Training digital competence of future teachers: the eTwinning teacher training institutes project

The pervasiveness of digital media in contemporary society – especially following the recent epidemiological emergency from COVID-19 – has led to redefining the boundaries between real and virtual and to rethinking teaching-learning processes through the mediation of new media and technological languages (Rivoltella, 2020). Digital tools are perpetually poised between virtue and vertigo (Quèau, 1993), at the mercy as much as those who demonize them – due to the various dangers of the network, from cyberbullying to cyberstalking, which ask the Screen generation (Rivoltella, 2006) to develop a critical and responsible thinking – as much as those who consider them an effective resource to promote learning and to rethink learning environments with a view to greater flexibility, diversification, organization, sharing and management of resources, collaboration and social networking (Bonaiuti et al., 2017). In this scenario, media education is necessary which, in line with European frameworks such as DigComp and DigCompEdu, allows to support the digital competence of teachers and students. The role of the teacher is redefined as a learning planner (Limone, 2012) within an integrated multimedia environment for teaching: if properly trained, he becomes a point of reference for promoting students' digital skills and making them aware of the risks and of the potential of new digital media, through a responsible, critical and reflective use of the same. Based on these premises, an innovative experience of training the digital competences of future teachers will be presented within the eTwinning Teacher Training Institutes project (Pateraki, 2018), conducted at the Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria. The training project – in progress – represents a valid professional development tool (Perla, 2019) useful for stimulating not only the multicultural dimension, the culture of inclusion and internationalization processes, but also to share the adoption of good practices, the concept of digital citizenship of the school through remote collaboration conveyed by the use of technologies (ecd.generazioniconnesse.it).