Knowledge, appreciation, preservation Education is the building block for appreciation and preservation of cultural assets

Last year my contribution “Digital natives grown up: how communication and teaching methods changed” put the focus on major change in young people mind set and new approaches to digital information and services. The focus of the present contribution is on the renovated educational “back office” and new behavioural models. How traditional educational environment changed and still change due to the social web, prosumers, crowd sourcing and more. Education is one of the building blocks for knowledge. Among other things, a widespread knowledge of our heritage is the key element for its appreciation, fruition and protection. It is very hard to be found of something you don’t know. We, as people working in the field of culture, need to bridge the gap between cultural heritage and citizens. Such gap it is not only due to the educational side, often the element lacking in the cultural heritage area is represented by its limited ability to "communicate" without a proper “cultural mediation”. Often the cultural heritage is perceived by most people as something obsolete, cryptic, free of attractiveness to the public, unable to provide a real added value for citizens and ultimately a pure "cost" in terms of conservation, maintenance, custody, etc. We all know that this is not true, we have many evidence that there is a diffuse need of “cultural experiences”. Historical novels and movies, cultural capitals and tourism, thematic exhibits and TV programmes are able to catalyse the interest of citizens and persuade them to invest time and money to experience the cultural initiatives. The changing patterns of communication processes caused the crisis of various disciplines and institutions; we find a pretty obvious example in some educational institutions. The evolution of communication techniques and methods enables a more effective information and knowledge transfer to the public.