Stefania Bocconi

Italian National Research Council | CNR · Institute for Educational Technology ITD

In the past decade, Computational Thinking (CT) and related concepts (e.g. coding, programing, algorithmic thinking) have received increasing attention in the educational field. This has given rise to a large amount of academic and grey literature, and also numerous public and private implementation initiatives. Despite this widespread interest, su...

This report discusses the introduction of Computational Thinking (CT) in compulsory education in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Promoted and funded by the Nordic@BETT2018 Steering Group, the report provides an overview of the current status of CT and Programming in the four countries’ curricula and national plans. It also discusses ongoing CT...

This article discusses 1:1 learning initiatives in Europe in the context of a mapping framework of ICT-enabled innovation for learning. The aim of the framework, visualised as a spider's web, is two-fold: (i) to provide a further understanding of the nature of ICT-enabled innovation for learning; and (ii) to depict the impact of existing and emergi...

This report presents three cases of ICT-enabled innovation for learning from Europe (eTwinning, 1:1 Learning in Europe and Hellerup School in Denmark) and four cases from Asia (e-Learning Pilot Scheme in Hong Kong SAR, Knowledge Construction with Technology (CoREF) in Japan, Third Masterplan for ICT in Education (mp3) in Singapore and Digital Textb...

This ebook is a collection of outcome reports by the thematic working groups (TWGs) of EDUsummIT 2017. EDUsummIT (International Summit on ICT in Education) is a global knowledge building community of researchers, educational practitioners, and policy makers committed to supporting the effective integration of research and practice in the field of...

Innovation culture in schools is mainly associated with the organizational and didactic dimension, such as defining strategies that promote innovation or foster innovation-oriented teaching practices. It rarely concerns spreading innovation culture directly among students themselves. This article presents a laboratory pathway called Digital Innovat...

Teacher’s digital competence is a key aspect in the European Commission’s Digital Education Action Plan 2021-2027, which stresses the importance of improving the use of digital technology for teaching and learning in Europe’s schools. Moreover, with the current COVID-19 pandemic, teachers have generally needed to increase their digital competence t...

Despite the documented number of studies that investigate social media in teaching and learning settings, the topic of social media literacy is still an under-researched area. This study adopts the theoretical lens of New Literacy studies to suggest a combined perspective for investigating social media literacies. This perspective considers both so...

This paper reports on interesting outcomes from the pilot initiative that deployed the SELFIE tool in a sample of 201 schools in Italy, involving a population of more than 31,000 school leaders, teachers and students. Developed by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre, SELFIE is based on the conceptual framework for Digitally-Competent Ed...

Digital technology in its various forms is a significant component of our working environment and lifestyles. However, there is a broad difference between using digital technologies in everyday life and employing them in formal education. Digital technologies have largely untapped potential for improving education and fostering students’ well-being...

With the increasing relevance of information and communication technologies (ICT) and the global transition towards the knowledge society, school systems and higher education now face increasing challenges involved in preparing students for successful participation in the knowledge society. In many countries, this is leading to manifold efforts and...

Le tecnologie digitali sono spesso introdotte in modo innovativo nei vari livelli scolastici. Per consolidare i progressi raggiunti ed assicurare una innovazione sostenibile e su ampia scala, è necessario che le istituzioni educative rivedano le proprie strategie organizzative al fine di migliorare le proprie capacità di innovazione, nonché di sfru...

Computational Thinking, which entails using analytic and algorithmic approaches to formulate, analyse and solve problems, has increasingly gained attention in the educational field in the past decade, giving rise to a large amount of academic and grey literature, as well as to numerous public and private initiatives to implement it. Despite such wi...

This paper reports on initial findings of a study on developing computational thinking (CT) as a 21st Century skill. Extensive desktop research collecting evidences from the (academic and grey) literature has been complemented with a survey on policy documents and several semi-structured interviews with policy makers, researchers and practitioners...

The aim of the article is to highlight the role of network and mobile technologies in enhancing the particular characteristics of blended solutions with a view to (a) potentiating/enriching the teaching/learning processes, (b) exploiting the varied opportunities it offers for their observability, and hence for their monitoring and formative and sum...

In order to design learning solutions that effectively embed face-to-face and online dimensions, it is crucial to identify the key components underpinning hybrid solutions. Furthermore, once these components have been identified, there is the need to clarify how to recombine them to meet a specific learning objective. The paper aims to highlight th...

The paper looks at the educational resources available for students with disabilities. It aims at defining the boundaries and interconnections between the concepts of assistive technologies and educational software, starting from the consideration that students with disabilities could highly benefit from the adoption of both these categories of too...

This report presents the analysis of 31 recent 1:1 learning initiatives, which equip students of a given school, class or age group with a portable computer device. Overall, the analysed initiatives involve approximately 47,000 schools and 17,480,000 students in primary and secondary education across 19 European countries. Based on desk research (a...

The project “Overview and analysis of one-to-one computing initiatives for Education and Training in Europe” (1to1Learning) aimed to provide an overview of recent 1:1 learning initiatives in primary and secondary schools across European countries, and to identify major bottlenecks and barriers to the implementation of 1:1 learning in schools.

This paper deals with the issue of evaluating, documenting and spreading information about the accessibility of ICT-based educational products and also provides an example of how this can be done. This mainly goes in the direction of concretely supporting e-inclusion and Universal Access to education. As a matter of fact, provided that the accessib...

‘Creative Classrooms’ (CCR) are conceptualized as innovative learning environments that fully embed the potential of ICT to innovate learning and teaching practices in formal, non-formal and informal settings. The proposed multi-dimensional concept for CCR consists of eight encom- passing and interconnected key dimensions. In order to support exper...

Already in common use outside the educational arena, wikis are rapidly moving into education as a form of learner communication and expression, and as a means to facilitate collaboration and working in groups. Many uses of wikis in formal education have been outlined by scholars and practitioners mainly focused on the students' perspective. However...

The accessibility of digital educational resources is a key issue in order to provide “all” students with equal educational opportunities. Teachers and educators need adequate help and support to choose and adopt in their school practice those products that are fully accessible by “all” their students; this entails both that they should receive ade...

This chapter addresses the potential of wiki technology for enhancing the processes of argumentative knowledge construction. In these processes learners engage in collaborative discourse activities by constructing arguments and counter-arguments, in order to acquire knowledge (Weinberger and Fisher, 2006). The importance of argumentative knowledge...

'Creative Classrooms' (CCR) are conceptualised as innovative learning environments that fully embed the potential of ICT to innovate learning and teaching practices. This report proposes a multi-dimensional concept for CCR intended to depict the systemic approach that is needed for the sustainable implementation of innovative and open learning envi...

This paper looks at how to innovate teaching and learning practices at system level. It describes the vision for ‘Creative Classrooms’ and makes a consolidated proposal for their implementation, clarifying their holistic and systemic nature, their intended learning outcomes, and their pedagogical, technological, and organisational dimensions for in...

This work describes some of the web services that have been developed within the Share.TEC project to foster access, sharing and reuse of Teacher Education digital resources at European level. The Share.TEC platform features personalized functions to help users search for and select educational material via a broad repository of metadata records. T...

Already in common use outside the educational arena, wikis are rapidly moving into education as a form of learner communication and expression, and as a means to facilitate collaboration and working in groups. Many uses of wikis in formal education have been outlined by scholars and practitioners mainly focused on the students' perspective. However...

The 17th INSPIRE conference, organized by the British Computer Society and the University of Tampere, addressed process improvement (PI) issues related to European and international teaching, training and research. JRC-IPTS presentation (and related article to be published in the conference proceedings) focused on the role of teachers' collaboratio...

This report is part of a larger study on “Up-scaling Creative Classrooms in Europe” (SCALE CCR) launched by the Information Society Unit at JRC-IPTS1 in December 2011 on behalf of the Directorate-General Education and Culture (DG EAC), to be completed in June 2013. The project aims to further define the concept of 'Creative Classrooms' (CCR) and to...

Questo contributo descrive l'esperienza del laboratorio "Italiani allo specchio", organizzato da due Istituti del CNR, l'Istituto di Storia dell'Europa Mediterranea di Cagliari e l'Istituto per le Tecnologie Didattiche di Genova, nell'ambito del Festival della Scienza. Lo scopo del laboratorio è stato quello di favorire lo sviluppo nei ragazzi dell...

Questo contributo descrive l'esperienza del laboratorio "Noi e gli altri", organizzato da due Istituti del CNR, l'Istituto di Storia dell'Europa Mediterranea di Cagliari e l'Istituto per le Tecnologie Didattiche di Genova, nell'ambito del Festival della Scienza. Lo scopo del laboratorio è stato duplice: da un lato, formulare un approccio alla studi...

The paper describes the experience and results of the teaching laboratory “Us” and the “Others”, organized by two Institutes of the CNR, the Institute of History of Mediterranean Europe, located in Cagliari, and the Institute for Educational Technology, during the Genoa Science Festival 2010. The laboratory was designed by researchers to offer stud...

The EC funded Share.TEC project aims to provide culturally aware access to resources across Europe related to Teacher Education. The semantic core of the system is the Teacher Education Ontology (TEO), which not only supports the multilingual interface but also underpins fundamental functionalities like searching and browsing. This paper describes...

This contribution falls at the intersection between the fields of terminology and the sharing of information in a multicultural context, with particular reference to the field of Teacher Education (TE). The Share.TEC project aims to develop services to support the sharing and reuse of digital resources among European TE practitioners; it addresses...

In this contribution we propose a comparison between two distinct approaches to the annotation of digital resources. The former, top-down, is rooted in the cathedral model and is based on an authoritative, centralized definition of the adopted mark-up language; the latter, bottom-up, refers to the bazaar model and is based on the contributions of a...

Teacher Education (TE) is a dynamic, lifelong process that needs to fully embrace innovation and assume a broader European perspective. The EC-funded Share.TEC project aims to provide enhanced, culturally-aware access to TE-related resources across Europe by means of a federated resource brokerage system whose semantic core is the proposed Teacher...

Ontologies provide a structured knowledge representation scheme capable of supporting and informing a knowledge base system. This paper describes the rationale for an ontology-driven approach adopeted in a specific domain (i.e. Teacher Education, TE) and used to describe and share TE-related digital resources across Europe. It also gives an overvie...

In quanto processo permanente, dinamico ed in evoluzione, la Formazione Docenti (FD) svolge un ruolo cruciale nello svilup- po della società della conoscenza a livello europeo. Il progetto europeo Share.TEC mira alla costruzione di un sistema per aggregare metadati che descrivano le risorse educative digitali nel campo della Formazione Docenti in E...

Teacher Education (TE) is a dynamic, lifelong process that needs to fully embrace innovation and assume a broader European perspective. The EC-funded Share.TEC project aims to provide enhanced, culturally-aware access to TE-related resources across Europe by means of a federated resource brokerage system whose semantic core is the proposed Teacher...

Teacher Education (TE) is a dynamic, lifelong and lifewide learning process that is central to Europe's Lisbon Strategy ambitions. To fulfil these expectations, however, TE needs to embrace innovation more fully and assume a broader European perspective. The EC-funded Share.TEC project aims to help achieve this by providing enhanced, culturally-awa...

In order to guarantee equal opportunities to all students, the accessibility of ICT educational tools is worldwide considered a major issue. Nowadays, visually impaired students can take advantage of a large number of effective assistive technologies but, while using electronic material for learning purposes, they often encounter a number of differ...

Questo contributo affronta il tema dell'inclusione scolastica: si riferisce al concetto di Accesso Universale e sottolinea il ruolo chiave che le TIC (Tecnologie dell'Informazione e della Comunicazione) possono avere per contribuire a ridurre forme di discriminazione tra gli studenti.

Nel giro di pochi decenni l'intero scenario dei saperi e delle abitudini umane si è radicalmente trasformato. Sono mutate le condizioni materiali della comunicazione e della conoscenza e con queste sono mutate le forme del sapere umano. L'uomo "alfabetizzato" dell’era digitale è colui che conosce e sa utilizzare l'informatica e la telematica in mod...

Este artículo examina el tema de la inclusión escolar a través del concepto del acceso universal a la educación. Se centra en el fuerte potencial que las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación (TIC) ofrecen para evitar cualquier tipo de discriminación entre alumnos. Asimismo, afirma que los profesores ejercen un papel fundamental en la cap...

This paper deals with the issue of the accessibility of multimedia educational software. The problem is tackled from the viewpoint of standards, that is of the rules to be adopted at institutional level in order to guarantee access to educational software to all students, including those with special needs. The key question to be answered is if reg...

This paper deals with the problem of providing and disseminating information about the accessibility fea- tures of educational software products. Its ultimate aim is to support educational actors in choosing tools that facilitate the inclusion of pupils with disabilities into everyday classroom activities. It focuses both on the type of information...

Quando leggiamo che "computer e tecnologia hanno ridisegnato il modo in cui la società moderna opera e funziona" non riusciamo a non domandarci se questo discorso è realmente applicabile anche alla scuola italiana ed abbiamo, sempre più netta, l'impressione che, in questo ambiente, l'innovazione faccia un po' più fatica ad entrare in maniera pervas...

The move towards a knowledge society is transforming the work of teachers. Increasingly, their work is focusing on structuring learning experiences that promote outcomes specified in system wide curriculum frameworks. Teachers are, therefore, responsible for designing and implementing learning experiences that cater for the learning needs styles an...

Insegnare nella società della conoscenza richiede livelli di competenza e capacità di giudizio che vanno al di là di quelle coinvolte nell’erogazione di un programma prestabilito e test standardizzati. Il “Common European Framework for Teachers’ professional profile in ICT for Education”, elaborato nell’ambito del progetto europeo denominato "uTeac...

School innovation requires changes in aims, curricula, ways of learning, school buildings and organisation, equipments, learning materials, teachers, etc.: in other words, it is a holistic process affecting all the components of the school system. In this process, a key role is played by the teachers, especially early adopters of innovation, herein...

Focusing on the European situation regarding the teachers competencies in ICT for Education that emerge from teacher training processes, this paper provides a general approach to the differences between national practices.

Nelle esperienze di formazione in rete, l’a- spetto della valutazione del processo messo in atto e dei risultati ottenuti è una delle fa- si più complesse e significative: Come sono andate le cose realmente? Che cosa ha funzio- nato? Quali sono stati gli aspetti critici? Come si può definire la qualità dell’esperienza formativa? Diversi studi e ric...

L’arte della moderazione è la chiave del successo di un percorso di formazione in rete. Le qualità di un moderatore in rete sono le stesse di un buon insegnante: saper ascoltare, assicurarsi che tutti abbiano la possibilità di parlare, vigilare nei confronti di personalità dominanti, incoraggiare il rispetto per opinioni differenti dalla propria e,...

According to Everett Roger's theory of diffusion of innovation, teachers who have already adopted a learning based approach (i.e. early adopters) can be considered potential agents of innovation, in tha they can bring innovation in the school system. In this chapter we deal with pioneer teachers' communities of practice, providing a defintion, refe...

Il “Rapporto all’UNESCO della Commissione Internazionale sull’Educazione per il Ventunesimo secolo” [Delors, 1996 individua alcune tensioni forti fra la società e i sistemi scolastici, come ad esempio i conflitti fra realtà globali e locali, fra tradizione e modernità, esigenze di lungo e di breve periodo, valori spirituali e materiali, ecc. Seguen...

Recenti studi mettono in luce che, a causa dei rapidi cambiamenti che caratterizzano la nostra società, il mondo della scuola, spesso basato su modelli e concetti ormai obsoleti, deve flessibilizzarsi e aprirsi al cambiamento. Su queste ipotesi, il progetto ha mirato a costruire un sistema pan-europeo, chiamato U-learn.it, in grado di favorire l’ag...

ULEARN is a project that aims to create a stable community of ‘pioneer teachers’ in Europe through a system that supports teachers’ lifelong learning, knowledge sharing and cooperation. Herein we call ‘pioneer teachers’ those who are keen to use ICT in the classroom and who can be seen as the early adopters of ICT-based innovation in education, alr...

In questo capitolo viene esaminato il ruolo del formatore all'interno del nuovo paradigma di apprendimento in rete (online tutor). Il formatore deve saper stimolare la discussion e facilitare il processo di costruzione di nuova conoscenza. Tali funzioni e compiti specifici del tutor online vengono descritti in questo contributo.

Dans les systèmes de e-learning la technologie permet d’enregistrer le processus en cours de réalisation. En fonction du contexte et du type de technologie utilisée, il est possible de garder une trace des différents éléments du système et d’en extraire indicateurs et données variés selon différents objectifs, qui peuvent aller de l’évaluation des...

ULEARN1 is a project within the framework of the European programme ‘e-Learning’. This project aims to create a stable community of ‘pioneer teachers’ in Europe through a system which supports teachers’ life-long learning, sharing knowledge and co-operation. ULEARN deals with the definition and design of an organisational model for a European virtu...

Questo articolo presenta una metodologia di valutazione dei processi d’apprendimento collaborativo in rete, basata su un approccio olistico, che prende cioè in considerazione un ampio spettro di caratteristiche connotative della qualità. L’obiettivo principale è la definizione di un sistema di gestione della qualità finalizzato non solo a valutare...

,Dall’osservatorio EENET, questo articolo porpone una panoramica del sistema educativo nazionale, la sua strutturazione, politiche e organismi, iniziative e programmi suelle ICT

Nei corsi in rete i processi di apprendi- mento collaborativo nei quali i parteci- panti sono coinvolti sfruttano in genere una piattaforma di comunicazione che mette a disposizione particolari ambienti, che di seguito chiameremo “conferenze virtuali” o, semplicemente “conferenze”, ciascuno dei quali è caratterizzato da una precisa funzione pragmat...

In questo articolo vengono presentati i risultati ottenuti dallo studio dei 5 corsi che hanno cost ituito l’edizione ME- DEA2000. A partire dalle scelte diverse fatte dai formatori, si indaga, in base ai dati a disposizione, sulla validità delle diverse strade percorse. Questo al fine di analizzare l’efficacia del modello di formazione in rete cui...

Il progetto GE8 nasce in occasione dell’evento del G8 a Genova, sollecitato da una duplice esigenza contenutistica e metodologica. Riguardo ai contenuti, GE8 vuole dare ai giovani delle scuole medie superiori strumenti di indagine, riflessio- ne e produzione dell’informazione, basati sulle ICT, perché essi possano riflettere ed esprimersi su quei t...

A methodology for evaluating online collaborative learning processes is proposed. The underlying hipothesis id that three elements affect the quality of online courses: learning quality, content quality and interaction quality. The proposed methodology comprises a set of parameters that indicate the quality of online courses as such, a taxonomy of...

Processes of on-line collaborative learning generally take advantage of platforms offering communication dedicated environments, which henceforth we shall call virtual conferences or, simply conferences. Each of these environments is characterized by a specific pragmatic and communicative function. Therefore, participants, who are sometimes split i...

Introduzione La crescente diffusione della telematica offre oggi nuove possibilità d'approccio alla formazione in generale e a quella a distanza in particolare. La disponibilità di strumenti di comunicazione rapida, affidabile e poco costosa consente di realizzare forme di apprendimento sociale e collaborativo basate sullo scambio di messaggi in te...

Il formatore in rete svolge funzioni diverse rispetto al docente inteso nel senso tradizionale del termine ed ha compiti specifici, che in quest’articolo vengono descritti. L’ipotesi di base dell’articolo è che il ruolo del formatore e il suo stile di conduzione siano fondamentali per il successo di un corso in rete. Nella prima parte, l’articolo t...