Digital Citizenship Education in the First Cycle of Education. First Results of a Collaborative Research in Lombardy and Molise (Italy)

Digital Citizenship Education is part of Civic Education, consolidating the role of schools to promote the education of citizens. Acquiring digital skills in today’s society is a key element, emphasizing the importance of considering technologies as subject of reflection and not only as educational tools. The aim is to help students to develop a critical mindset, responsibility and ethical awareness, elements on which Media Education insists from the beginning. Since the school year 2018-19, CREMIT (Research Center about Media Education, Innovation and Technology) of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart and University of Molise are leading a research project to design vertical curricula (from pre-primary to lower secondary education) for the development of digital civic competences. 14 schools in Lombardy and 5 schools in Molise were chosen on the basis of the significance of past experiences in the field of media education and in order to represent all the provinces of the two Italian regions. The research project, which caused COVID-19 health emergency, has been postponed by one year, is structured as follows: a first year for designing the curriculum and a second year for experimenting paths of Digital Citizenship Education. Collaborative research has been chosen, allowing the direct involvement of teachers as coinvestigators. The first results can be summarized as follows: collegiality as an essential condition for the full inclusion of Media Education in curricular teaching and the value of active methods to promote engagement and learning.