DESI Index in Higher Education. A sociological reflection for digital media inclusion

Abstract

In recent years, the Italian public University has experienced an acceleration of the digitalization
process, also thanks to its response to the health emergency generated by COVID Sars 19 in 2020.
Specifically, in recent years it has invested above all in technological-infrastructural equipment in order
to guarantee educational and administrative continuity at a distance. This has contributed to
strengthening the connectivity of universities, which is one of the indicators underlying the European
DESI INDEX.
The use of technological devices as educational and communicative mediators has inevitably led to a
technical and technological literacy of the teaching and administrative staff, enabling an
implementation of the human capital of the DESI INDEX itself, albeit from an experiential perspective.
This digitalization process, however, has not always ensured a consequent process of didactic
integration of technology, i.e. a process of normalization of the same that would induce an updating of
teaching and knowledge transmission methodologies, helping to implement the soft digital skills of
educators and students themselves. This gap has left open a challenge of reflection and research
precisely on didactic design and experimentation through the use of technologies in the perspective of
digital education, as well as on the critical and safety component underlying the sharing of data and
online information.
The abstract intends to propose a reflection on the implications of the application of digital education
in universities as an innovative didactic methodology for enhancing the soft skills of teachers and
students in the perspective of onlife-education.