Updated Information – Covid-19: How Is Italy Coping With School Closure?

This item came through in Thursday’s OLDaily by Stephen Downes.

Covid-19: How is Italy coping with school closure?

Anna Cristina D’Addio, Francesca Endrizzi, World Education Blog, Apr 02, 2020

Italy was one of the earlier and hardest hit regions in Europe and had a lot less time to prepare for a sudden conversion to online learning. How well did they fare? “They have reacted quickly. Some schools have activated or accelerated training opportunities for teachers… t he Ministry of Education has set up a web page with a knowledge bank of initiatives for schools… INDIRE with other two networks developed Flipped classroom, a project adopted by 592 schools.” And so on. It hasn’t been perfect: “2% of Italian families have internet connection between 2 and 30 Mbs, much lower than is required to download and stream educational content.” (In case you’re wondering, Bell provides me with a miserly 5Mbs here in Casselman, Canada, so it’s not impossible to work with less, just frustrating).

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The item itself comes from the World Education Blog, and for those who may not be familiar with K-12 distance and online learning outside of North America (or at least not familiar with European jurisdictions), this entry – which I have added the initial portions of below – does contain some useful information.

Covid-19: How is Italy coping with school closure?

Posted on 2 April 2020 by GEM Report

By Anna Cristina D’Addio and Francesca Endrizzi, GEM Report

Italy is at the epicentre of the Covid-19 pandemic. With schools and universities closed at the end of February in the most affected areas of Italy, and closed nationwide on March 9, almost 12 million of learners from pre-primary to tertiary education are now at home. The country has since set distance learning as the rule to continue fulfilling the constitutional right to education for all.

The Ministry of Education immediately convened a taskforce for educational emergencies to meet students’ needs. But could the country have been better prepared? What strategies are making a difference? And how is equity being ensured?

To continue reading, click here.