Distance education and cultural heritage: transformations in the post-literacy age. The case of MArTA

Abstract

The age of literacy, also known as modern age, was based on vision, regulation and control, whereas the post-literacy age, characterised by the advent of digital technologies, is based on an immersive, multisensorial and participatory approach. The ICT provide new opportunities to rethink and redesign the ways in which cultural heritage has been imagined and enjoyed. Participation and connection, on the one hand, and personalisation, recontextualisation and immersive interaction, on the other hand, are the key elements of the change that is involving cultural heritage and related institutions, including education. After analysing the central role of media literacy in digital humanities, the article focuses on a best practice from the MArTA Museum in Taranto and on innovative strategies to discover and launch new educational opportunities through heritage. The general aim is to design online and offline educational opportunities in order to revive local cultural traditions and generate cultural, social and economic opportunities.