Digital Integration in Early Childhood Education and Care: Innovating Educators’ Competencies

Abstract

The University of Padua carried out a research-training path for the development of digital innovation within the Territorial Pedagogical Coordination (TPC) of Parma. The training was aimed at the Coordinators so that they could subsequently implement training and development actions among the staff of the educational services. In this first phase of the research-training project, a survey was carried out among educational staff in 2019 to detect their beliefs on the usefulness of digital technologies and their use in educational work. The questionnaire was constructed by referring to the competence framework of the European document Digital Competence Framework for Educators-DigCompEdu. Subsequently, in the post-Covid phase, the survey was proposed again to detect the change in the perceptions of educators and teachers on the use of digital tools in educational work with children, with the professional community, and in communication with families. This article will present some data from the second administration in 2023. The questionnaire consisted of 22 items with a 5-level scale and 176 educators and teachers responded. The data collected showed responses at the highest levels of the scale in the use of digital tools for educational documentation. Digital educational documentation is used for communication with families and the exchange of experiences in the professional community. The integration of digital technologies in the work with children is widespread at an average level although educators and teachers believe that it is important to educate children in the correct, creative, and responsible use of technologies from their first experiences in educational services. Digital technologies are considered important for learning in specific educational areas such as the language area, the logic-science area, and the music area.