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School systems in the XXI century face the problems and uncertainties of a rapidly changing society. Students’ chances of thriving in school are stifled by problems old and new, including socio-economic fragility, disparities in access to technology and connectivity, outdated teaching methodologies, and a lack of digital competences among teachers. The challenge we face is to prepare students for a complex future through innovative tools, fit for facing the changes underway.
We realized that, to change schools and make them able to face all these challenges, it would not be sufficient to focus solely on teacher training, or on infrastructural or digital innovation. We listened to schools, jointly designing and launching actions aimed at leveraging digital competences and technologies to promote inclusion and creativity, to personalize teaching and learning, to simplify organizational and administrative processes.
We designed an initiative which would bring together all actors of the educational ecosystem: schools, government, foundations, publishers, universities, think tanks, businesses, and startups. We developed a model for educational innovation which combines infrastructure, professional development, and community. We see technological innovation both as an enabler of pedagogical innovation and as a way to empower schools to see themselves as agents of change.
Since 2017, Riconnessioni has been innovating the Italian education system
through collaboration with public and private-sector actors.
Together, we connect school building to fiber-optic broadband, we engage teachers in professional development pathways, we promote a conscious and critical use of information technology in teaching and learning, we facilitate co-design and collaboration processes which build bridges between research, innovation, and schools.
Our objective is to innovate the infrastructure and pedagogical practices of our education system to ensure everyone access to knowledge and to help everyone be a lifelong learner.
Our actions contribute to Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo’s Educating for collective development mission in two ways:
To help all teachers innovate their professional practices, critically evaluate and implement digital technologies, and ensure that their teaching is inclusive and equitable.
To enable the innovation of administrative processes and teaching practices, to guarantee all students, teachers and staff access to knowledge.
Riconnessioni is a model developed by Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo and realized by Fondazione per la Scuola, to contribute to the foundation’s Educating for collective development goal. We leverage collaboration between public and private-sector actors to mobilize investments and contribute to the digital transformation of our education system.
We realize projects in our educational system. Find out more through case studies which illustrate our work and which could be replicated in other territories.
How many teachers have been engaged? In what kind of professional development? How many schools have been connected to broadband?
Does Riconnessioni’s professional development offering foster teachers’ competences?
Does participation in the project have an impact on students’ competences?
Impact evaluation was both quantitative and qualitative. 76 headteachers, 2,423 teachers, and 4,258 students participated in the Riconnessioni test, designed to measure changes in digital competences and socio-emotional skills. The test was administered twice with a two-year interval. Control groups were used.
Results show that Riconnessioni’s actions produced a 10% increase in teachers’ digital competences. This was particularly strong in teachers who had actively participated in the training programme, and less in those who had only been involved through trickle-down training. The project brought more visible effects on the competences of primary school students than in lower-secondary school students.
Riconnessioni is a multidisciplinary team which brings together a broad range of backgrounds and different expertise. Find out who we are and how to get in touch.
Meet the team