COMPUTERS FOSTER EDUCATION AND EDUCATION
FOSTERS COMPUTER SCIENCE
The Politecnico’s Approach
Dino Mandrioli, Aldo Torrebruno and Luisa Marini
Department of Electronics and Information (DEI), Faculty of Information Technology Engineering
Politecnico di Milano, P.zza Leonardo da Vinci 32, Milano, Italy
Keywords: Science Vocational Crisis, Technical-Scientific Studies, University Enrollment.
Abstract: The technical-scientific vocational crisis has become for several years a crucial issue within the scientific
community. Nowadays in Italy this worrying matter mostly concerns ICT Universities and Faculties.
Starting from the analysis of the situation and identifying some possible reasons, we focus on the vision and
the concrete strategies of the Faculty of Information Technology Engineering of Politecnico di Milano. In
particular, this paper introduces two kinds of projects: vocational guidance programs and habit change
initiatives.
1 INTRODUCTION
This paper analyzes the increasing young people's
disaffection from scientific studies and careers, with
particular emphasis on ICT subjects and curricula.
Section 2 describes the current vocational crisis and
some of the main causes, according to Italian,
European and U.S. statistics. Section 3 introduces
the vision of the Faculty of Information Technology
Engineering of Politecnico di Milano to curb the
problem, focusing both on vocational guidance
(section 3.2) and habit change initiatives (section
3.3).
2 THE SCIENCE VOCATIONAL
CRISIS
“Science and technology play a major role in most
aspects of our daily lives both at home and at work.
Our industry and thus our national prosperity depend
on them.” (Bomer, 1985, p.6).
The introductory sentence of “Bodmer Report”
(Bodmer 1985) sounds strongly up-to-date
nowadays.
This issue seems not to be perceived in Italy,
where young people's disaffection from scientific
studies and careers is increasingly worrying.
This topic is also part of the wide international
debate about the so called Public Understanding of
Science, which significantly involves all Western
countries. The problem turns out to be even greater
in Italy, as we can gather from the discouraging
enrollment rate and degrees in technical-scientific
courses and from the OECD-PISA
1
performance
achieved by our 15-year-old students.
2.1 Background Situation
Data from the Department of National Statistics of
the Ministry of Education, University and Research
(MIUR, 2009) reveal that in Italy students enrolled
in scientific-technological degree courses
2
in the
academic year 2008/2009, represent 27,04% of all
university students (this rate reaches 27,48%, if we
consider also the students enrolled at the 1
st
year for
the first time – see Figure 1).
1
The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is
an International research supported by the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to assess
student knowledge and skills in science, mathematics and reading
at age 15. Three assessments have so far been carried out, each
focusing on a specific area: the first one (PISA 2000) was on
reading literacy, in the second one (PISA 2003) the emphasis was
on mathematical literacy and problem solving, the third (PISA
2006) was on scientific literacy. 57 countries were involved in
PISA 2006.
2
Scientific-technological degree courses concern Scientific,
Engineering, Architecture, Agricultural and geo-biological areas
289
Mandrioli D., Torrebruno A. and Marini L. (2010).
COMPUTERS FOSTER EDUCATION AND EDUCATION FOSTERS COMPUTER SCIENCE - The Politecnico’s Approach.
In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Computer Supported Education, pages 289-296
Copyright
c
 SciTePress

Figure 1: Enrollment rate by area (2008/2009) in Italy.
Despite the last academic years’ slight increase
(+0,27%)
3
, the enrollment rate to the technical-
scientific programs are not even comparable with
those of the 50’s, when about half the university
population was registered at the same programs.
The results of OECD-PISA 2006 firms up the
wide lack of interest in scientific subjects: the
average score of Italian students in their
performance on the science literacy is below
standard (475), in comparison with the OECD
average (500).
The disaffection of young people towards
scientific issues is confirmed by other evidences,
emphasized in the analytical report Young people
and science (European Union, 2008).
For each of the fields of study listed in the
survey, only a minority of young EU citizens
considered studying scientific subjects. Young
people were most inclined towards social sciences,
followed closely by economics or business studies,
while mathematics was selected by the smallest
group of respondents. While almost 4 out of 10
young people said they would definitely or probably
consider studying social sciences (39%) or
economics (36%), less than a third of respondents
showed an interest in each of the other fields of
study listed: 31% considered biology or medicine,
28% engineering, 25% natural sciences and just 21%
mathematics.
In the majority of the countries, at least half of
the respondents said they would definitely not
consider studying engineering. In Italy almost six
out of 10 young people would definitely not be
studying engineering.
The most worrying result is that only 42.2% of
Europeans agree that this lack of scientific vocation
would constitute “a threat for future socio-economic
development”. This figure falls further to 34.7% in
3
A significant increase, in contrast with the general decrease of
university enrollments (-3,13%).
the subsample of Italians. For 54.9% of respondents,
moreover, the industry sector “will always find the
skilled personnel it needs.”
A particular attention in the context of scientific
vocational crisis should be drawn to ICT sector.
After the well-known boom of 2000, due to the so
called “dot-com bubble” and the related grow of
interest in technological subjects (Computer Science
and Telecommunications above all), there has been
an inexorable decline.
Figure 2 shows how since 2000 the Engineering
enrollments in Italy and at Politecnico di Milano
have remained almost steady and have absorbed the
fall of enrollments occurred between 2004 and 2005,
while enrollments in Information Technology
Engineering at Politecnico di Milano have suffered a
fall of 50%.
2.2 Public (Mis)Understanding of
Science or Lack of Information in
Schools?
Nowadays just a few researches investigate
systematically the reasons for witch young people
turn away from technical and scientific studies.
According to some surveys by European Union
(2005), it is possible to identify four main causes
perceived by young people as responsible for the
disaffection from scientific studies and careers:
 poor image of science and scientists in society
 lack of appeal of scientific subjects and studies
 difficulty of scientific subjects in comparison
with the career prospects
 lack of schools and of talented motivated and
well trained teachers to teach and promote
science and technology.
Regarding the first two reasons, it is clear that
today a paradoxical opinion of science prevails.
Scientific has become synonym for exasperating
rationalism, for engineering narrow mind - incapable
of understanding the complex nuances of the world,
for unimaginative technicality and not for techne
4
.
On the other hand science is the main way to
hunt for answers, minding the complexity of issues
and rejecting default patterns. Thanks to complexity
analysis, science investigates theoretically and
performs pragmatically in very different contexts.
In addition, over the years a real gap between
humanistic and scientific knowledge (always seen as
conflicting, and inevitably separated) has been dug.
4
Techne, or techné, is etymologically derived from the Greek
word τέχνη, which is related to craftsmanship, craft, or art. It is
the rational method involved in producing an object or
accomplishing a goal or objective.
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2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Engineering enrollment
(Italy)
Engineering enrollment
(Politecnico di Milano)
Information Technology
Engineering enrollment
(Politecnico di Milano)
Figure 2: Engineering enrollment (2000-2008).
According to Rashid (2008, p.34), senior vice
president for research at Microsoft Corporation, “At
the heart of falling interest in computer science are
fundamental misconception about the work we do,
our ability to make a difference in the world, and the
job opportunities our field offers. […] One barrier to
interest in computer science is the unfortunate and
deeply held stereotype of the solitary male
programmer who slaves over a keyboard and
subsists on snack food. A majority of young people
subscribe to this stereotype and believe the job of the
computer scientist consists of endless days spent
alone in front of a computer screen.”
Scientific studies have always been considered
more “difficult” then other curricula (Andriole and
Roberts, 2008), as we can infer from the critical
statistics on scientific degrees drop-out-rate. This
kind of curricula is very selective in the first years
(the drop-out-rate at the firs year is 30,6%, against
25% of national average) and it is above average
also in the following years (34% of enrolled students
slow down in their study path).
Undoubtedly, the perception that scientific
studies are difficult stems primarily from
misinformation in school: students who are misled
about scientific subjects by teachers, loose their
motivation when facing the first difficult challenges
at university. Just then their performances, and in
some cases also the chances of completing the
studies, rapidly decrease.
However, figures only partially confirm this
representation: the percentage of enrolled students
who graduate in technical-scientific faculties (39%)
is on the other Italian faculties average (40%).
Another reason why students do not consider
technical-scientific enrollment is the bias they will
not have a good career prospect. Figures do not
confirm this negative perception, emphasizing the
good performances of technical-scientific degrees in
the labor market and the high level of satisfaction of
working graduates. This statement fits particularly to
ICT studies: 3 years after degree 88,3% of graduates
have open-ended jobs.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
(2009), employment in scientific and technological
services will grow by 28,8% and will add 2,1 million
new jobs by 2016. Employment growth will be
driven by the increasing reliance of businesses on
information technology and the continuing
importance of maintaining system and network
security.
However, the main responsibility for technical-
scientific vocational crisis is in the school system,
which is not able to motivate and prepare young
people to study science. Teachers, who should play a
key role in encouraging students to scientific studies,
promote too often an idea of uninteresting science
disconnected from practical every-day life.
Research in this field (Driver, Leach, Millar and
Scott, 1996) evidences that secondary school
students tend to have a too “technical-empiric”
vision of scientific knowledge, where creativity and
analysis depth do not concern scientific professions.
Furthermore, schools uphold the wrong
dichotomy between a rigorous science, but difficult
to learn, and a more accessible and understandable
science, but certainly trivialized. This view does not
support an effective process to communicate science
and strengthens the previously mentioned concept of
“separate science”. The idea of a “science for the
few” certainly does not help to raise enrollment rates
in scientific faculties.
As for ICT, the situation is even more worrying,
since a vicious circle has arisen between teachers’
negative awareness of science and the uncritical
adoption of new technology in schools.
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Too often the adoption of ICT has been
interpreted as mere digital literacy (e.g. ForTic for
teachers or ECDL for students) or as a required
acquisition of hardware, achieving paradoxically
negative results. Teachers are supposed to undergo
technology passively (the computer is seen as a tool
to perform tedious tasks). As a result they have a
dichotomous vision of ICT and culture, which they
convey to their students, in reason of their privileged
position (ex-cathedra).
For these reasons, the main activities to promote
science and technical-scientific culture must
necessarily concern schools (of any level) and act
not only as academic guidance but also and
especially as a stimulus to a deeper change of
Weltanschauung.
3 THE FACULTY VISION
3.1 Background Settings
In view of the situation outlined above, the Faculty
of Information Technology Engineering (ITE
Faculty from now on) of Politecnico di Milano
5
launched several initiatives
6
addressed to the world
of primary and secondary school, in order to change
the public perception of science.
These activities do not act only on students, but
also on the whole school system and, in perspective,
on society.
The vision of the Faculty is to emphasize and
promote a strong integration between the
humanistic-social culture and the technical-scientific
one.
5
The Faculty of Information Technology Engineering (Ingegneria
dell’Informazione) includes the following programs (Bachelor of
Science and Master of Science): Automation Engineering,
Computer Engineering, Electronic Engineering,
Telecommunications Engineering and Information Technology
Engineering (the last one in collaboration with Politecnico di
Torino and Tonji University, China).
6
All the initiative described in this paper (except ICT Engineering
lessons) are carried out by HOC-LAB, (Hypermedia Open
Centre), a laboratory of the Electronic and Information
Department of Politecnico di Milano, founded and coordinated by
Prof. Paolo Paolini. Its interests focus on the Web, multi-media
applications, design methodologies, “net-society” applications
and innovative computer mediated communication (CMC). Its
applications’ domains span from electronic commerce to cultural
heritage, from e-learning to advanced educational 3D
environments. The laboratory is “open” in that it gathers a
multidisciplinary team of research, not strictly coming from the
academic world. All HOC activities addressed to schools are part
of PoliScuola, an integrated program whose aim is to conduct
researches and activities in the field of ICT-enhanced didactics.
The junction between cultures is represented by
ICT, which is often erroneously perceived as mere
detached tool. On the one hand ICT can be exploited
as useful tool to carry out specific tasks and satisfy
requirements (e.g. to speed up work or to widen
audience and geographical boundaries), on the other
ICT can - and should - be seen as integral and
significant part of culture.
In this sense the use of ICT in school can have
two beneficial effects:
 At the first level technology is presented as a sort
of trick box: teachers and students use
technological tools for their educational purposes
without focusing on the working process. They
insert contents into the trick box, the trick box
processes them and returns an output that is more
than the sum of the parts.
 At the second level students and teachers use the
trick box and wonder how it works. This attitude
creates curiosity concerning ICT culture and
develops interest in technical-scientific
methodologies.
The actions of ITE Faculty aim to develop both
levels of ICT conception. In fact the first level of
perception can be supported both involving all
school levels (from kindergarten to higher
education) and concerning all cultures (e.g. all
subjects taught at school).
Promoting the use of technology to the first level
increases the chance for students and teachers to
approach the second level.
3.2 Vocational Guidance Initiatives
In this section some educational projects, carried out
by ITE Faculty, which aim to improve the attitude
and awareness of students from secondary schools
towards Politecnico di Milano will be described.
These projects, together with other initiatives of
Politecnico di Milano
7
(Open Days, Summer School,
University Explorer Game, etc..), play a significant
role in the effort to open the University to schools.
3.2.1 Hi-Tec
Hi-Tec (Marini and Torrebruno, 2006) is an
innovative experience which is based on an active
vocational guidance for talented students selected
from the fourth year of secondary school.
Hi-Tec’s aim is to lead students through a three-
phases process which consists of:
7
For information see http://www.orientamento.polimi.it
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 contextualization of the problem and its
theoretical implications;
 definition of the main task and its reference
frames (prerequisites, timing, work
methodologies, tools) and work in groups to
solve the problem;
 evaluation and sharing of the results with the
other workgroups.
Hi-Tec involves many university departments,
each with a different program: Architecture Science,
Product Design, Environmental Engineering,
Management Engineering, Physics Engineering,
Chemical Engineering, Electrical Engineering,
Information Technology Engineering, Mechanical
Engineering.
Hi-Tec promotes a blended learning
methodology: the first phase (30 hours, online) aims
to introduce the students to the subject of the
specific program; the second phase – the core of the
project – carried out in one week (32 hours, in
presence) involves the pupils in a collaborative
activity, enhanced by theoretical lessons and
supported by workshops. The aim of this phase is to
design and develop high quality projects.
For instance, in Hi-Tec 2009, a group of 20
students enrolled in the Computer Science program,
were asked to develop real videogames using
Scratch (http://scratch.mit.edu), the well-known
easy-programming language developed by MIT.
Without any programming background, they were
trained and tutored throughout the development of
sport simulations and classical arcade games. One of
the goals they were supposed to reach was the
implementation of Physics laws into realistic
videogames. Videogames produced by Hi-Tec
students in 2009 are available at this web page:
http://scratch.mit.edu/users/hitec-2009.
During this week students live and work
together, sharing their activities in an atmosphere of
socialization and mutual acquaintance.
Hi-Tec has now come to its fifth edition and
involved more than 600 selected students, out of
more than 1500 applicants. The selection of the
participants is carried out starting from their school
reports and their personal motivation.
The constant monitoring of the project, reveals
how the initiative satisfies the expectations of its
participants and achieves its primary goal: to
represent a precious vocational guidance for students
(see Figure 3).
One of the main reasons of the experience
success is the promotion of creativity and
development of interdisciplinary skills
(collaboration, project management, communication
within groups, problem solving, etc.). As we can
read on the surveys, students involved in Hi-Tec
acquire a deeper understanding of the university
world and learn the importance to combine culture
and technological education. In the last edition,
according to surveys results, 67,6% of students
changed their perspective about Politecnico di
Milano and 64,7% of students modified their point
of view about Engineers (Previously I thought that
the Engineer was a very competent person, but
strictly constrained by requirements, Hi-Tec made
me understand the value of personal creativity and
group working
8
).
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
strongly
disagree
tend to
disagree
tend to
agree
strongly
agree
Figure 3: Has HI-TEC influenced your University choice?
3.2.2 Computer Science Engineering
Lessons
The Faculty teachers offer lessons for free in the
secondary schools that expressed their interest with
the goal of bringing the Computer Science and
Engineering subjects closer to the students, and to
arouse their curiosity for ICT.
The project is now in its fourth year; and offers
lessons to 4th and 5th year high school students
(usually 50-100 students per school); such lessons
cover a wide range of topics, typical of the programs
of the Faculty of Information Technology
Engineering: it ranges from robot playing football to
the relationship between computer science and
philosophy, from the evolution of the Web to micro
and nano-technologies
9
.
Besides these “thematic lessons” there are also
some introductory lectures about the specific
programs of the Faculty and the study paths.
Computer Science Engineers, and immediately
8
Statement of a student from Hi-Tec 2009.
9
The full list is available online (in Italian):
http://www.inginf.polimi.it/servizi/inclasse/generale.php?id_nav=
3004
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find out that all these issues (even the farthest from
their everyday life!) have actually immediate effects
on our lives.
This initiative has not only the aim to convey
vocational guidelines to students but has also, and
above all, a cultural nature: it promotes among
students a habit change about their opinion of
science and scientists.
The initiative deserves a wider spreading as the
required effort to visit schools is too high.
In order to face this problem a further
exploitation of ICT technologies has been planned:
precisely, two new changes will be introduced next
year:
The use of a videoconferencing system, to
deliver online synchronous lessons. This device
allows the faculty to widen the catchment area and
reduce massively the overhead.
Production of video’s to deliver asynchronous
lessons, directly available on the Politecnico’s
website. Last year three video-lessons have been
created and published, and we plan to increase this
number.
Using well-known technological systems (every
teenager knows youtube!) to teach technology
means to explore a sort of “metadisclourse” to ICT.
Furthermore, we are planning to open the access
to University’s laboratories to the students of
secondary school, and to deliver lessons within these
buildings. Participating directly to a “real lesson”
(e.g., seeing robots in action rather than hearing
about them) would easily reduce the gap between
University and young people.
3.3 Habit Change Initiatives
Besides the “vocational projects”, the ITE Faculty
promotes activities aimed to affect in depth school
and society.
Concerning ICT, the Italian school system has
drifted away from society, for several well-known
reasons:
 the average teachers’ age is still too high, and
turnover is insufficient;
 teachers usually shows adverse attitude towards
ICT;
 structural deficiencies of schools;
 lack of adequate training on ICT;
 restrictive awareness of technology: it is taught
as a subject on its own and not considered as a
“cross over” teaching tool.
The following projects aim to fill this gap,
improving teachers’ background and qualification,
and stimulating their interest in technology.
3.3.1 PoliCultura
PoliCultura (Torrebruno, Paolini, Garzotto, Di Blas,
Bolchini and Poggi, 2008; Paolini, Di Blas and
Torrebruno, 2009) aims to foster the adoption of ICT
technology in Italian schools and to promote a
“polycultural” approach to education in which
technology and humanities are smoothly and
synergistically combined. PoliCultura is also a
national competition where participants are
requested to create a full “hyperstory” on a cultural
theme at choice, using a special tool developed by
Politecnico di Milano: 1001Stories. This tool
supports the process of translating conceptual
narrative structures into a suitable interactive digital
format; filling them with multimedia contents, and
delivering the resulting hyperstory on different
channels (CD-ROM, Website, Videopodcast). The
tool is fast to learn, quick in enabling the delivery of
a complete multimedia hyperstory, and easy to use,
hiding the complexity of the implementation
underlying the tool. In this way the whole
production process of multimedia artifacts turns out
to be simple, cheap and fast (a perfect trick box as
introduced in section 3.1).
During its three editions, nearly 480 teachers,
860 classes, 10.000 students from schools located in
all Italian regions took part in PoliCultura
competition.
Among all works submitted to the competition
10
we can mention one of the winners of the ITE
Faculty special award: Interview to History: who
invented the numbers?
11
, by the primary school
children of Istituto Comprensivo A. Manzoni,
Capriate San Gervasio (BG, Lombardy). Led by
their teachers, 8-9 year-old children conducted an
imaginary interview to ancient peoples (such as
Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, etc.), to find out how
the need of counting was born and how each people
found solutions to this need.
According to the teachers, this work revealed
surprising educational benefits: beyond motivational
goals, throughout hard working the children
achieved advanced communicational skills and
multidisciplinary competences. Both children and
students show their enthusiasm for the experience
also during PoliCultura Awards, when all finalists
have been celebrated at Politecnico di Milano.
Besides the educational benefits, 90,1% of inter-
10
A selection of hyperstories (in Italian) can be visited on
Policultura website (www.policultura.it).
11
Intervista alla storia: chi ha inventato i numeri?
http://www.1001storia.polimi.it/meusGEN/meuslive.php?public=
1&projectid=356 (in Italian)
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viewed teachers reported that, using 1001Stories,
students have acquired or improved their technical
competencies. PoliCultura inclines students towards
ICT in a playful way and can be considered a useful
experience to build up a scientific consciousness in
young people, even – and perhaps mostly - when
1001Stories is used to build hypermedia on a non-
technological topic, such as history or literature.
3.3.2 Diploma On Line
Diploma On Line (DOL) for ICT-enhanced teaching
(Torrebruno and Marini, 2005; Marini and
Torrebruno, 2007) is a two-year specializing master
for teachers of any school grade. DOL aims at
developing and enhancing the use of New
Technologies in didactics. Besides theory and
methodological contents, it offers practical activities,
case-studies and meta-reflections, to promote the use
of ICTs into “traditional” didactical contexts.
Every year Diploma On Line trains more than
200 teachers from all over Italy (see Figure 4), with
successful results both in relation to its didactic
objectives and to students ’ satisfaction: its low
dropout rate, the positive results of the online
surveys, the high-quality outputs, the high amount of
favorable evaluations and appreciating comments
expressed by students represent the highest stimulus
to widen the didactic proposal and expand the target.
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09
1st year
2nd year
Figure 4: DOL enrolled students (years 2003-2009).
In order to achieve such positive results the
course is carefully planned and organized on a solid
structure: every year the wide group of enrolled
students is divided into classes of 20 people, each
supervised by one tutor.
Students carry out all activities and discussions
using an asynchronous Learning Management
System and a webconference system, sharing
knowledge, skills, and materials in a constructive
atmosphere.
Studying contents related to ICTs and using them
into didactics, learning online, sharing experiences
with peers and building online relationships are the
key values of DOL. Figure 5 illustrates students’
satisfaction, as for contents, activities,
webconferences, interaction, relevance (that is how
contents can be spent into teachers’ school contexts)
and tutoring.
DOL is the project of ITE Faculty which mostly
influences the school system, both for the wide
number of involved students, and for its high-quality
educational route.
4 CONCLUSIONS
As a ICT faculty in a technological University, we
think that it is up to us to show students how
exciting is working in a field where we have the
opportunity to advance science, develop new ideas
and create solutions to difficult everyday challenges.
1%
2%
4%
7%
3%
4%
4%
5%
5%
8%
5%
4%
12%
13%
17%
22%
16%
9%
35%
34%
27%
29%
48%
46%
33%
18%
29%
65%
46%
46%
Contents
Activities
Webconferences
Interaction
Relevance
Tutoring
Very unsatisfied Unsatisfied
Neutral Satisfied
Very satisfied
Figure 5: DOL students’ satisfaction (a. y. 2008/2009).
Changing the bias and misconceptions of people
who have the greatest influence on young people, is
the most effective way to increase the interest for
scientific studies and careers. The whole process
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must necessarily start from the first levels of
education and involve teachers and peers.
That’s why ITE Faculty is targeting schools and
interacts with teachers and students, in order to
convey the real meaning of science and technology.
Only by giving teachers and students a more correct
view of science and technology, we can show them
the opportunity to play a key role in a world of
innovation and progress.
Although the above mentioned initiatives
promise significant and measurable results only in
the long term, the first outcomes are with no doubt
encouraging.
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