Since the beginning of the new millennium, great efforts have been made at a European level on the integration of digital in education to overcome the monomediality, frontality, and transmissiveness of teaching-learning processes (e.g., European Commission et al., 2017).

Among the digital devices on the market, iPads, and other similar tablets, stand out for their affordances including portability, easy access to information, multitouch screen, and readiness for collaborative work (e.g., Henderson & Yeow, 2012). This translates into increasing autonomy, commitment, and motivation in learning activities, but also offering multiple opportunities to access the curriculum and a high degree of differentiation of the user's educational experience. Hence, one-to-one (1:1) learning initiatives started to be launched in Europe, especially in the Nordic countries. 1:1 learning initiatives are equipping all students of a given school, class, or age group with portable devices (e.g., laptops, netbooks, tablets, or smartphones) for learning purposes both at school and home (Bocconi et al., 2013).

However, research has long shown how the availability and adoption of digital equipment in the classroom are not automatically related to pupils’ academic performance (e.g., Hattie, 2009, 2015; Higgins et al., 2012, 2016). In other words, it is not the technology itself that makes the difference in achieving positive academic outcomes but how teachers integrate technologies in the classroom to improve and innovate education and training (Redecker & Punie, 2017). Therefore, what plays a significant role in influencing teachers’ behavior in the classroom is their preparation and perceptions of ICT integration (Abel et al., 2022). Unfortunately, most of the studies reveal teachers are not yet digitally competent (Fernández-Batanero et al., 2022). This became even clearer during the Covid-19 pandemic when teachers were revealed to be unprepared to set up forms of digital education (Lucisano, 2020; Ranieri et al., 2020).  

It follows how important it is to intensify investment in didactic innovation, especially in terms of digital skills training in teachers (Commissione europea, 2020; European Commission et al., 2021 Ranieri et al., 2020). Teacher digital competence lies in knowing how to effectively integrate and use digital technologies at every stage of teaching and learning activities, considering the different contexts of use (European Commission et al., 2017).

Therefore, the study aimed at investigating the impact of a 1:1 iPad integration pilot project in a elementary school classroom through a professional development (PD) initiative with in-service teachers. PD is critical in enhancing teachers’ technology competence and confidence, thus promoting the successful use of technology in their teaching and students’ academic achievements (Abel et al., 2022). The study lasting one and a half calendar years involved 2 in-service teachers, a total of 23 first-grade (s.y. 2021-2022) pupils (13 female and 10 male), and their parents, of a elementary school in the Veneto Region, Italy. In addition, a control group of 17 students with similar background characteristics was also involved.

The application of a Design-Based Research (DBR) was chosen in the implementation and refinement of the teachers’ PD program. The DBR methodology is characterized by 1) being situated in a real educational context, 2) solving a real problem from the context, 3) focusing on the design and testing of a significant intervention, and 4) involving close collaboration between the researcher and stakeholders and multiple iterations to reach the best design of the intervention (Philippakos et al., 2021). A study on the use of iPad in teaching-learning processes in an Apple Distinguished School abroad was also performed.

At the end of the experimentation, the impact of the project will be determined in terms of teachers' PD and students' learning outcomes achieved thanks to the use of the digital tool.

The initial problem to be solved in this DBR was the introduction of iPads in teaching. At the beginning of the experimentation (September-October 2021), we detected teachers' methodological choices in their classroom practices through observation tools, semi-structured interviews with teachers, and focus groups with pupils. In parallel, we tested the initial learning profiles of the students, and we surveyed the students' level of familiarity with the use of digital tools by administering a questionnaire to their parents. The first phase was followed by the revision of scientific literature and the look at existing practices to identify possible solutions to the initial problem (December 2021-March 2022). For this reason, it was decided to carry out a study of a successful school case that is part of the Apple Distinguished School circuit (March-April 2022). Based on the results of this second phase, the first implementation of solutions took place (April-June 2022). This phase also followed progressive steps: from a modeling phase in which the researcher carries out activities with the iPads (3w./week) and the class teacher supports and observes to a scaffolding phase in which the teacher performs activities with the iPads (3w./week) and the researcher supports and observes. Constant co-design and co-reflection processes were also carried out during this phase. At the end of the school year (May-June 2022), the progress of teachers’ methodologies and students’ learning achievements were monitored by repeating the semi-structured interviews with teachers, and the focus groups and tests with pupils. New objectives for the school year 2022-2023 were set and implemented through a fading phase in which the teacher becomes more and more autonomous in the conduct of activities (September-December 2022). At the end of the experimentation (December 2022), final tests on teachers’ methodologies and students’ learning outcomes were carried out. In the development of the project, the continuous collaboration between actors with different professional profiles and responsibilities led to the consideration of the technological, social, and pedagogical affordances of the technological tool in order to subsequently initiate the instructional design and the proposal of activities in the classroom. The following research questions guide this study: - What are the characteristics of a 1:1 initiative of iPad integration in a novice school in the use of iPads as teaching-learning tools? - What impacts occur in terms of teachers' methodological choices? - What are the effects of these changes on student learning outcomes?

The data collected from the entire experimentation are about to be analyzed. Therefore, it is not possible to report here the results and deduce the conclusions of this study. However, they will be available in the coming months. For now, we would like to stress that the school context where we carried out our research appears interesting as it is among the first ones in Italy to have started a 1:1 initiative with iPads in elementary school. The choice of a first-grade class was strategic to allow an approach to the use of technologies and devices at an early stage of schooling so that technological imprinting could take place without the presence of ICT usage habits like mere leisure and entertainment, as happens at an older age. Therefore, this study promises to provide important insights into the issue of ICT integration in education during the first years of schooling. Moreover, thanks to Design-Based Research methodology, a synergy has been created between different professional figures that have given solidity to the project since its beginning. The study of the successful school abroad also proved to be useful. This helped steer the study in the right direction, giving a vision of how it means integrating such a device every day at school for learning purposes. At the end of the study, we expect to be able to draw up a report on the implementation of the integration of the tool in teaching and learning processes and to detect its impacts in terms of teachers' professional development, as the ability to shift teaching practices from traditional teacher-centered to socio-constructivist student-centered methods. Lastly, we hope to detect areas of positivity of the tool in terms of impact on students’ learning.

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