The current emergency that forces us into enforced social isolation and unprecedented modes of remote interaction is particularly detrimental to schools at all levels of education and to the Italian university system, which find themselves unprepared to face the necessity of remote teaching.
The reasons for this unpreparedness are many, such as infrastructural deficiencies or the lack of a widespread digital culture, to name two of the most evident.
As designers, we feel particularly called upon to define, without further delay, an educational system that adequately integrates tools, culture, education, and inclusivity for full digital citizenship in the time we live in.
For this reason, as a first step, we are launching a survey aimed at professors and students of all levels of the Italian school and university system on how the necessity of distance learning, determined by the health emergency, has been addressed.
The purpose we aim to achieve with this survey is to:
1. Gather the various experiences of distance learning that, in this emergency situation, are being implemented in Italian schools and universities, assessing their functionality and satisfaction levels.
2. Lay the foundations for defining a shared system of values to build a constructive debate on future inclusive, usable, and open-source digital education.
3. Envision the charter of rights (and duties) for a digital citizenship and education that is sustainable and centered on people’s needs.