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.
