CNR-ITD

What are the objectives and contents to be considered and what strategies should be used when implementing computer education courses for adults with no previous knowledge in the field? The NIC (Nucleo informatico concettuale) is rooted in this question and aims to design and experiment a prototype course on ICT to be used in adult education supported by the Provincia di Genova, Italy. The specific approach of the project postulates that there exists a fundamental conceptual operative core to be mastered in order to ensure permanent and fruitful knowledge in computer literacy. In fact, NIC focuses its work on a limited number of key concepts and operative skills; it chooses a problem-based approach rather than one based on learning the specific features of an operative system or application and suggests teaching/learning strategies that promote autonomy-based attitudes and methods of learners. The course is based on ad hoc learning material (lecture notes and educational software) and consists of an introducing core of 20 hours devoted to the acquisition of a limited number of basic (“fundamentals”) concepts and skills; a further fifty-hour phase based on the development of a work project that leads to the introduction and use of the various applications (“immersion”); and, finally a phase devoted to extend horizons of the course to a historical perspective and to aspects concerning the individual use of technology (“emersion”). The NIC course was widely used as the standard formative offer of the Provincia di Genova (over 160 courses for more than 1700 participants since 2003). In 2006-07 the NIC was adopted in an EC project named EuNIC to transfer the approach to the contexts of other European countries.