Despite some of the limitations and critical issues that became evident during the pandemic period, it is now widely believed that the use of Distance Learning has highlighted the importance of digital for our educational system.

In light of its importance and pervasiveness in society, daily life and the world of work, it is necessary, in fact, to recognize that digitization is an inescapable issue in the future for our educational system and that the Italian school is at the forefront of addressing it and finding ways and times appropriate to the challenge.

If implemented properly, the digitization process can in fact be a tool to rethink teaching as a whole and make it more engaging, participatory and inclusive.

Accordingly, we decided to support Percorsi di Secondo welfare, a research and information laboratory that has been engaged for years in broadening and disseminating the debate on the changes taking place in Italian welfare. For instance, Percorsi di Secondo Welfare instituted Nova Schol@, a project that aims to investigate the correlation between didactic innovation, digitization and social inclusion.

Can innovative teaching, which among other things takes advantage of digital tools, foster processes of social inclusion in terms of improving school performance, reducing dropouts and acquiring skills useful for promoting access to public services and the labor market? What are the conditions necessary to promote digitization and didactic innovation within schools?

To answer these questions, Nova Schol@ also involves detailed field research through the involvement of students, teachers and parents in some public schools particularly active on the issues under investigation.

These research activities will be complemented by communication and dissemination activities, including the creation of a podcast in 8 episodes.

The project, which began in September 2022, will lead to a final research report by December 2023.