The Survey commissioned in 2011 by the European Commission (Survey of Schools: ICT in Education, 2013) has shown some interesting tendencies of the new educational landscape, according to the priorities of the Digital Agenda for Europe and the EU2020 goals. The report describes the ways in which information and communication technologies affect the ways of teaching and learning in 31 European countries.

Many studies have demonstrated that the new digital technologies (together with other variables, for example the human factors) can radically change the school environment, offering to education systems new opportunities, but also introducing some criticalities. Education systems are expected to promote new ways of teaching, developing the knowledge and key competences needed by 21st century societies (European Commission, 2009).

The objective of this paper is to analyze critically, and from a sociological perspective, the Italian school context in comparison with the other European countries, identifying the conditions that promote or prevent the full integration of ICT in school, the cultivation of a digital media culture and the promotion of new media literacies (Livingstone, Bober & Helsper, 2005; Tirocchi, 2013).

European Commission (2013). Survey of Schools: ICT in Education. European Union European Schoolnet (2012). Survey of Schools: ICT in Education. Country profile: Italy. [Online]. Available from: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/sites/digital-agenda/files/Italy%20country%20profile.pdf Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence culture: Where old and new media collide. New York, NY: New York University Press. Jenkins, H., Ford, S., & Green, J. (2013). Spreadable media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture, New York, NYU Press Livingstone, S., Bober, M., & Helsper, E. (2005). Internet literacy among children and young people: Findings from the UK Children Go On-line project. London, UK: LSE Research Online. Available from: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/397//UKCGOonlineLiteracy.pdf OECD. (2009). 21st century skills and competences for new millennium learners in OECD countries. OECD Education Working Papers, 41. Selwyn, N. (2010) The ‘new’ connectivities of digital education, in Apple M. W., Ball S. J., Gandin L. A. (2010) Selwyn, N. (2010), ‘‘Web 2.0 and the school of the future, today’’, in OECD, Inspired by technology driven by pedagogy, OECD Publishing, Paris Taddeo, G., Tirocchi, S. (2012a). Learning in a 2.0 classroom: results from an empirical research in the italian context, in Pumilia-Gnarini P., Favaron E., Pacetti E., Guerra L., Bishop J. (ed.). Handbook for Didactic, Strategies and Technologies for Education, Hershey (PA), Igi-Global, pp. 57-67. Taddeo, G., Tirocchi, S. (2012b), “Re-tweet the teacher…”. Are italian teachers “followed by” or “following” the Web 2.0 culture?, «Rem», n. 2, pp. 219-234. Tirocchi, S. (2013). Sociologie della Media education. Giovani e media al tempo dei nativi digitali, Milano, FrancoAngeli.