The Web 2.0 Skills of Italian Students: An Empirical Study in Southern Italy

This paper presents the main results of an empirical research funded by the Italian Ministry of Education and carried out by INDIRE (National Institute of Documentation, Innovation and Research in Education) in 2015 .Starting from a survey based on a sample of 9.508 students, the aim was to out-line and discuss results relating to the youngsters’ “participatory” and “Web 2.0” skills. The research coped with issues such as the daily digital practices of students, their different “digital styles” and their relationship with learning outcomes and learning needs. The results highlight several interesting thinking issues such as: 1) the development of different “digital styles” among students in relation to their school achievement: more “generic” and entertainment-based the style of the students with low marks at school, more “practical” and knowledge-based the style of the students with the highest scores; 2) a positive correlation between participation in advanced online activities in the classroom (i.e. involving digital literacy, online teamwork, creative software use) and a more frequent and conscious use of technology by students outside school. Through the analysis of the data, some interpretative directions will be drawn, in order to discuss the pivotal role of schools in improving students’ formal and in-formal digital skills.

"In the present research important differences in the usage of the web depending on age and school level, school achievement, as well as the frequency of digital educational activities which youngsters experience at school have been highlighted. By means of the above-mentioned data, it emerges that training in digital competence, especially the kinds known as “transverse” and “soft”, requires a direct and constant commitment by schools not only and not so much in the support and control of the youngsters, but above all in steering them towards an aware, critical and participatory approach to digital media. The evidence on the relationships between school performance and the ability to manage the internet in an informative and useful way have outlined the risk that digital consumption could broaden the socio-cultural gaps among youngsters, in particular among high and low achievers at school." (Buffardi & Taddeo, 2017, p. 71)