Reinventing University in the 21st Century: The Internet, the “New Buildings” of the Universities and New Psycho-Pedagogic Models

The existence of an Internet network, external to man, made up by the interconnected digital memories, has completely changed the processes and mechanisms of production and transmission of knowledge, research, and learning, and it has been more and more affecting knowledge communication languages. By now, the Internet has evolved into a global platform, ever richer of contents, and it is actually becoming the main infrastructure for knowledge exchange among people. Creating an infrastructure for the higher education of the 21st century involves adding to the university physical buildings as a technological infrastructure: The Internet, which is an interactive and collective communication place, is based, as its peculiar richness, on the direct involvement of its users in the creation of contents, as well as in their exploitation. Of course, as communication models are based on theoretical applications constructed to use different forms of language (such as the language of information, entertainment, cinema, theatre, printing, radio, television, Internet, etc., as well as to develop learning processes), they must also be used as theoretical models useful to construct methodologies and languages suitable to teach and learn through the technologies. Research work on this issue is constantly evolving along with technological evolution. Moreover, the technological platform of the International Telematic University (UNINETTUNO) includes both virtual laboratories, created to carry out research activity, and computer-based networks with other research laboratories in several countries of the world. This presentation will illustrate the research activities whose results allowed to design and realize the didactic cyberspace of the UNINETTUNO, which is based on a systemic approach and on a new psycho-pedagogic model.