Evaluation of modern educational software and basic digital competences among teachers in Italy

ABSTRACT

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the usefulness of educational software among teachers in Italy (N = 559). The evaluation of usefulness was conducted on the latest and most popular web-based software used by European teachers, namely: Quizizz, Mentimeter, Wakelet, Padlet, Canva, Emaze, Answergarden, Jamboard, Coggle, Createley, Wordwall, LearningApps, Prezi, Kahoot, Plickers, Trimino, Dobble, Genial.ly, ClassDojo, Explain Everything, KhanAcademy, and Easelly. Based on data collected in the first half of 2022 using an online survey, it was noted that: 1) The majority of teachers are not able to evaluate modern software because they do not use such teaching resources as those listed; 2) About 9.3% of teachers rate the listed software highly; 3) Most commonly teachers use and also rate highly: Canva, Wordwall, Padlet, LearningApps, Kahoot, Coggle, Jamboard, and Prezi; 4) Seniority and workplace does not always differentiate the evaluation of educational software.

KEYWORDS:

• Teaching software
• teachers
• Italy
• digitalisation
• schooling
• digital literacy

Acknowledgments

The article was written as part of the project “Teachers of the future in the information society—between risk and opportunity paradigm” funded by the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange under the Bekker programme Grant number: PPN/BEK/2020/1/00176.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2023.2173632

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Narodowa Agencja Wymiany Akademickiej [PPN/BEK/2020/1/00176].

Notes on contributors

Łukasz Tomczyk

Łukasz Tomczyk is a professor (adjunct) at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. He is a member of research networks; EU KIDS Online and COST Action CA16207 European Network for Problematic Usage of the Internet. His research interests concern media education, information society and lifelong learning. He is a reviewer of textbooks from the Ministry of National Education and was a scholarship holder of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (young scientists).

Pierpaolo Limone

Pierpaolo Limone is an Italian professor of education, rector of the telematic university ‘Pegaso’ from January 2023. He was rector of UniFg. A scholar of educational technologies, he has conducted international research on innovation in teaching and learning methods.

Piergiorgio Guarini

Piergiorgio Guarini his research interests are innovative and alternative didactical methodologies, in particular digital storytelling and serious games. PhD student in Neuroscience and Education.