48,000 children trained in Coding
"When I went to school we had to go out and learn English. It was a discriminating factor, and critical for getting ahead. Now you need to leave school knowing the digital language".
Executive Chairman of Telecom Italia Group - Giuseppe Recchi
Italy does not rank high in the modernisation process of educational tools due to its culture and slightly unstable political conditions; it has in fact achieved 6% of the development of the European Scuola 2.0 project according to the OECD survey.
Telecom Italia – for some time TIM has been committed to promoting the digitisation of schools. In 2014 the company signed a three-year memorandum of understanding with MIUR, under which it committed to promote the dissemination of digital solutions to support innovative teaching methods; provide the Ministry with its know-how for the dissemination of broadband and ultrabroadband in schools; and set up communication initiatives aimed at students and teachers concerning the new technologies. It is a dense programme, the implementation of which is supervised by the TIM-MIUR Joint Committee.
The TIM College offer expresses the commitment to bring technology into Italian schools. The offer is aimed at people under thirty and is intended to boost digital schools, providing a sound instrument to help young people in their training and studies.
The Company was the first to launch an offer dedicated to students in May 2014, across the whole of Italy. The offer was subsequently relaunched in May 2015, introducing new content useful for students and changing the associated tablet. The current offer includes a Samsung Galaxy A Tab 9.7” LTE, with 4G connectivity, a data traffic bundle of 5 GB per month and a series of educational contents in digital format for young people between the ages of 14 and 18, including an English, French, Spanish or German language course and a maths course, both lasting for 30 months. The offer is completed by 21 classics of Italian literature, 3 manuals, a 50 euro voucher to buy digital school books at scuolabook.it and access to the Oilproject learning platform.
A few figures relating to the project
1,992 packs were sold in 2015 which, added to the previous ones, amount to a total of 5,300 customers, providing revenue of around 540,000 euros.
The offer resulted in the distribution of 5,300 tablets, promoting the digital inclusion of students and an approach to a new way of studying, particularly thanks to two elements: the ability of equipment to support innovative 4G LTE connections; the included traffic data of 5 Gb per month. The Company included a great deal of content for study and learning in the bundle, in order to boost digitisation in schools starting from students. The adoption of digital text books not only promotes digitisation in the schools, but has also resulted in around 2,885 tonnes of paper being saved, with a resulting reduction in CO2 emissions from paper production, and a saving of about 87,000 tonnes of water.
Customer interest was confirmed by a sign-up rate of 40%, which is a high level compared to data recorded for other similar offers.
Data at a glance:
Digital school methodology
The Business Value is Telecom Italia S.p.A.’s revenue from TIM College offer. The Social Value, which amounts to 729,300 euros, consists of the following:
48,000 children trained in Coding
200 teachers trained by children on the responsible use of the Internet
282 TIM Ambassadors
students' backpacks weigh -90%