Lifelong Learning Programme

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Lifelong Learning Project - School Inclusion - Preventing Early School Leaving

Database of Publications

TITLE OF THE PUBLICATION:

Early school leaving? Computers and social network can challenge this problem

SURNAME AND NAME OF AUTHOR(S):

Andrea Giambartolomei

PUBLISHER:

La Repubblica

PLACE AND DATE OF PUBLICATION:

Turin, 28 September 2012

TYPE OF PUBLICATION:

Newspaper Article

LANGUAGE/S OF PUBLICATION:

Italian

LANGUAGE OF REVIEW:

English

DESCRIPTION OF CONTENTS:

The present article, taken from “La Repubblica” newspaper, reports the speeches and the opinions of the Italian officials working at the Minister of Education and of an expert about the problem of early school leaving. In his interview the Undersecretary of State for Education Mr. Rossi Doria defines the situation of Italy in dramatic terms with regard to the number of students that every year early leave school: the European goal defined by the second Lisbon Strategy (“Europe 2020”) is still too far from being reached in Italy and the challenges that the Italian education system has to face in order to reduce the drop outs are still a lot. One possible answer to this problem could be to introduce new technologies in schools (“the digital media”) in order to try out modern learning methods and to attract the attention of students at risk of dropping out. This is the proposal of Mr. Pier Cesare Rivoltella, Professor of New Technologies at Cattolica University (Milan), who is firmly convinced that this kind of phenomenon can be scaled down only if school renews itself and accepts the opportunities given by the new technologies of this millennium. The role of the teacher should remain an essential point of reference for students, as Mr. Vittorio Campione, Councilor of New Technologies for the Minister of Education Mr. Francesco Profumo, said: the introduction of these instruments cannot substitute the traditional methods of education, but tradition should join innovation. Mr. Campione also refers to the positive results reached by some schools, thanks to the investments in the technological sector. At the end, the author of the article quotes from the speech of the writer Alessandro D’Avenia, whose theory is very lucid and concise: the secret for the reduction of the early school leaving problem is what he named “the loving triangle”, that is a collaborative and intense relationship between students, families and teachers aiming at discovering the strengths and the weaknesses of the students.

COMMENTS ON THIS PUBLICATION:

The present article is structured in a coherent way and introduces the reader to the early school leaving problem through a general view, exploring the more recent developments of this phenomenon in Italy. It synthetically presents the position of the Italian Government that is strongly convinced that the introduction of new technologies in the classrooms could help to solve the problem. Considering the complexity of the phenomenon concerned, this kind of proposal can be seen as one of the possible remedies to the scholastic drop outs, which should be integrated with other effective instruments. The statistical data reported in the article largely confirm the positive effects that the adoption of the digital media (such as the interactive blackboards and the connections in the classroom) has on the students’ performances. The author underlines the importance of the teacher’s role that cannot be substituted by the digitalization of the education methods. This is an important aspect, because it expresses the will of joining tradition and innovation. The last part of this article focuses on the theory of the “loving triangle”: it ends with the speech of Alessandro D’Avenia, who puts forward an interesting idea, taking into consideration the students’ needs.

NAME OF COMPILER:

Sara Ciabattini

NAME OF INSTITUTION:

Pixel Association

ROLE:

Project Assistant



Zone d'identification

4 mars 2013

Lancement du Module 5 “Soutien externe et coopération”

Au cours du mois de mars 2013, les partenaires forment les enseignants impliqués dans le projet au Module 5 "Soutien externe et coopération". Le module examine les ressources et soutiens externes pour les enseignants et élèves pour les aider à prévenir le décrochage scolaire.

School Inclusion - Copyright 2008 - Ce projet a bénéficié du soutien financié de la Commission européenne

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