Digital Educational Poverty: A Survey and Some Questions about the Detection of a New Construct

The paper aims to rethink the concept of educational poverty in the digital age by verifying whether digital educational poverty coincides tout court with educational poverty or whether the comparison between these two dimensions requires a further in-depth analysis taking into consideration multiple social, cultural, pedagogical, expressive and psychological factors. In this perspective, digital educational poverty should not only be seen as social deprivation, but also as a cultural and expressive element, leading to reflection on the gap in creativity and 'authorship' that often characterizes a poor or problematic use of social media by young people. The COVID-19 emergency has highlighted the need to rethink the digital divide not only as regards the aspects related to technical access to technological devices and connection networks, but also in consideration of the deficit of conscious, innovative and creative use of digital technology, in a perspective oriented towards a participatory and responsible citizenship. Taking into consideration the four basic areas of educational poverty, this paper aims to investigate if and how digital poverty can be measured. This reflection is based on a survey tool which was conceived in consultation with the authors and already used in a survey carried out by the CREMIT-Catholic University and Save the Children, which in the first months of 2021 involved students at lower secondary schools (12-13 years) in Italy. Survey results will be examined with a view to highlight how different references to European documents and literature may lead to different perspectives in the survey methodology. In the last part, the paper points out a number of additional research perspectives and indications for educational interventions against educational poverty in relation to the concept of Dynamic Digital Literacies.