Abstract
EU sponsored "Piazza" team rethinks the nature of conviviality, community, and informal learning in the digital age, and identifies some of the human, environmental, and technological qualities that make for rich event-spaces in inter-generational learning. The paper stresses the importance of third-places--great good places between home and work--and focuses on their transformative power, or capacity to draw in people from different ages and walks of life to jointly turn the habitual into the extraordinary. Drawing from case studies (interviews) and interaction design methods (co-creation of concept cards), the authors provide a conceptual framework to help drive the design of experientially rich places for intergenerational learning.

Key words: Inter-generational learning; third-places; living stages; play; imagination; dreams; identities

>>To read the full article (PDF)

This research was conducted with the support of the European Commission - IST program - Technology enhanced learning, in the framework of the KALEIDOSCOPE Network of Excellence and PIAZZA project. The paper was first presented by Edith Ackermann at the 2006 ICTE conference, in Sevilla, Spain (International Conference on Technology in Education), and appears in ICTE 2006 proceedings: Ackermann, E. Chabert, A, Decortis, F, Magli, R., Napoletano, L., Owen, M. (2006)." 'La Piazza': Convivial spaces for intergenerational learning: What places for the digital age?" In Current developments in computer-assisted education (2006) (Eds. A. Mendez-Vilas, A. Solano Martin, J. Mesa-Gonzalez, J.A. Mesa Gonzalez). Publisher: FORMATEX, Badajoz, Spain. Vol. 3. pp. 1359-1363.