This article presents a critical review of a topic that is currently the focus of public and policy debate: social innovation. For some years, the main international organizations and institutions - for example, the OECD and the European Union – have emphasized how innovation and creativity have become important drivers of economic growth and social improvement, especially in time of socio-economic crisis. However  the concept of innovation has had a remarkable diffusion, it is not unambiguous  - see e. g. Murray, Calulier-Grice and Mulgan (2010) and Etmanski  (2008).

From another point of view, also the concept of creativity,  strictly connected to innovation, hasn’t been clearly identified: it covers a lot of fields and meanings, because implies the reexamination of old ways of thinking and doing things. Besides, the idea of “creativity” is constructed as a series of rhetorical claims (Banaji and Burn, 2007).

In this scenario, EU policies are addressed on the development of a creative and knowledge-based society through reinforcing the role of education and training and focusing school curricula on creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship.

The final report of a project on ‘Creativity and Innovation in Education and Training in the EU27 (ICEAC)’ shows that, in the educational context, creativity should be conceptualized as a transversal and cross-curricular skill, which everyone can develop. The report proposes five major areas where effort and improvement is needed to enable more creative learning and innovative teaching: curricula, pedagogies and assessment, teacher training, ICT and digital media, and educational culture and leadership.

The second concept, innovation, is defined as “the application of such a process or product in order to benefit a domain or field - in this case, teaching. Therefore, innovative teaching is the process leading to creative learning, the implementation of new methods, tools and contents which could benefit learners and their creative potential” (Cachia, Ferrari, Ala-Mutka, Punie, 2010).

As we can see from the analysis of international experiences and best practices, the relationship between creativity  and ICT and digital media is a current issue. Many research projects have shown that Information Communications Technology (ICT) could enable innovative and creative school environments., enhancing pupils’ motivation to think, understand and learn in innovative ways.

So, the aim of this work is to observe and examine the role played by school systems for the development and exploitation of innovation processes. In this regard, in fact, the school has a strategic role. It is both the recipient of the innovation process, but it can also be an important stimulus to the start of these same processes. The paper presents an analysis of national experiences and international best practices to enhance creativity and innovation, with a particular focus on the communication technologies. The research questions are the following:

What are the meanings and the main applications of social innovation and creativity in education? What role can play the different individual and collective actors that are involved in our global  society?

What is the role of communication technologies for developing creativity and innovation in educational systems?

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