Abstract:

In recent decades, issues relating to orientation (school guidance) have assumed growing weight within the debate on the education system which, compared to the results of other countries, records high rates of dropout from upper secondary education, a low rate of completion of studies universities and, more generally, a continuing difficulty in integrating young people into the world of work.

In particular, some scholars observe that these failures are caused, among other factors, by an unsatisfactory school orientation system, which does not train students in self-orientation skills, the ability to analyze their own aptitudes and awareness of their own means. In short, a system that does not provide adequate support to students in choosing their study path.

The "Guidelines on the paths for Transversal Skills and Orientation (PCTO)", adopted by the Ministry of Education to regulate initiatives on the topic, assign a central role to the school. It is up to the school, also through orientation teaching, the primary task of developing basic skills and accompanying and orientation consultancy.

In a scenario in which orientation only in some fortunate cases becomes an effective guiding practice, new resources have recently emerged: the Digital Platforms for Educational Orientation (hereinafter 'DPEG'). DPEGs are digital infrastructures, generally accessible online, that facilitate and shape more or less personalized interactions between end users (generally students and their families, but also educational institutions) and their managers in order to provide advice and guidance. Today web resources seem indispensable. Students – digital natives – live in a world where technology is omnipresent and are constantly surrounded by interconnected devices through which they seek answers to all their questions, counting on quick, if not immediate, response times. It is natural for them to surf the internet to look for information of interest to them, and for this reason, online platforms have recently entered the school guidance market.

This contribution presents a summary of the school guidance services provided by the major DPEGs in Italy. The aim is to provide a classification of the same and draw an initial assessment of the sector, highlighting the structure of the offer and its diffusion and effectiveness. This is not an exhaustive review of all the DPEGs present in Italy, a specious and perhaps useless attempt, but rather it is a question of providing a reasoned selection of some of the most representative platforms, to highlight the uses, potential and limits of these resources in the light of a reflection on the purposes of school orientation.

Keywords:

Educational Guidance, Digital Platform, Education Choices, Digital Education, Orientation Practices.