Before steps are taken to impose limits on the use of social media and mobile technologies in schools, policymakers and educators need to consider the consequences for learning that such restrictions would produce. In this document, we argue that such action should carefully consider the advantages of social media for learning and that these guidelines for responsible use bring media into mentored environments where they can be safely explored and shared.
Many of the problems raised by these new technologies – from bullying to engaging in risky behavior – are not new to the public discourse, but are merely being delivered in different media. The challenge to responsible educators remains the same: to provide stimulating and safe learning environments that support the acquisition of practical skills necessary for full participation as a 21st-century citizen. Achieving this without mentored use of new technologies seems both impractical and counterproductive. One of the most powerful reasons to permit the use of social media and mobile devices in the classroom is to provide an opportunity for students to learn about their use in a supervised environment that emphasizes the development of attitudes and skills that will help keep them safe outside of school.
Locast is an innovative platform for sharing and discovering location-based user-generated videos and production quality multimedia content provided by RAI TV. It consists of a combination of mobile and wearable computing elements supported by a distributed Web application. Content gathered from RAI TV’s historical archives and user-generated media are linked to physical locations in Venice in order to be accessible to all those visiting the space.
The project focuses on the uniqueness of the Italian cities’ heritage superimposing a layer that corresponds to the shared media-based memory of the recent Italian past: the RAI Archives. By taking advantage of the interactivity provided by new media, RAI offers a powerful feedback channel to users, which allows users to generate their own media, create their own stories and, finally, to participate in the media production process.
Locast offers to users the tools to build personalized itineraries, download the content in proximity of Points of Interests and watch them on their handsets in order to improve the overall tourist experience. Users can also perform a number of other actions such as contribute with new videos to Locast repository, follow recommended media itineraries, modify them and share experiences with their social network.
Locast explores location-based narrowcasting potential and actively engages the users to participate in the media production/consumption process together with a historical institution such as RAI TV. It shifts the innovation from the wide-spread concept of Web2.0 to the promising scenario of Space2.0 that keeps the physical and social qualities of the Italian cities and augment them with the potential offered by pervasive computing.