FORTIC courses: a successful challenge or a missed opportunity?

Abstract

The paper deals with a massive online ICT in-service training programme for Italian schoolteachers — FORTIC, training on ICT — carried out in 2003/04. As is usually the case, FORTIC has proved both a successful challenge and a missed opportunity. For instance, thanks to FORTIC, online teacher training has become more widespread with as many as 190,000 teachers — more or less one fourth of the entire teaching population, at all school levels — trained in a relatively short time. Likewise, according to the results of an INVALSI — the body in charge of monitoring — questionnaire submitted to all participants, teacher access to the use of ICT in teaching practices has been improved. However, is it really so? Of course, it will take much longer and the use of more sophisticated tools to measure the real impact of ICT in teaching and learning practices. While a few features of FORTIC have been fully discussed and analysed, both by experts and laymen, other questions have been explored only superficially, if not completely overlooked. Thus, this paper sets out to discuss a few specific issues raised by FORTIC at a deeper level, in order to give as full an account as possible of the training experience and to better focus strengths and weaknesses.