the sense that I do not need (almost) anymore servers, technical people to maintain and manage them, I do not need (almost) anymore funds. Ah what a liberation, no more competition for funds! Very often we use the classrooms to make lectures and to talk together; then everybody goes home to work and we meet in the blogroom. Not so bad after all.
Unfortunately, there is a caveat there. The large majority has an online access at home but not everybody! There are many students that live just in a room because they come from other towns or from abroad. From another post pointed by Suzie Boss:
Sooner or later someone is going to expect my students to be able to quickly and effortlessly post to a blog, add to a wiki, or collaborate via some sort of social networking protocol. And once again, my school will have failed to prepare them for such a task.
I’m aware that this is the case for a part of my students and even if I try to find some remedies the problem remains basically unsolved.
I think we should advocate for open access in educational institutions, otherwise computer rooms and similar facilities are almost useless with two serious drawbacks:
waist of money
lack of social justice.
Thanks to the students that allowed me to publish the picture 🙂
Andreas Formiconi 