Trying to keep in touch with Nature during the COVID-19 pandemic: an experience from the University of Trento

Abstract

[EN] Italy was one of the Western countries more seriously affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. To counter the outbreak, government resorted to different types of precautionary measures and restrictions. Education, at all levels, from nursery school to university, also suffered the repercussions of the pandemic, with the halt of classroom attendance and the move to distance learning. At the University of Trento, where I teach Ecology, the second semester of the 2019–2020 academic year took place entirely via online teaching, while in the following academic year it was possible to resort to a blended modality. The paper illustrates the initiatives I used to facilitate interaction between students and to set up a mutual dialogue between students and teacher, with the aim of creating a sense of community and of bringing students, isolated and shut up in their homes, into contact with the natural environment.