"The coronavirus has exaggerated a need that already existed in education: that of inclusion, of using technology to meet those who, due to health problems but not only, cannot physically attend schools and universities". With these words Federico Frattini, director of the MIP – Politecnico di Milano School of Management, comments on a very hot topic these days: if it is true that it was inevitable to close schools and universities (in some areas for almost a month, after all), how important is smart learning, i.e. distance learning? While the Minister of Education Lucia Azzolina reiterated that the school year is not at risk (but also that there will be no recourse to the "political 6"), some primary and secondary schools - very few, in fact - and many universities have insisted on a tool – that of online lessons – which has already existed or should have existed for years but which in Italy is struggling to take off.
“The digital divide is an excuse – argues Frattini -: who knows what technology is not required to use distance learning apps. All you need is a common smartphone and a connection even from a mobile network, with the 4G or 4.5G that has been present in Italy for years throughout the national territory”. In short, with a 10 euro per month connection, everyone can access apps such as Teams, the one from Microsoft which is the most used and which is now part of the Office package, or Zoom, the video conferencing app "which if possible works with a connection even milder than what is needed for Microsoft”. "Or Cisco's WebEx, which given the situation has decided to give everyone its live communication system for three months", adds the professor who is an expert in smart learning: the postgraduate business school of the Milan Polytechnic has been practicing it since 2013 (on average around 1.500 of the 2.000 students enrolled in courses and masters attend lessons remotely) and recently the Financial Times has included it in the world top 10 of the best Masters in Business Administration available remotely.
“However, online lessons need to be rethought – adds Frattini-: a two-hour live course does not have the same effectiveness if it is repeated for two hours on a smartphone or PCneeds to be completely reorganized. Many schools, on the other hand, followed a basic approach, limiting themselves to doing what was done live remotely: better than nothing, but they didn't optimize". And how should they organize themselves instead? “Before the lesson, the teacher should share content, after which he could, for example, divide the course into 4 groups of 5 students, interacting for half an hour with each one. And then a final comparison using the Teams app, maybe”. In fact, if tools now considered trivial are enough for students from home to access the courses of the future, the same is true for schools too: with any connection you can do everything, provided you motivate teachers “and also train them. Perhaps the government could have done more on this: the obligation to continue the lessons online would have been too much, but more resources could be made available, free licenses for everyone, experts ready to support principals and teachers".
Why is it so important for kids to study from home? “Not so much for the completion of the program – these are Frattini's words -, but because continuity of learning is essential, especially in lower-level, elementary and middle schools, to be clear. And then because it is simple and inclusive: today the coronavirus forces all students to stay at home, but all year round there are children who, for various reasons, often health reasons, cannot physically attend lessons". Smart learning is further behind than smart working, but it is already the present.
