Social reading. Note sull’innovazione didattica delle pratiche di lettura

The ICTs, and the network environments that are affecting most of the forms of social relations and knowledge sharing, are powerful architectures for the participation of users, posing new challenges to education systems. Technology is only a variable among many others: it is certainly an empowering and habilitating factor, but educator’s attention has to stay focused on sharing activities and collaborative practices related to user’s engagement within the interconnected digital media ecosystem. The contemporary media landscape – in which education and communication are two sides of the same problem – is increasingly dependent on network practices, DIY culture, knowledge sharing, etc. In this context, are reading activities changing? In the last two years, the Laboratory of Audiovisual Technologies (LTA) at the Roma Tre University has experimented different social reading platforms for academic learning paths, and its members are currently developing a prototype of a new social reading platform. The paper aims to suggest how technology and social media can contribute to improve the way we read, unleashing opportunities for new ways of learning.