DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES AND LEARNING PROCESSES. THE ETERNAL GOLDEN GARLAND

Beyond any possible rhetorical division between those who are for or against a more or less massive use of technologies, it is undeniable that technologies always have effects on cognitive, relational, and autonomy processes of individuals, in every season of life and by virtue of the quantity and quality of the use to which we are exposed. The experience of the pandemic caused by Covid19 definitely amplified and highlighted this fact, making the advantages and disadvantages of online life, to which many were forced, immediately apparent. The data on the learning process, in particular on the exclusions that online education has generated, is evident, although very patchy. The difference was determined by the technological skills of learners and teachers, by the possibilities of access to appropriate infrastructures and devices, and by the style of conducting teaching. With regard to this last point, pre-Covid teaching methods were an important factor: digital teaching has often amplified, for better or for worse, what was already being done in the traditional way, with the evidence, however, that some changes that were less evident in frontal teaching were urgent in mediated teaching. The speed of the lesson, for example, the didactic rhythm, the anchorage to the concrete and the levels of personalization were some of the conditions that compromised the success of online training. Technological teaching has also concerned the population of pupils in difficult, disabled, and disadvantaged situations, for whom the impact with the ICT world has been accompanied, as research has shown, by other risk factors (Ianes, 2020), again linked mainly to pre-Covid elements, and referring above all too experienced integration, practiced as a cultural model for schools or as a routine afterthought. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, recognizes new technologies as an essential contextual element for the promotion of the person's functioning, becoming tools capable of compensating for deficits, facilitating independent living, or, conversely, an obstacle and depriving environment/tool. For this reason, they find a specific place within the Environmental Factors of the ICF (WHO, 2001) and the assessment that must be made of them in view of individualized educational planning. International research (Woodward et al .,2001) based on evidence that tries to define what works in the ICT world for children with special educational needs, taking into account a plurality of variables, amount and type of feedback, practical experience, evaluation systems, motivation, teaching strategies - comes to the conclusion that the fact that software has been validated on the research level, does not guarantee that it works in practice (ibid., p. 21). The contribute aims to go in this direction and intends to provide some general reference criteria for evaluating and choosing technological opportunities.