School 4.0. A new challenge

(by Giovanbattista Trebisacce, Professor of General Pedagogy at the University of Catania and AIDR member) One of the most recurrent Hamletic doubts since the beginning of the pandemic concerned the school: open or closed schools? face-to-face or remote teaching? On one thing, however, there is an almost general agreement, and it is the belief that without technological equipment, usable infrastructures and adequate skills, distance learning creates inequalities and goes in the opposite direction with respect to the need for inclusion which is one of the primary objectives of the public training system. This is a fairly shared belief based on the observation of many inequalities that are visible to everyone and which, in my opinion, deserve adequate study.

What we have been forced to use in a situation of serious difficulty is not a methodologically correct distance teaching, but an emergency teaching. It is this emergency teaching that has revealed the many inequalities of our school, which are not, however, to be considered connatural to any form of distance teaching, as some mistakenly believe. Every "insider" knows that the guarantee that all participants in online teaching and learning activities can operate without excessive technological or skills gaps is a pre-condition to which the design of an online distance course must place a 'particular attention by resorting, if necessary, to all the necessary compensatory tools and interventions, just as happens, or should happen, in face-to-face teaching. In other words, ensuring inclusion and reducing inequalities are a necessity in both face-to-face and distance learning. The reality is that the latter does not create inequalities but only makes them emerge. To corroborate this thesis I refer to the books. As evidenced by a large sociological literature, and not from today, students who have many books in the family context, who have parents with a high reading aptitude, have a better academic performance than those who live in contact with few books and in a family that pays little attention to reading. This is a very serious inequality, but far from us the idea that the possession of books and the aptitude for reading produce inequalities and that their use / non-use results in an inclusive / non-inclusive school. These inequalities, unfortunately, exist and we must deal with them, taking wide-ranging interventions and cannot be limited only to the school environment.

Much has been said and continues to be said about the inequalities in the supply of technologies and skills linked to the digital revolution. When, as in the current emergency situation, these inequalities emerge clearly, we tend to attribute responsibility to digital technologies and not to our inability to guarantee everyone the skills, infrastructures, technological and cultural tools necessary for their expert and conscious use. Claiming the importance of access to books and reading skills does not mean that all books are the same: we evaluate and choose the texts according to our interests, our needs, the offer, the situation in which we is situated. In the same way, recognizing the importance of digital technologies in teaching and learning does not at all mean that these technologies are all the same and equally valid, that one platform is as good as another, that there are no risks of monopoly, of improper use of data, distortion or manipulation. The platforms and tools of online teaching are not all the same. The choices that schools and teachers are called to make are cultural choices, not only technological ones, they do not concern only the tools but also the contents, methodologies, teaching and learning practices. Wrong choices equate to disastrous results. One more reason to choose with attention and competence, driven not only by the emergency, but also and above all by the idea of ​​the school we want, its tools, its methods and its contents.

School 4.0. A new challenge

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