New technologies in support of creativity and innovation

As previously stated, the whole Mission 1 of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan of the Government is dedicated to digitalisation and innovation, with an investment of 1 billion. The objectives of the first Mission are in fact to promote and support the digital transition, both in the private sector and in the Public Administration; to support the innovation of the production system, and to invest in two key sectors for Italy, tourism and culture.

The main actions contained in the Mission are:

• spreading ultra-broadband and fast connections throughout the country;
• incentives for the digital transition and for the adoption of innovative technologies and digital skills by the private sector;
• the digitalisation of the Public Administration and the strengthening of digital skills;
• supporting supply chains and internationalization and investments in the aerospace sector;
• the relaunch of tourism and cultural sectors with an innovative and sustainable approach, to improve access to tourist and cultural sites and their use.

Week of Scientific and Technological Culture. Among the various initiatives organized by state institutions to support creativity and innovation, there is the Week of Scientific Culture, established in 1991 by the then MURST (Ministry of University and Scientific and Technological Research), in collaboration with the then Ministry of Education (today the Ministry of Education and Merit) and the Ministry for Cultural and Environmental Heritage (today MiC).

The Week of Scientific and Technological Culture aims to spread a solid technical-scientific culture, stimulating the creation and launch of effective communication and exchange channels between the universe of civil society and the Research System (represented by universities, public and private research centres, museums, companies, associations, etc.). Among the objectives of the initiative, there is the promotion of a project aimed at creating a national system of permanent institutions (museums, centres and cities of science and technology, universities, academies, etc.) that provide citizens and in particular school-age young people updated and certified technical-scientific information. The subjects who take part in the “Weeks” organize specialized workshops targeting young people.

Agreement between AICA and the Ministry of Education and Merit

In promoting the creativity and innovation capacity of young people, the consolidated partnership between the Italian Association dedicated to the development of knowledge, training and digital culture (AICA) and the Ministry of Education and Merit is surely worth mentioning. Signed for the first time in 1999, it targets students but also at teachers and non-teaching staff. It provides for the implementation of activities aimed at greater digital development in schools and the skills that students should develop.

In this scenario and within the framework of the PNRR, precisely for the "School 4.0" investment line, 2.1 billion euros have been allocated for the transformation of traditional classrooms into innovative learning environments, for the creation of laboratories for the digital professions of the future and, more generally, to promote a broad digital transition program in the school. The most relevant actions are Next Generation Classrooms and Next Generation Labs.

Furthermore, AICA cooperates with schools to achieve the objectives of the PNRR and the School Plan 4.0 on the following topics:

• training and certification of the digital skills of students and teachers
• training of teachers in the use of digital tools for teaching
• training of teachers for the teaching of Coding.

Generazioni Connesse (Connected Generations). The "Connected Generations" project is co-financed by the European Commission under the "Connecting Europe Facility" (CEF) programme, through which the Commission promotes strategies aimed at making the Internet a safer place for younger users, promoting a positive and conscious use. The platform of the project provides with many educational materials and tools for students and teachers alike and it also has some sections dedicated to culture and creativity, “considering staying online as a cultural act”.

Facilitating access to culture through new technologies.

Syllabus for digital civic education

The Educational Kit developed by Generazioni Connesse is a tool aimed at all educational institutions, public and private alike, and it has the purpose of framing the corpus of themes and contents that are the basis of the development of a full digital citizenship of students, through solid educational paths that intend to guide the teacher in the creation of a real digital civic education laboratory within their own class.

This abacus of interactive teaching materials and ludic-educational proposals is based on the scientific method EAS - Situated Learning Episodes - which meets and intertwines DigComp 2.1, the reference framework for citizens' digital skills and the eight levels of control. The choice is aimed at integrating the proposed activities (the operational slides characterized by didactic actions that can be spent in the classroom) with the relative "Area of competence" and "Dimension", up to the level that the activity requires or reaches.

The Educational Kit is organized into five areas:

• The first part is linked to a general understanding of the change originating from the convergence between digital technologies and connectivity.
• The second part, associated with media education, aims at clarifying the profound implications that the changes originating from digital technologies have on our individual and social dimension.
• The third part deals with information education (information literacy), both through the development of the skills necessary for the research, collection, use and conservation of information, and through the understanding of the dynamics related to the profound change taking place in the ecosystem of information production and distribution.
• The fourth part deals with the implications of quantification and computation, dynamics intrinsically linked to the diffusion of digital technologies.
• Finally, the fifth part develops the connection between citizenship and digital creativity.

General Catalogue of Cultural Heritage. To facilitate access to the immense Italian tangible and intangible cultural heritage, the former MiBACT and the ICCD (Central Institute for Catalogues and Documentation) created the General Catalogue of Cultural Heritage, a database which contains all the descriptive information of the cultural heritage catalogued in Italy and the result of the activity of the various Institutions that, in the area, deal with their protection and valorisation.

The catalogue cards are managed by SIGECweb. The platform allows users to search, view previews and access the catalogue sheet of the individual asset of interest. From the site, it is possible to consult a summary sheet (from which to draw the essential information on the asset :) and download an analytical sheet, which contains detailed information, including historical information, state of conservation, legal conditions and presence of constraints, etc. The portal is an advanced and intelligent version that implements and surpasses the previous platform, allowing the public to monitor more than 14,000 places of culture and access 1,250,000 catalog entries destined to become 2 million in the coming days as activities continue.

National Library Service (SBN).

The National Library Service (SBN). It is a network promoted by MiC, the Regions and the Universities and coordinated by the ICCU (Central Institute for the Single Catalogue of Italian Libraries and Bibliographic Information). It was created for the consultation of books and volumes. Currently, state libraries, local authorities, universities, public and private institutions operating in various disciplinary sectors adhere to the program. In January 2023, the SBN Catalogue allows access to 20.025.866 bibliographic information, accompanied by 114.557.420 localizations. Access to the catalogue is possible from the web and through a special smartphone app, which can be downloaded from the main app stores (Google Play and AppStore).

Through the SBN Public Catalogue, it is possible to: identify the documents of interest; identify the libraries that possess these documents and access the personal data sheet of the single library; access local catalogues for additional information on document availability; access the remote lending service or supply of documents in reproduction through the libraries participating in this service; access the Entries of authority, i.e. controlled entries in order to guarantee the uniqueness of the term sought.