Interview with Donatella Nucci

	Are you interested in getting involved in an eTwinning project with a school in Italy? To learn about how eTwinning is working in Italy, we recently talked to Donatella Nucci, the European coordinator for eTwinning in Italy.

1. How does education in Italy differ from other countries in Europe?

When talking to European colleagues, I get the impression that they are particularly surprised that we have a three-month summer holiday. Our school year runs from mid-September to mid-June, while the exact starting and finishing dates vary from region to region. Although there are no classes in the afternoon at secondary schools, the school day is quite long, on average from 8am - 2pm with just a short break of 15 minutes.  As for holidays, we have two weeks at Christmas, less than a week at Easter and a few additional days scattered throughout the year, however, the total number of school days is not lower than in other European countries.

At the secondary school level, students have less choice compared to some of their European peers in regards to what subjects they can study. As a general rule, instead of electives or optional subjects, there is a fixed curriculum for each class and type of school. The main choices are between the so-called academic (the Licei), technical, and vocational schools; however, it is still mandatory to take subjects such as math, physics and Italian in all schools (e.g., just as students at a scientific school study Latin, students at a classical school study chemistry). There has been a lot of discussion about reforming secondary education in Italy but for now, also due to the recent change in government, no reforms have been introduced.

2. How is ICT being implemented in Italy?

While there is still a large effort being made to build the necessary infrastructure in schools and to give them access to a broadband connection, ICT is interwoven in all major initiatives of teacher training, provided at national level. Through the Puntoedu  blended e-learning system, following different training schemes, more than 500 000 teachers have become competent in the application of ICT in teaching. Nevertheless, in some schools computers are still in computer labs, rather than in classrooms, which can leave teachers of non-technical subjects with trouble convincing colleagues that they need to use ICT.  On the bright side, through eTwinning we have many teachers who have been successful in demonstrating the marvellous things that are possible if the school head allows them to use the lab for their classes.

3. Now two years after its launch, how has eTwinning impacted Italy?

On the whole, Italian teachers are very interested in all initiatives with a European dimension, and the number of registrations and partnerships so far demonstrates that. In particular, some teachers find that it is nice to have an action that is free from administrative burdens and deadlines.

I personally wish that teachers would be more adventurous in their use of ICT tools, moving beyond programmes such as Word and PowerPoint. There are many easy tools available that give a lot of satisfaction and reward efforts with better results.

4. What kind of projects are Italian schools most often interested in?

For the moment, most projects focus on foreign languages and getting to know people in different countries; however, there are a number of very interesting projects that could be considered benchmarks for eTwinning in Italy. There are many remarkable projects on science, math, Latin, history, philosophy, the environment and informatics. All curricular subjects can be involved in an eTwinning activity.

5. Are there special eTwinning activities going on in Italy?

We are currently organising three major training seminars which will take place in Montecatini (10-11 October), Naples (23-24 October) and Mestre (7-8 November). These seminars are aimed at all schools that have registered a project. We are organising them in collaboration with the regional school authorities (USR Uffici Scolastici Regionali) as we have been working with them since the very beginning of the eTwinning action; there is a regional eTwinning representative and an eTwinning pedagogical advisor for each region of Italy.

6. Do you have any advice for teachers who wish to twin up with schools in Italy?

Yes: There is far more to Italy than pizza, pasta and sunshine! There are a lot of cultural themes that you can easily link with Italy and your own curriculum… just give us a try! 

	Web-editori:	Christina Crawley

	Julkaistu :	Tuesday, 19 Sep 2006

	Viimeksi muokattu :	Monday, 25 Sep 2006

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