What are the key educational issues of importance to policy makers in Italy?
Due to the recent political elections, in Italy the policy or have been completely renewed. In particular, all the political staff of the Ministry of Education and of the Ministry of University and Research changed in mid May 2006. The Ministry of University and Research is a new instituted Ministry since, with the previous Government, there was a unique Ministry for Education (schools), University and Research.
So, at the time of writing, the policy lines and agendas of the new Ministries have been not yet explicitly formulated. Some general indications as far as ICT in education have been stated during the electoral campaign of the new Government: to follow Lisbon declaration and to implement knowledge economy.
How do policy makers in Italy contribute to the country's technology enhanced learning agenda?
There were two main lines and objectives of the preceding Government as far as technology enhanced learning: a) to develop ICT skills, and b) to look at ICT as a mean to help the management of problematic situations (disabilities, hospitalized children, learning difficulties)
The first objective has been pursued through the increasing of school hardware infrastructure and net connections, the promotion of a widespread teachers’ training plan in ICT, and the proposal of new curricula for schools. In these curricula the use of ICT is foreseen as a means to acquire technical skills useful for the new social demands, to increase pupils’ motivations, and to increase school achievements. The teachers’ training plan in ICT has been developed through training courses (blended strategy: on-line and in face-to-face) and through the development of an on-line platform for managing courses and communication and collaboration among teachers.
The second objective has been undertaken by promoting projects (some of which are currently under development) especially dedicated to the recovery or management of problematic situations (for example schools in hospitals, access to those with disabilities). Specific attention has been paid to the problem of software accessibility. This problem was afforded in connection with the Ministry of Technological Innovation (now this Ministry does not exist anymore, but its competencies have been transferred to other Ministries). The Ministry of Technological Innovation promoted laws in this sector (e.g. Legge Stanca) which are very sensitive to the problem of accessibility and very strict as far as software produced or used in Public Administrations.
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