(versione italiana qua)
For a long time now, I have been advocating in Italy and across Europe for the importance of teaching informatics in schools. Here at home, this effort is embodied by the Programma il Futuro project, which brings the scientific principles of informatics to schools at all levels and has reached its ninth year of implementation. At the European level, I have contributed through scientific associations in the field, culminating in the creation of the Informatics for All coalition. More recently, I have been trying to raise awareness of these issues among the general public through my book La rivoluzione informatica: conoscenza, consapevolezza e potere nella società digitale (The Informatics Revolution: Knowledge, Awareness, and Power in the Digital Society).
My conviction is that, just as the transition from an agricultural to an industrial society transformed education, introducing into compulsory schooling the sciences (physics, biology, chemistry, and so on) that underpin all industrial machinery, so the transition from an industrial to a digital society requires adding computer science to compulsory education, as the discipline essential to understanding digital machines.
Unfortunately, for the last twenty to thirty years in Europe, the myth of "digital skills" has reigned almost unchallenged, serving as the subject of dozens of European Union documents.
In the early 1990s, with the rapid spread of information technology made widely accessible by the personal computer, great emphasis was placed on the so-called European Computer Driving Licence , under the assumption that being able to “drive” a computer would suffice to ensure digital competence. This was short-sighted, akin to believing in the nineteenth century that teaching everyone to drive cars and motorcycles would be enough to industrialize a country. Knowing how to use digital devices and systems to facilitate teaching or work does not mean understanding the science behind their design and development.
Then, in the 2000s, "digital competence" was introduced as one of the Key Competences for Lifelong Learning, once again framing it essentially in terms of operational skills, when what was needed was to add informatics competencies alongside the traditional scientific ones: just as the natural sciences are essential for understanding the physical world, informatics is essential for understanding the digital one.
.More recently, with the widespread diffusion of digital devices at every level of society, another major misunderstanding has emerged: that of Digital Education, that is, teaching delivered through digital technology infrastructure. It was assumed that this approach, delivering lessons using digital systems and products, would automatically produce digitally competent citizens.
Nothing could be further from the truth. First, because using digital technologies does not necessarily improve teaching. Second, because it ties education to the availability of specific devices and platforms, which can become difficult to replace. A teacher who decides to change textbooks over the years is not normally bound to remain with the same publisher. But when a specific technology platform has been used for teaching, changing it becomes considerably more difficult. This is the well-known phenomenon of vendor lock-in, dreaded by anyone who cares about an organization's ability to evolve and adapt in response to market pressures and competition.
Another reason for the misunderstanding surrounding "Digital Education" is that it produces users and consumers of digital technologies rather than creators. For that purpose, one must teach the scientific discipline underlying their design and implementation. Just as knowing how to drive a car or operate a washing machine does not make one an engineer, and weighing or cooking pasta does not make one a physicist or chemist. In this respect, the European Union has spent rather too much time moving in the wrong direction.
In April 2023, the European Commission published a proposed Recommendation to the Council of the European Union (COM(2023) 206 final) that sends a strong and unambiguous signal on the teaching of computer science in schools. I will turn to its contents in a moment, but first I want to highlight that the accompanying technical staff working document contains an explicit acknowledgment of the strategic mistake that was made. It states that while « there is a fast emerging trend in educational systems to include Informatics as part of national curricula and as part of the general education for all», noting that «Informatics has progressively become an important foundational competence along with the three Rs: reading, writing, and arithmetic/mathematics», what happened in Europe was that «for some time, most European educational systems fell behind this trend, focusing more on digital literacy and with the digitalisation of teaching», It further admits that «the main limitation of this approach is that, despite providing pupils the means to use digital technologies, it does not fully equip them with the ability to create, control and develop digital contents».
The proposed Recommendation to the Council is very explicit on the teaching of informatics.
Recital 19 states that « Regardless of curricular choices, it is necessary to promote quality education in informatics, supported by age- and developmentally appropriate teaching methods, quality resources, gender-balanced uptake, representation, and proper evaluation,» while Recital 26 recalls «… the challenges most Member States face in recruiting, retaining and preparing teachers, especially in informatics (for primary/secondary education …) or other specific/advanced digital areas (for higher education)».
Point 4 of the recommendations calls on Member States to «Support high-quality education in informatics at school», specifically by ensuring that «From the start of compulsory education … all students have the opportunity to develop their digital skills through exposure to the core elements of informatics» and considering the possibility of «setting up a separate subject on informatics, to deliver a more targeted provision that has clear education and training goals, dedicated time, and structured assessment». It also emphasizes the importance of ensuring «that teaching and learning on informatics is supported by qualified and specialised teachers» and « promote diversity and a gender-balanced uptake and reduce any possible stereotype in the teaching and learning of informatics.».
Point 5 focuses on the crucial role of teachers in this process, recommending that Member States «set up and improve measures to recruit and train specialised teachers in the area of informatics». It is worth recalling that in the United Kingdom, which introduced a compulsory computing curriculum in all schools starting from the first year of primary school in the 2014–15 academic year, it became evident after a few years that the situation had actually worsened due to the lack of a sufficient number of adequately trained teachers.
This therefore represents a historic turning point, which we hope will finally lead all European countries to undertake serious and sustained efforts in informatics education. Education remains a national competence, and the role of the European Union is therefore subsidiary. Fortunately, at least in Italy, the Minister of Education and Merit, Giuseppe Valditara, has already declared his intention to strengthen students’ preparation in scientific subjects. Since this Commission proposal clearly points to informatics as the foundational scientific subject for the digital society, we trust it will lead to a course correction from what has been planned so far in this sector, including within the PNRR, where the focus has remained on operational skills for using digital technology.
Like all educational processes, this is not something that can happen overnight — but what is at stake is our ability to be major players in the development of the digital society. Our academic community of computer scientists and software engineers stands ready, through the CINI National Laboratory "Informatics and Schools" which I direct, to support this process. This October we will be holding in Bari the first national conference on the teaching of informatics (ITADINFO), bringing together school teachers and university researchers.
What will now be required is strong political will, backed by the cross-party agreement that is indispensable for sustaining a change that will take at least a decade to fully take hold, so as to ensure that our children have the opportunity to shape and govern their own digital future.
--The original version (in italian) has been published by "StartMAG" on 17 May 2023.
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