Image education between distance and presence: reflections on the experience of the three-year pandemic

In the three years since the pandemic struck, teaching styles and methodologies have transformed considerably in all educational agencies: from pre-school to university. The research in the education field has carefully monitored the phenomenon [1,2,3,4] analysing the strategies implemented and the effects on teaching and learning linked to screen-mediated distance or, subsequently, to hybrid forms in educational/training contexts. This contribution is a review on what has happened so far and questions what considerations can draw from the experiences of the Image Education course aimed at third-year students in the Primary Education degree course. Among the elements that have always characterised the programme (even before the pandemic) is the specific attention to and use of the practices of observation, exploration, discovery, interpretation and reflection to be carried out with cultural heritage, both material and immaterial, if possible, through direct contact. In this paper, we will present two paths, one carried out at a distance in synchronous form, the other in hybrid form. Both used virtual sharing tools to reproduce a participation form analogous to the workshop form. In the two cases, the photographic language and graphics (drawing) were the medium through which training processes aimed at keeping the link between discipline, students and teachers meaningful.