Digital divide also in schools
The reopening of schools in September is now imminent, and parents and children are already preparing to address this adventure in an entirely new key. There is still no clear news about the changes made, but what is really certain is the inconvenience we have caused by the coronavirus lockdown period we have experienced. Many young people followed their lessons at home, but many others did not have this luck, or had to use friends, relatives and voluntary associations to access the network and a PC. The most might seem strange, but in 2020 there is still a digital divide in Italy.
Schools and IT primary needs
The biggest problem, however, is not the lack of access to IT devices, but the lack of training in this area and the desire to learn. In our 2018 article we have already highlighted the serious cultural gaps in Abruzzo and the massive presence of neets, i.e. young people who do not study or work. Google always helps us with our research. After coronavirus lockdown, what was most prejudicial to Italians was the reopening of gyms and other non-educational activities (such as bars or discotheques, and not theatres or museums). The reopening of schools is now on the list, but only because it has now come; The amount of research remains insufficient, such as the desire to defeat digital ignorance before taking your smartphone.
How to encourage young people to attend schools and fight digital ignorance
It should be recognised that most young people always live with smartphones in their hands, including in schools, but this does not make them able to use IT devices. The large number of errors made during online lessons (such as microphone or webcam left on during private breaks) supported this concept. And we are not the only ones to think of it! In an interesting Euronews article entitled ‘Young, ignorant and satisfied people’, this is precisely what is at stake: ‘If youth ignorance is to be combated with concrete proposals, the strategies are not missing, including by encouraging children to engage themselves, without necessarily using Google’. Any more details to add?
Digital ignorance, noious schools or digital divide?
It is true that families often lack the funds to invest in training, but it is also true that schools have maintained the same post-conflict approach over the years without adapting to generational change and IT developments. As a result, young people find older teachers who are unwilling to follow the ever-changing world of those who have a window on the world that keeps them up to date in real time. In fact, Euronews focused on the point in the article cited above: Always having clicked answers reduces the level of attention, the desire for research and the desire to know. So much, if necessary, we think Google.
But you need to know how to use Google!
Closed schools and open mouths
We in KuboWeb can add that in order to become a successful web agency we need to go beyond the years of compulsory and professional schools, university courses and keep up to date with IT developments. Google is therefore not enough, and we conclude by leaving an example of how harmful digital ignorance can be: Milanese Imbrutated video with Coronavirus interviews in Gallipoli. There is no excuse, there is access to the web and is known about the latest trends in social and mode issues in general.
Returning to schools, so it is not enough nowadays to dusting second-hand books with the same concepts as 60 years ago, and the results are obvious. The comments leave them to you, waiting for this new (perhaps) more digital school year.
