ITALY

Country Report on ICT in Education

Available on http://insight.eun.org
Antonella Turchi, INDIRE
2013

European Schoolnet Rue de Trves 61 1040 Brussels, Belgium www.eun.org

Contact: Antonella Tozza, Ministero dellistruzione

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 THE EDUCATION CONTEXT ...................................................................................................................... 1

1.1
Education Reform......................................................................................................................... 1
1.2
Key challenges/priorities for education ......................................................................................... 2
2. ICT POLICY ................................................................................................................................................ 3
2.1. Responsibilities ............................................................................................................................ 3
2.2. ICT policies for schools ................................................................................................................ 3
2.3. Specific ICT Initiatives....................................................................................................................5
2.4. ICT priorities...................................................................................................................................7
2.5. National characteristics (optional) ...................................................................................... ..........7
3. ICT in the curriculum ................................................................................................................................ 7
3.1. Curriculum framework .................................................................................................................. 7
3.2. ICT in the curriculum .................................................................................................................... 8
3.3. Students ICT competence ........................................................................................................... 8
3.4. Assessment schemes .................................................................................................................. 8
3.5. ICT-based assessment ................................................................................................................ 8
3.6. Quality assurance of the use of ICT in schools ............................................................................ 9
4. DIGITAL LEARNING RESOURCES AND SERVICE ................................................................................. 9
4.1. Content development strategies ................................................................................................... 9
4.2. E-content development ................................................................................................................ 9
4.3. User-generated content................................................................................................................ 9
4.4. Web 2.0 ...................................................................................................................................... 10
4.5. Content sharing .......................................................................................................................... 10
4.6. Learning Platforms ..................................................................................................................... 10
4.7
Access of SEN students...............................................................................................................11

5.6.
5.7

Incentives ................................................................................................................................... 12
ICT supporting inclusion...............................................................................................................12

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5. TEACHER EDUCATION FOR ICT.............................................................................................................11

5.1. ICT in initial teacher education ................................................................................................... 11
5.2. ICT in in-service teacher education. ........................................................................................... 11
5.3. New initiatives ............................................................................................................................ 12
5.4. Assessment Schemes ................................................................................................................ 12
5.5. Training of Teacher Trainers ...................................................................................................... 12

1. THE EDUCATION AL CONTEXT

1.1

achievement of basic aims, in line with the key competences for lifelong learning as defined by the European
recommendations1.

EDUCATION REFORM

Law No. 221 of 17 December 2012, establishes, as of

2014, the adoption of exclusively digital or mixed-media
textbooks (a printed textbook with supplementary digital
content, or a combination of digital content and supplementary digital content that can even be purchased
online separately).
A general reform of the Italian education system was introduced with Law No. 53/2003. This law and its legislative decrees led to a reform, following the principle of
Lifelong Learning and defining the main characteristics
of the education system, divided into two cycles:
-

1st cycle: primary school and lower secondary

school
2nd cycle: upper secondary school

Introduced shortly after Law No. 53/2003 the National

Guidelines for pre-primary school and the 1st cycle
of education, which cover 5 years of primary school
and 3 years of lower secondary school, were implemented by the Guidelines for the Curriculum, drawn
up by a panel of experts in 2007 and by the additional
Ministerial Decree No. 254 of 16 November 2012.

The liceum has six pathways:

Technical Institutions have two sectors (including

eleven pathways):

1. Communication in the mother tongue;

2. Communication in foreign languages;
3. Mathematical competence and basic comptentences in science and technology;
4. Digital competence;
5. Learning to learn;

Economic
Technological

Vocational Institutions have two sectors:

Services
Industry and Arts & Crafts

The law establishes the number of teaching hours for

the different school levels:

Artistic
Classic
Scientific
Linguistic
Musical
Human Science

Pre-primary school: 40 to 50 hours per week

with two teachers.
Primary School: 24 to 30 hours per week (according to the school curriculum) with one

6. Social and civic competences;

7. Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship;
8. Cultural awareness and expression

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The latest Guidelines underline the fact that education

today means relating the complexity of new ways of
learning to the practical requirements of every day
teaching, being attentive to different methods, new media and multi-dimensional searching, but also to the

The law on upper secondary schooling (2 nd cycle),

passed in February 2010, concerns general education
(liceum), technical education and vocational education,
and aims to give more educational choice to students
and their families. The reform was applied for first year
students in September 2010 and was extended to the
entire school population in subsequent years.

teacher, or 40 hours per week with two teachers

Lower Secondary school: 30 to 36 hours, or
40 hours (tempo prolungato) with different
teachers for each subject.

The general reform (based on the law no. 53/2003) also

enhanced the national evaluation system and improved
teachers initial training (introducing compulsory fiveyear university education).

exam. Admission also requires the possession of an upper secondary leaving certificate from the state or any
other equivalent qualification obtained abroad. The first
competitions for access to the newly established
courses, for a total of 5261 available spaces, were held
in October 2011. The degree course ends with the discussion of a final project and of the final traineeship report. The discussion of the two reports forms the final
exam, which also qualifies student teachers to teach at
pre-primary and primary level.

Evaluation of the education system

The National Service for the Evaluation of the Education and Training System (INVALSI) was set up in
2004. In 2006 and 2007 more administrative autonomy
was given to INVALSI, setting out its competences for
the evaluation of the school system. Each year INVALSI
has developed and collected tests for the assessment
of primary, lower and upper secondary students. Tests
are experimental and are set to become compulsory in
the near future. In October 2012, further guidelines were
produced by the Ministry of Education (MIUR) that define the duties of INVALSI:

National and international surveys on students

learning
School examination tests in the final exam of
secondary level
Assessment and self-assessment of schools
Evaluation of school leadership
School system evaluation

Lower and upper secondary teachers must complete a

teaching-oriented second-cycle degree (two-year programme) with planned available posts and an admission exam. Training is followed by a one-year traineeship period called active formative traineeship (Tirocinio Formativo Attivo TFA).
1.2
KEY CHALLENGES/PRIORITIES FOR
EDUCATION
The main priorities of the latest education reform are:

Initial teacher training

Teachers of pre-primary and primary levels obtain a

second-cycle degree after completion of a specific fiveyear university course (single-cycle degree), including
traineeship activities. Traineeship activities should
begin from the second year of the course. Courses have
a planned number of available spaces and an admission

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According to the 2010 reform, all teachers working in

state schools are trained at higher level through programmes leading to a second-cycle degree qualification. Initial teacher training also includes traineeship activities and is organised differently according to the level
at which teachers will work (i.e. pre-primary/primary or
secondary level).

Implementing the 1st cycle, 2nd cycle and postsecondary education reform;
Enhancing technical and professional education in order to improve the technical and scientific culture, youth employment and development of the country;
Developing, according to the aims of the European Commission, the performance evaluation
of the education system, in particular students
learning abilities and competences. Continuing
the pilots of evaluation systems for schools
aiming to become a merit school, and their
head teachers and teachers;
Promoting the redevelopment of school buildings, according to new energy standards and
meeting the basic requirements in terms of
safety
Enhancing students mobility abroad with the
programme Erasmus Plus;
Supporting the diffusion of e-government services and guaranteeing access to online services for a growing number of citizens;

Continuing and developing the activities of educational and vocational guidance and education for citizenship and legality in order to combat early drop-out;
Reinforcing school autonomy;
Promoting the recovery of the most disadvantaged educational areas and strengthening
measures for educational and vocational guidance and education for citizenship and legality;
Ensuring the maintenance of the objective of
the rationalisation of expenditure for the school
system;
Promoting the development of school buildings
to make schools at the structural level real interactive laboratories that contribute to the information society;
Unifying systems in order to create a unique
repository for the collection, analysis and dissemination of data and the implementation of
the Digital School Plan;
Promoting digital innovation in schools;
Implementing policies and projects to guarantee full transparency of public data (open data).

2. ICT POLICY

2.1.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Policy makers in Italy developed a national plan to enhance the use of ICT at school. The partners of this National Digital Plan for Schools are:

Schools: detect the local need to develop the

learning project
Regional Branches of the Ministry: manage
activities and coordinate the regional supporting staff with the Ministry
National Agency (INDIRE): takes care of documentation and teacher training
Universities: support schools in their use of
technology in school activities
Companies, Associations and Organisations: collaborate and support the process
through donations and activities aiming to promote digital awareness.

In September 2012, in order to spread and enhance the

Digital School initiatives, Regional Authorities became new partners of the Plan, signing Agreements
with the Ministry of Education to allocate funds for the
implementation of the Plan and its actions throughout
the country.
2.2.

ICT POLICIES FOR SCHOOLS

Since 2000, the Ministry of Education, University and

Research (MIUR) has supported schools in the use of
ICT in the teaching/learning processes. Widespread
use of new technology in schools was introduced by
means of the School System Reform in 2003 concerning the 1st cycle of education. A wide offer of initiatives
has had the aim of reforming the school administration
and renewing and enhancing the teaching/learning
methodology to better cope with the needs of teachers,
students and families. The major initiatives have concerned:

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By constitutional law the State is in charge of education.

The State, providing general rules concerning curricula
and outcomes in education, outlines the fundamental
principles and standards of the school system. The Regions, Provinces and Municipalities are in charge of organisational matters at local level. Schools produce
their own Piano dell'Offerta Formativa (POF Educational Offer Plan), which is developed as a result of the
teamwork of the Teachers Assembly, based on input
provided by the School Council and with the supervision
of the school head. The POF is the fundamental document that describes the cultural and planning identity of
an individual institution. It defines the curricular, extracurricular, educational and organisational projects that
each school adopts according to its autonomous regu-

lations. Schools, while following the general principles/rules given by the State, meet the regional needs
through the POF, which is presented to families at the
beginning of every school year (see also Sections 3.1.
and 5.5.).

Supplying schools with multimedia equipment

Connecting schools to the internet
Setting up networks and services
Training teachers

Initiatives to update the school system through the development of school networks and support for digital
schooling were established by the Ministry of Education
and the Ministry of Public Administration and Innovation
(October 2008). The Ministry of Education has adopted
several projects to develop the use of IT in the teaching/learning process:
The Digital School Plan concerns the support and
spread of ICT tools and innovative methodologies in
schools. The initiative has been developed in many
phases:

the supply of interactive whiteboards (IWBs)

to schools within classrooms;
the development of digital classes Cl@ssi
2.0;
the development of entire digital schools
Scuol@ 2.0;
the experimentation, with the support of educational institutions, of twenty innovative editorial digital products Editoria Digitale Scolastica.

Cl@ssi 2.0: The experimentation of innovative learning

environments started in the school year 2009/2010
through the Cl@ssi 2.0 pilot project, which involved 416
classes at primary, lower and upper secondary level
throughout all regions of the country. The process was
monitored in order to evaluate the impact of ICT and the
new learning environment on students performance
and skills (see also Sections 2.3. and 4.4.).

Editoria Digitale Scolastica: An initiative to pilot

twenty innovative editorial tools with the following characteristics: multidisciplinary, transversal in the curriculum, flexible and interactive (see also Sections 4.2. and
4.3).
The School-Family project: This project provides new
services ensuring better communication for families; the
project includes online reports, digital registers, surveys
on students attendance (to be communicated to families via email or mobile phone), access to online student
files and appointment booking. This project involved
4180 schools (40% of all schools) and was launched in
December 2009. By means of the network, teachers can
produce and share digital content and use tools such as
blogs, wikis and videoconferencing.
Scuola in chiaro: This web application, created in
2012, is accessible from the portal of the Ministry of Education and provides a range of information and data
regarding schools, in an organised and coherent way.
Each school has its own datasheet, divided into several
sections; these datasheets contain general information
about the school, training courses, services, students,
educational outcomes, school personnel, etc. Each user
can identify the school of interest and access the relevant data using search filters for area or type of school
(cercalatuascuola.istruzione.it/cercalatuascuola/).

IWB project: the introduction of IWBs was implemented

in four phases (from 2008 to 2012) as described in the
table (see Annex I); the national agency for the support
of schools INDIRE ensures in-service teacher training
for the proficient use of IWBs and digital content (50,000
teachers at lower secondary level and 25,000 teachers
at primary and upper secondary level).

Scuol@ 2.0: 15 schools (with increasing numbers in the

following years) change their learning environments and
organisation, as well as infrastructures, to move beyond
the traditional educational system (see also Sections
2.3. and 4.4.).

Online Registration: Due to the digitalisation of administrative procedures, in 2012 school registrations for all
initial classes in the school year 2013/2014 were made
exclusively online. In order to support the online registration of students, the Ministry has developed a software application for easy access, which is available on
the MIUR portal. Through this application one can
choose the school, complete and send the registration
form and follow the progress of the request through to
its final acceptance.

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Teacher Training: INDIRE has taken over the commitment from the Ministry to design a blended teacher
training model and develop the eLearning environment
for school staff training. PuntoEdu is conceived as the
online training environment to be complemented by inperson sessions. INDIRE provides the online training
and the Regional Ministry Authorities organise the faceto-face activities. PuntoEdu has been training more than
1,000,000 teachers through blended e-learning courses
focusing on different professional needs (See also Sections 4. and 5.5.)
As continuous professional development has become a
major issue for the Italian school system, FOR, a webbased nationwide learning environment, was launched
in 2006. The objective of this online environment was to
support the community of Italian school teachers by
providing training opportunities and informative and normative digital content, and also to foster the creation
and development of communities of practice. The online
platform for teachers provides several opportunities to
develop collaborative activities in order to exchange experiences, share ICT-related knowledge and solve specific problems with the support of experts and professionals (see also Section 5.5.).

Thanks to the ADI (Italian Digital Agenda), a new law

was issued, the Legislative Decree 179/2012 Decreto
Crescita 2.0 (Growing 2.0). Article 11 of this law establishes:

the development of digital centres (Centri

Scolastici Digitali) to provide education in Italys mountain and island areas through remote teaching and learning activities;

the adoption of exclusively digital or mixed-media textbooks: a printed textbook with supplementary digital content, or a combination of
digital content and supplementary digital content that can even be purchased online separately.

Another result of the ADI was that in September 2012

the Ministry of Education signed 10 agreements with regional authorities to allocate funds for the implementation of the national Digital Plan for the schools in ten
Italian regions. The provision for the next year within the
implementation of the national Digital Plan are:

2.3.

1.

4200 additional IWBs

2600 additional Cl@ssi 2.0
19 additional Scuole 2.0
Many Centri Scolastici Digitali in six Italian regions
Between 13,650 and 112,500 personal devices (PC/tablet) for students
SPECIFIC ICT INITIAT IVES

Interactive whiteboards, laptops/notebooks,

tablets or other mobile technology

National/regional level:
The introduction of interactive whiteboards (IWBs)
was implemented in four phases. Today, thanks to other
sources of funding there are 73,898 IWBs in classrooms
the country (see section 2.2, Annex I)
This project is supported by a national training initiative
involving more than 70.,000 teachers. INDIRE (National
Agency for the Support of School) ensures in-service
teacher training for the proficient use of IWB and digital
content (50,000 teachers at lower secondary level and
25,000 teachers at primary and upper secondary level).

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In line with the European dispositions within the Digital

Agenda for Europe (Europe 2020 Strategy), in 2012 the
ADI (Agenda Digitale Italiana/Italian Digital Agenda),
established as a priority the implementation of the Digital School Plan, designing new laws (DigItalia urgent
measures) representing the strategy of the ADI together
with the operational projects. Among other things, this
initiative is looking at the possibility of building an Italian
cloud computing system. Together with the Italian data
centres (PPP) and the corresponding cloud system,
many services have been designed, such as e-learning
management systems for schools.

The training action initiative supports teachers in creating their own digital contents through an authoring tool
and using free educational software to be used on IWB
in everyday teaching practice.

room developed by INDIRE, which provides a collaborative environment for small groups (within the online
learning platform) integrating web 2.0 features for training purposes.

IWB resellers provide initial technical training to teachers in order to get them familiar with the technology and
the main functionalities, while INDIRE offers more indepth support, lasting a full year, that is divided into two
phases. In the first phase teachers explore with the etutor the pedagogical potential of IWBs using case studies, video recordings and interviews with expert teachers, and discuss how the IWB affordances could be developed according to different contexts and teaching
styles. At this stage, the use of online discussion forums
and videoconference meetings are fundamental in order
to develop the discussion, share impressions and opinions and get familiar with the empowered classroom setting. Examples of best practice, videos and other tools
to support the activities of teachers and tutors are available on the online environment and can be explored individually or shared and discussed with colleagues and
tutors in the virtual classroom.

In order to share and support the dissemination of lesson plans, flipcharts and other documentation, two levels of repositories are available online. The school repository enables teachers to share materials with other
teachers in their school even if they are not included
within the training. The national repository collects the
best lesson plans and flipcharts created by teachers and
selected by tutors.

During the support phase teachers can work together in

groups using the virtual classroom collaborative features to create lesson plans using both synchronous
and asynchronous tools, such as videoconferencing,
blogs, shared documents, wikis, mailing lists, calendars
etc. The features are part of Edulab, the virtual class-

2.

Bring your own device (BYOD)

There are no specific initiatives in that area.

3.

Cloud computing

There are initiatives in this area, but limited or no information about it.
4.

Inclusion and special needs

The HSH@Network project guarantees the right to education for students who are in hospital or receiving
homecare treatment with 64 wired hospitals (from
2006).
The @urora project ensures assistance, rehabilitation,
orientation and reintegration for young offenders in Italian detention centres, with vocational training courses
and training on the use of ICT (from 2006).
5.

Connectivity (e.g. wireless internet, optical fibre connections)

No specific initiatives in that area.

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In the second phase the focus is on the concrete use of

the IWB in the classroom with pupils. Teachers learn
how to design IWB-based lesson plans and to re-organise teaching and learning considering the impact of the
new setting in their professional activity. Content design, classroom management issues and teaching
methods are the main topics of the second phase, which
takes the form of on-the-job support. Tutors meet the
teachers in their schools and discuss concrete problems
emerging from their daily practice in order to try to find
shared solutions. Teachers experiment with innovative
solutions in their classrooms and receive pedagogical
support from tutors (in person and online) and subject
expert teachers (online).

Cl@ssi 2.0, an advanced innovation project, for a limited number of classrooms (416), piloted the change in
learning environments in everyday school activities
through an intensive use of technologies (IWB, laptop/notebook, tablets, smartphones, etc.) (See section
2.2)

6.

Design of 21st century learning spaces

Scuol@ 2.0: 15 schools (with increasing numbers in the

following years) change their learning environments and
organisation, as well as infrastructures, to move beyond
the traditional educational system. (See section 2.2)
The new rules about school buildings (Legislative Decree No. 35, April 2012), are designed to ensure
schools safety, sustainability and comfort, through work
aimed at modernising existing school buildings and
building new school structures, according to the most
recent understanding of teaching/learning, in line with
innovations launched by the spread of ICT. (See section
2.2)
7.

Any other ICT initiative

Safer Internet project: is promoted by the Save the

Children organisation in cooperation with the Italian
Ministry of Education. The project is aimed at primary
(fourth and fifth grade) and lower secondary schools
(first and second class) involved in the National Digital
Plan for Schools. The main aim is training and making
teachers, pupils and parents aware of the positive uses
of ICT in schools.
Centri Scolastici Digitali: the development of digital
centres to provide education in the mountain and island
areas of Italy, through remote teaching and learning activities. (See section 2.2)

2.4.

ICT PRIORITIES

High

Area
ICT in teacher training
In-service teacher training
Curriculum development
ICT-based assessment
Infrastructure and
maintenance
Digital learning resources
School-home connections
ICT for learners with disabilities/special needs
ICT-related research
e-Safety
Reducing the digital divide
Interactive Whiteboards
Netbook/notebooks
Tablets
Developing key competences
Developing 21st century skills
(critical thinking, problem
solving, communication, creativity, innovation)

Mid.

Low

X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X

2.5.
NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS (OPTIONAL)
No information provided.

3. ICT IN THE CURRICULUM

CURRICULAR FRAMEWORK

According to the Italian Constitution, the State is in

charge of education and shares some responsibilities
with the Regions, Provinces, and Municipalities, while
school autonomy is also safeguarded in some areas.
The State provides general rules concerning outcomes
in education, sets out the fundamental principles and
determines the standards in education.
While following the general principles and rules given by
the State and in accordance with regional needs,

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3.1.

schools produce their own Piano dell'Offerta Formativa (POF Educational Offer Plan), which is developed
as a result of the teamwork of the Teachers Assembly,
based on input provided by the School Council and with
the supervision of the school head. (See section 2.1)
The POF is the fundamental document that describes
the cultural and planning identity of an individual institution. It defines the curricular, extra-curricular, educational and organisational projects that each school
adopts according to local needs. The regulations concerning autonomy allow every school to create and implement its own curriculum. School autonomy is applied
to:

3.2.

autonomy in teaching
autonomy within organisation
autonomy in research, experimentation and innovation.

ICT IN THE CURRICULU M

STUDENTS ICT COMPETENCE

The Guidelines for the Curriculum set out the competences that should be reached by pupils at the end of
primary school and lower secondary school:

3.4.

at the end of the first education cycle, students

have developed good digital skills, are proficient in
the use of ICT to research and analyse data and
information, to distinguish reliable information from
information that requires further research, to check
and validate information and to interact with different people around the world.
in the subject of Technology, students are able to
use physical, organisational and information resources to design and develop simple products, including digital ones.
in art subjects (Music, Art and Design), students are
able to create and transform images and sounds
using multimedia tools in a creative manner. In Music, students are able to use specific software to
create sounds and music.
In the second education cycle (upper secondary
school), students use new technologies to research
and investigate topics from different subject areas,
to express themselves creatively and to communicate.
In the field of mathematics and technology, students can use ICT tools in a critical manner in their
research and study activities, they understand the
methodological value of IT in developing and modelling complex processes as well as in identifying
solutions.
ASSESSMENT SCHEMES

Teachers are in charge of assessing students

knowledge, skills and competences. At the end of the
1st school cycle, pupils have to pass an examination to
enter the 2nd cycle. At the end of the 2nd cycle there is
the upper secondary school leaving examination. Students assessment concerns all of the subjects in the
curriculum, including ICT (in the schools that offer that
subject).
3.5.

ICT-BASED ASSESSMENT

There is no ICT-based student assessment.

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The national guidelines and curriculum guidelines provide the framework for introducing and supporting ICT
within the 1st cycle of education. The guidelines for the
first cycle (2012) continue to highlight the importance of
ICT in order to educate future citizens of the information
society. ICT is a subject within the MST subjects, with
well- defined goals and objectives at the end of primary
and lower secondary level. In 2004, Computer Science
and Technology was introduced as a subject within the
curriculum. Further, ICT plays an important role in humanities subjects, as it offers new multimedia methods
of communication. Finally, the Ministers new recommendations specify that the new digital content of textbooks that schools will adopt in 2013/2014 must be updated according to the aims set out in the new Guidelines.
3.3.

3.6.
QUALITY ASSURANCE OF THE USE
OF ICT IN SCHOOLS
Fascicolo Elettronico (Electronic folder) is a document
prepared for each school, containing data and information provided by the databases of the Information
System of the Ministry of Education and the educational
institutions, which is designed to support school head
teachers in writing a self-assessment report for their
school. The data provided in the document includes
general information about the school, training courses,
services, students, educational outcomes, school personnel, etc. Some schools choose to also include information on their ICT equipment.

4. DIGITAL LEARNING RES OURCES AND

SERVICES

4.1.
GIES

CONTENT DEVELOPMENT STRATE-

one or to enable the families to save money.

4.2.

E-CONTENT DEVELOPMENT

The Digital School Plan established the Editoria Scolastica Digitale in order to create digital content prototypes. This pilot project will help schools to change their
learning environments and to introduce experimental

PuntoEdu is the environment where multimedia educational content has been developed. The repository contains more than 3,000 learning objects (LOs), which
have been developed for online teacher training by
teachers themselves. The proposed LOs are designed
to be reused and shared by teachers with their students.
The very first aim in introducing LOs through PuntoEdu
was to offer training activities as well as pedagogical
training to teachers. LOs, together with the know-how to
use them, have become meaningful within the new pedagogic concept of learning by doing which is becoming
more and more familiar to teachers. (See section 2.2)
4.3.

USER - GENERATED CONTENT

The first results of the Editoria Digitale Scolastica project have been many proposals of digital platforms designed to develop and manage digital contents, usable
directly by the schools.
INDIRE has developed a database system that collects
resources to be used by teachers:

Dia (www.indire.it/archivi/dia/) is a digital database of 25,000 images related to all curricular

subjects. Every image has a file card that provides historical information and background together with suggestions for in-depth developments and study.
Gold (gold.indire.it/gold2/) is the database of
best practices, including LOs produced by
teachers. There are 6953 examples of school
experiences and 944 selected best practices.
The database contains 9849 LOs, with 1982
selected examples.

European Schoolnet Rue de Trves 61 1040 Brussels, Belgium www.eun.org

Law No. 221 of 17 December 2012, establishes, as of

2014, the adoption of exclusively digital or mixed-media
textbooks (a printed textbook with supplementary digital
content, or a combination of digital content and supplementary digital content that can even be purchased
online separately). The adopted strategy of the Ministry
of Education is based upon agreements with publishers
regarding the development of commercial products according to the following two transitional stages: the passage from the paper book to the mixed digital/paper edition; and the transition to the fully digital book, which
represents the final goal. This strategy tries to meet the
needs of students, families and publishers by lowering
the cost of books; the saving can be used either to provide students with digital devices if they do not own

and cooperative didactic activities. Prototypes are not

simple e-books, but software allowing students to create
original content or to work on digital content in a collaborative way. In summary, the Editoria Scolastica Digitale is a way of providing innovative tools for the creation
of knowledge and for the use of both formal and informal
knowledge through the language of digital natives. (See
sections 2.2)

Musiknet (www.indire.it/musiknet/) is a virtual

museum of music, offering images, sounds
and descriptions of the instruments.

See also Section 4.6. for further information.

4.4.

WEB 2.0

As part of the Digital School Plan, the experimentation

of innovative learning environments began in the school
year 2009/2010 with the IWB and Cl@ssi 2.0 projects.
The process has been monitored to evaluate the impact
of ICT on students ICT competences since the establishment of a new learning environment (www.scuoladigitale.it/classi2.0).
In general the Digital School Plan concerns the support and spread of ICT tools and methodologies to promote innovative schools. The initiative has been developed in many phases: the supply of IWBs to schools
within classrooms; the development of digital classes
(Cl@ssi 2.0); the development of entire digital schools
(Scuol@ 2.0); and the pilot, with the support of educational institutions, of twenty innovative digital editing
tools (Editoria Digitale Scolastica).

4.5.

CONTENT SHARING

The learning object (LO) repository developed

in PuntoEdu provides about 1100 LOs to be shared
within the LRE portal. In addition, about 19,000 images
from the DIA database are also available through the
LRE portal. (See sections 2.2 and 4.1)

4.6.

LEARNING PLATFORMS

PuntoEdu is the most widely used platform in the country and staff training at most schools has been carried
out on this platform. Teachers interest in the new training environment has increased over the years, as
shown by the increased user satisfaction expressed in
evaluations. Several aspects have been improved with,
for example, the technical upgrade of the platform to
support the huge number of participants, better performance and support from eTutors (not only from a technical point of view) and the transformation of the training
from content delivery to content production and sharing.
Since 2000, technical issues have been replaced by didactic concerns. eContent has reached a high level of
quality and eLearning has therefore shifted from an environment based on social interaction, such as virtual
classes and forums, to an environment where digital
content is crucial for training and didactics.
This change in attitudes is certainly due to the growth of
social networks, which increasingly permeate our individual lives. Participants now consider synchronous
events and peer-to-peer sessions to be the most valuable type of event; something that is also due to the role
of moderators who prove to be highly competent in
terms of didactics and subject area content. (See sections 2.2, 4.1 and 4.5)

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It is worth noting that the main goal of Cl@ssi 2.0 is the

change of learning environments and, as a consequence, the introduction of interactive and collaborative
tools follows quite naturally. Moreover, the
Scuol@2.0 project takes into account the possibility of
changing the entire school organisation, in which the
use of web 2.0 tools is essential to change teaching and
schooling methods and to enable schools to become 21st century schools. (See sections 2.3 and 2.3)

Moreover, the Italian Ministry of Education, in collaboration with CINECA, is designing and implementing a
platform to host both commercial and teacher/student
developed digital content. This allows many different
products to be shared and used by all Italian schools.
In future, it could be desirable to share and exchange
the content of the platform with other countries in order
to increase their number, and particularly to improve
their quality. We firmly believe that the comparison of
different digital content, just like market competition,
can improve the quality.

4.7.

ACCESS OF SEN STUDENTS

The initiatives included in the Digital School Plan, such

as Cl@ssi 2.0 and Scuol@ 2.0 enhance the usual activities for inclusion through the use of technology. Thanks
to the autonomy of the schools, they can spend part of
the budget for each initiative to buy tools and assistive
technologies for students with special needs. (See sections 2.2 and 2.3)

5. TEACHER EDUCATION FO R ICT

5.1.
TION

ICT IN INITIAL TEACH ER EDUCA-

ICT is part of initial teacher education at higher education level. ICT-related skills are defined in the core curriculum for initial education for teachers in primary and
secondary education (ISCED 1, 2 and 3).
In particular, in initial education, future teachers are
trained in pedagogical issues and in subject-specific
training linked to ICT in teaching.
5.2.
ICT IN IN-SERVICE TEACHER EDUCATION

INDIRE has taken over the commitment from the Ministry to establish PuntoEdu, the eLearning environment
for the training of school staff. PuntoEdu is conceived
as the online training environment to be complemented
by in-person sessions, adopting a blended methodol-

Edulab, a tool for online cooperative peer-training for

teachers has also been developed within PuntoEd. In
synchronous activities, moderators have supported the
group of participants receiving training for this purpose.
Moderators have been selected from subject area experts in order to be able to lead groups of people in synchronous events, making the best use of all the software
resources and giving content and methodological support.
In 2008 the figure of the coach was introduced in the
eLearning course for Permanent Teachers; this coach
who has increasingly taken on the role of a mediator
within the training process, rather than an expert in technical matters. This new figure combines all the features
of the eTutor (i.e. high levels of technological competence) with mediation skills. As well as helping to solve
technical problems, the coach is a subject content expert.
Another virtual environment, FOR, allows teachers who
have already undergone or are undergoing their training
to meet and share knowledge, ideas, digital resources
and tools. This environment has been conceived to give
teachers the opportunity to keep in touch and cooperate
beyond formal training activities.
eLearning has developed with the support of eTutors,
who have been proved to be crucial figures for the involvement of teachers and the success of the initiative.
PuntoEdu eTutors have received special training from
INDIRE. Over the years a task force of eTutors with a
high level of knowledge, skills and competences has
been developed.

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Teacher training must be planned within the Piano

dell'Offerta Formativa (POF Educational Offer Plan)
according to the needs at school level and agreed by
the Assembly of Teachers. Teacher training can be
planned by the Ministry or schools; or schools networks
can plan staff training with the support of Universities,
Teachers Associations or other qualified institutions
such as Research Institutes (Employment contract CCNL scuola 2006-2009). In general, eLearning training is compulsory for new payment teachers and newlyappointed head teachers.

ogy. INDIRE provides the online training and the Regional Ministry Authorities organise the face-to-face activities. Subject experts give advice on the content of
eLearning activities including courses, forums, chat, laboratories, virtual classes and LOs. Activities for monitoring eLearning initiatives have the purpose of transferring credits to the participants and evaluating the training process. The offered trainings are not compulsory.
(see Sections 2.2, 4.1, 4.5 and 4.6)

5.3.

NEW INITIATIVES

No information provided.
5.4.

ASSESSMENT SCHEMES

No evaluation system exists for teachers ICT competence.

5.5.

TRAINING OF TEACHER TRAINERS

No information provided.
5.6.

INCENTIVES

Publisher: European Schoolnet (EUN)

Author: Antonella Tozza (Ministero dell
istruzione), Antonella Turchi (INDIRE)
Editor: Anja Balanskat, Katja
Engelhardt (European Schoolnet)
Coordinator: Anja Balanskat (European
Schoolnet)

Incentives for in-service training are not provided according to the Employment contract (CCNL scuola
2006-2009).
5.7.

ICT SUPPORTING INCLUS ION

The Ministry of Education, in collaboration with INDIRE,

developed the Handitecno project to sustain the quality
of the inclusion of special needs pupils through ICT.
Handitecno is the point of reference for carers, special
needs pupils and their families and teachers (handitecno.indire.it/).
The site can be used for the following purposes:
To find useful didactic tools
To find specialised information
To share didactic experiences and make use
of expert counselling

The HSH@Network initiative guarantees the right to

education for students who are in hospital or receiving
homecare treatment, with 64 wired hospitals (from
2006). (See section 2.3)
The @urora project ensures assistance, rehabilitation,
orientation and reintegration for young offenders in Italian detention centres, with vocational training courses
and training on the use of ICT (from 2006).

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ANNEX 1

Number of IWBs
School level
School Year
2008/2009

Primary

Lower Secondary

School Year
2010/2011

6.454

8939

Upper Secondary

Total

School Year
2009/2010

5796

8000

2944

8939

School Year
2011/2012

9398

2981

8000

8000