Multimedia Communication Laboratory in Agriculture

The course will provide interdisciplinary theoretical and applicative knowledge aimed at developing general and multimedia communication skills about agriculture and agricultural sciences for the dissemination to different recipients (students, technicians, farmers, consumers, society). Students will have the opportunity of experiential learning in the classroom, at the university farms and at external farms. The educational objective will be achieved through the development by the students, in agreement and under the guidance of the teachers, of a communication project on agriculture and agricultural sciences topics with: i) collection and organization of documentary material on the field (photos, videos, interviews) at farms; ii) collection of technical-scientific documentation on the subject; iii) critical analysis of the documentary material; iv) development of a multimedia object (page / website, docufilm, etc.); presentation and discussion of the multimedia project. Among the issues that can be developed there are, for example, the documentation of the phases, from the soil preparatory work to the harvest, and the related technical contents, of a production process in the case of crops; or the documentation of the time sequences, daily / seasonal, of the activities in the case of animal husbandry. The set of multimedia contents developed by the students of the course will constitute and expand, year after year, a documentary core available to all students of the faculty, technicians, farmers and citizens. The results of the students' projects will be presented at the end of the course to the faculty teachers and students and promoted through social media. Every year the best photos collected will be selected to prepare a photo exhibition at the University.

After passing the exam, the student will be able to understand and communicate, through the web and social media, contents about agriculture and agricultural sciences using multimedia techniques and knowing how to modulate appropriately communicative language according to the recipients (students, technicians, farmers, consumers, society).
The student will learn about the basics of communication, the problems posed by communication in agriculture, the main languages and means of multimedia communication. He/she will also resume and enhance his/her technical and scientific knowledges and skills on agricultural production processes for the aim of a critical analysis. Finally, he/she will acquire skills in the collection and assembly of multimedia documentary material and multimedia communication skills through the web and social media.