Becoming Digital Citizens (IT0056)

Short description Developing a curriculum, seen as a set of innovative educational content and formats, to involve all school students in developing skills through digital citizenship practices. General objective Digital citizenship flows through the education system, not only for its crucial value as the place where citizenship skills are built and “good citizens” shaped, but also as a producer of teaching formats and models. Increasingly, the development of project/objective/impact-related skills is a driver for learning and for the exercise of citizenship. Building innovative educational formats on digital citizenship issues and practices for the Italian school system and considering its inclusion in the school curriculum is linked to the potential “civic scalability” of the school system itself. This principle also underpins the National Plan for Digital Schools. Current situation Digital citizenship is not effectively implemented in Italian society yet. On the one hand, there is an initial difficulty for many citizens who do not have the necessary skills and are often unable to generate a real “demand” for digital citizenship; on the other, the level of involvement is still limited: vast groups of the population do not exercise this right. Schools are the place where you can develop simple and effective skills and involvement models but also a modern approach to develop the so-called “citizenship skills” which, too often, are only marginally covered by the education system. Expected results The aim of the project “A curriculum for digital citizenship in every school” is to provide all students in Italian schools with a portfolio of “objective-based and impact-oriented” activities for the development of digital citizenship skills. As part of a broader strategy called “Digital Curricula” included in the National Plan for Digital Schools, microactivities and curricular activities on digital citizenship will be organized in all schools, with a special focus on: » Rights in the Internet; » Media education and critical and informed use, including elements of open government; » Education to information including elements of open government; » Digital art and culture, including care of digital commons; » Big and open data; » Internet of things and making; » etc. It is a comprehensive strategy aimed at equipping Italian students with all the skills needed for a real digital citizenship, placing them at the center of practice by working in real scenarios such as: civic monitoring of public investment through open data, care and enhancement of common goods through digital technologies, promotion of constructive dialogue in digital environments, enhancement of local and national digital public services, development of smart city applications, etc.

For commitment details, see IRM Year 1 report: https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/italy-mid-term-report-2016-2018-year-1/

For commitment details, download the IRM report: https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/italy-end-of-term-report-2016-2018/