A virtual educational mediator to promote sustainability

In a socio-cultural context in which horizons of meaning oriented towards consumption and individualism risk prevailing, it is important to design opportunities where people can exercise their best ability to be (Palmieri, 2020). Pedagogical research should question the multiple strategies to allow human beings to develop their entirety, considering the interrelation between subject and environment, in terms of affordances that educational experience can promote (Guerra, 2022). In this framework, the challenge of peace connected with the topic of multifaceted sustainability (cultural, economic, environmental and social) is urgent, both for those who work in formal and non-formal educational fields: “There can be no sustainable development without peace and no peace without sustainable development” states the UN 2030 Agenda (UN, 2015). Starting from this framework, and taking into consideration educational opportunities outside school, the contribution focuses on the role of digital media, understood as enabling contexts (Alessandrini, 2021) and educational mediators (Canevaro, 2008): they can be supports to draw an experience, which allows people to move from one learning phase to a subsequent one. Considering the construct of community technologies (Rivoltella, 2020), they can also outline horizons of meaning useful for personal growth and counteract the possible isolation that derives from their use, as well as the consequent weakening of the relational bonds to which they could lead. Alongside these reflections, the paper presents a research and action plan in the context of the MUSA (Multilayered Urban Sustainability Action) project and in particular in the line of intervention called “MUSA Societies” (Spoke 6), by the interdisciplinary research group Open-Air Lab of the Department of Human Sciences for Education of the University of Milano-Bicocca for the design of a website conceived as an immersive map of the Bicocca area, in which the user can find different sources, displayed in three layers of interest: experiences, research and events. This digital platform can facilitate interaction between a real network and a virtual one, generating a broadening of learning possibilities for organisations, as well as citizens and researchers and to promote a shared culture of sustainability. By developing this perspective, the Digital Documentation Center can be a space for increasing multiple skills, which concern not only the sphere of instrumental knowledge, but also the relationship between the user and his territorial context. It could be an ecological tool that can contribute to design more cohesive urban communities and to create places and projects for peace.