Scenes of the monastery : social and active pedagogical practices applied to teaching history and cultural heritage

Abstract

Scenes of the Monastery describe a pedagogical practice that aims a social and active relation between publics and Historical Heritage. New Information and Communication Technologies and Social Media allow a much more close and fast connection to any site related to history and cultural heritage. The Scenes of the Monastery shows that it is possible not only to attract more people to these places and its knowledge through a wide number of multimedia solutions, but also demonstrates publics’ curiosity and availability to produce active knowledge and develop historical consciousness. The project has a pedagogical goal, since the first participants of the activity were two schools that helped us to achieve the objectives of the activity. The use of a virtual learning environment, along with the stakeholder’s contents – in this case the Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Velha -, the students were able to learn, produce and perform (social and actively) a Scene of the monument, leading to an understanding of the capacity that history and cultural heritage have to create dynamics between places, communities and their legacies.