El Blog

It’s just two years ago now that we started educational activities at the Picasso: in April 2008 we launched a pilot project with four models of visits-cum-workshop. The service and the range of options have kept on growing, but we are eager to go still further: issues of accessibility, the museum outside the museum, expanding the virtual education space… In light of all this a visit to Expodidàctica was obviously a great way to find out what other institutions are doing, learn about new materials and gather the latest information on the use of cutting-edge technologies in the fields of art and education.

I visited the Fair two days running and in addition to chatting with a number of groups I took part in several workshops. I want to tell you about two proposals in particular — a project and a workshop:

The Travelling Museum, from the Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona, is a project designed to open doors, to take the museum out beyond its walls to all those who want to experience, learn about and work with all that the museum has to give us but are unable to make a visit in person. Despite the difference in subject areas it was very interesting and useful to get to know the project at first hand. Many of the objectives are common to the whole spectrum of educational initiatives and absolutely essential starting points: introducing the subject, stimulating people’s interest, curiosity and desire to know and learn, promote active critical learning, enhancing communication skills, participating in a process of discovery in a group, evaluating and respecting the material, enjoying the activities and having fun. For all these reasons and more the project was awarded 3rd prize Innova at Expodidàctica, and I rate very highly everything it has to offer us.

Animo, from the Utani collective, is a fun-to-use educational tool for creating audio-visual animations. The group that developed it defines it as a learning tool which uses a contemporary language and adapts readily to any age of user, making the most of their creativity. Among its many great features it makes the working process stimulating and fun, allowing audio-visuals to be created around the concepts worked with in a short time, encouraging teamwork and using technologies in a transverse way. I must also tell you that it doesn’t take a lot of explanations to be able to use it: four of us were given 15 minutes with the tool and asked to make a short with a few dolls and some odds and ends. We made our first animation with no advance preparation, and in the process took part an open and entertaining dialogue about what we wanted to do, came to an agreement about how we wanted to do it, had fun developing it, felt satisfied with the result (a bit too short, perhaps, but attractive and very quick) and really enjoyed ourselves.

I think that with just these two proposals we have plenty of ideas to be going on with… many thanks to their creators and to all the others who made this such an enriching experience.

Maria Alcover
Education