Fostering the Digital Competence of Schools: Piloting SELFIE in the Italian Education Context

Abstract

This paper reports on interesting outcomes from the pilot initiative that deployed the SELFIE tool in a sample of 201 schools in Italy, involving a population of more than 31,000 school leaders, teachers and students. Developed by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, SELFIE is based on the conceptual framework for Digitally-Competent Educational Organizations (DigCompOrg) and it aims at supporting schools to self-reflect on their digital capacity. Results show variance in the school leaders’, teachers’ and students’ perception of their school’s digital competence and different levels of use of digital technology. The paper also discusses the issue of the systemic approach needed to integrate, sustain and scale-up SELFIE in compulsory education, drawing some practical implications for other schools willing to adopt and adapt SELFIE to their local context.