Digital Learning Environment Embedded in a Larger Nationwide One: A Case Study of a High School

Abstract

The outbreak of COVID-19 and national measures undertaken to tackle the spread of the virus may cause significant disruption to the provision of education opportunities for learners and teachers. In Italy, most schools did not practice online teaching before the emergency, and in a short time head teachers, teachers, students had to face new technological tools and deal with a new type of teaching. The PPS – “Problem Posing and Solving” – project offered to all Italian teachers and schools, for free, a way of carrying out Online Education through a nationwide integrated Digital Learning Environment (DLE). In this paper we present a case study of a high school that used one DLE for online teaching of the entire school, embedded in a larger DLE at national level. The goal of this research is to present the integrated DLE of the project and the reasons why this case study can represent an effective model for online teaching of a school under different dimensions (technological, human and pedagogical). The results show that the teachers and the school head agree with our point of view. Most teachers are very supportive of using one DLE and think that this facilitates students and collaboration among teachers. Being included in a larger project allows teachers to compare, collaborate and share experiences and materials with teachers from all over Italy, and to have continuous technical and training support.