At the Root of the Smart Cities: Smart Learning Eco-systems to train Smart Citizens

This chapter illustrates the relevance that smart learning ecosystems can assume in the education of smart citizens, considered as indispensable agents of the development of the smartness of the cities. Starting from the description of an alternative model of smart city—i.e., a people-centered one in which the smartness of the city and the citizens’ well-being can be identified as a multidimensional construct to the development of which the citizens themselves should actively contribute—we come to the definition of the space of competences that smart citizens should acquire. Therefore, we describe the subspaces that compose the main space—hard, life/soft and digital soft digital competences—together with their interdependencies and the transformations that the framework could undergo due to the continuous technological evolution. Finally, smart learning ecosystems, consisting of one or more schools linked to the context of reference and to their stakeholders by territorial pacts aimed at fostering regional development and social innovation, are identified as the elective contexts capable to train future smart citizens. Case studies of alternation schemes aimed at the development of the expected competences by students are provided, together with an overview on the associated process of micro-certification and, as well, some final warnings.