With a press release on the MIUR website, the Minister of Education Lucia Azzolina announced that from today until March 31st you can also buy with the Teacher Card webcams and microphones, touch screen pens, scanners and portable hotspots.
"The aim of expanding the hardware that can be purchased with the Charter is to support the professional updating of teachers for improve the organization of the different forms of distance learning in this moment of emergency. This is just one of the measures that we are putting in place to support the actions that schools and teachers are taking, in these hours, to guarantee our children's right to study. I renew my deepest thanks to the whole school community for the great work it is doing. "
On the Charter website, the FAQs relating to purchasable goods have also been updated. It is good to remember, however, that precarious workers – many teachers in Italy – are excluded from the 500 euro bonus reserved for tenured teachers.
To overcome the emergency of the moment, MIUR has created a page called "Distance learning", a work environment in progress to support schools that want to activate forms of distance learning in the closure period linked to the Coronavirus pandemic.
The page contains various tips on tools and platforms available for free: we find webinars available through Cisco Webex and suites such as Google Suite for Education and Microsoft Office 365 Education A1. Multimedia material is accessible through RAI educational content, the Treccani platform and the cultural laboratory of the Reggio Children Foundation.