This proposal aims to bring to the academic community's attention the first research outputs of the doctoral thesis: "Universitabile: indagine sull’inclusione universitaria degli studenti con disabilità e DSA nel contesto universitario romano", based, specifically, on the relationship between educational inclusion (Ainscow and Miles, 2009) and ICT (Information and Communication Technology). Starting from a review of the literature on the role of universities as places of inclusion and confrontation with diversity (Bolt and Penketh, 2016; Moriña and Gavira, 2015), the proposal analyses the inclusion strategies by three main universities in Rome: La Sapienza, Tor Vergata and RomaTre. Through a mixed method approach, the contribution analyses the answers to the interviews administered to the operators of the dedicated services, facing the issue of barriers and facilitation mechanisms, and students' answers to surveys. ICT, during the Covid-19 emergency, acted as a facilitator allowing people with disabilities to benefit from distance learning by presenting new perspectives for the realisation of the learning process, a point that emerges from the voices of the professionals involved as shown in the following extract: "We have young people who have studied and finished their thesis with the tutor from home, sharing the Word file of the thesis in the drive and editing it in real time". In this sense, as Tsatsou (2020) found, the inclusion of people with disabilities can be facilitated by the use of digital technologies. The author emphasises how these help to alleviate stigma in several ways:

• assisting in performing daily tasks and overcoming difficulties;
• enabling connection with those who have the same type of disability, increasing their sense of belonging and improving their social integration;
• facilitating processes of self-identification and technology-mediated communication with others.

Opinion also found in Valentini (2008), who emphasises how the use of digital technologies is a prerequisite for the development of concrete solutions, these, in fact, "break down boundaries and create a new deterritorialised space that can be accessed by a wider range of users than that represented by traditional students" (ibidem:17). The author goes on saying that deterritorialisation "creates the prerequisites for carrying out actions and accessing services related to didactics and university training from different places: from home, from the workplace, from other centres that do not coincide with the university's seat, such as decentralised poles" (ibidem:22). This process is considerably accelerated by the Covid-19 emergency, which provides the basis for rethinking technology in terms of Universal Design, that is "an approach to the design of technologies that pays greater attention to the concept of universal usability: buildings and tools must be conceived, designed and constructed in such a way as to be usable by all" (Fiocco and Martinati, 2002:232). Despite the evidence presented, it is useful to remember that technology if conceived as a facilitator but designed only on the characteristics of able-bodied users, can represent a barrier because, by replacing classic socialisation methods, it risks to become a powerful instrument of exclusion.

During the Covid-19 pandemic the majority of the states instituted measures to close schools and shift them to virtual platforms. This change happened in school systems that could rely on different infrastructures and levels of digitisation achieved so far. Starting from an analysis of the literature on distance learning, the paper will reconstruct the effects of this phenomenon on the Italian school system and will give indications useful for the development of digital educational policies. In particular, with regard to the first aspect, the focus will be on the consequences of distance learning on three important dimensions that characterise school systems and directly involve teachers and students: school inclusion (Aroldi, Zaffaroni, Cino 2021), learning processes (Giancola, Piromalli 2020) and digital skills (Castellana, Rossi 2021). Distance learning has functioned as a great amplifier of both the criticalities and opportunities offered by the digitisation of the education system. Overcoming the former in order to strengthen the latter should be the starting point for the re-calibration of educational policies which, as we shall see, must be implemented starting from the centrality and relevance of the relational dimension in educational environments on which not only a successful learning process depends, but also the well-being of students and teachers. The need to take a bottom-up perspective (Tirocchi, Taddeo 2019) in the construction of digital education policies that take into account the inequalities that permeate society, together with the adoption of a critical perspective (McLuhan 2015) in the choice of technological tools to be adopted could be the lesson learned from the Italian experience and useful for European school systems.

Within the Italian educational landscape, the augmentation of mainly referred to remote learning, digitalization, has profoundly altered the organizational processes of schools, having significant impacts on both social dynamics and educational practices (Farina, 2022). This evolution, considered as a potential agent for change, innovation, and transformation of teaching processes, affects both the planning of activities by teachers and the learning modalities of students (Pireddu, 2019).

However, it is evident that within school settings, the implementation of mainly referred to remote learning, in presents certain challenges. These include issues arising from the rapid evolution of digital tools, which pose risks of exclusion for those who, whether learners or educators, struggle to adapt to the constant technological change (Bazzoli et al., 2021). Concurrently, it is pertinent to emphasize how the pervasive spread of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can generate a digital dependency, affecting emotional, relational, and professional aspects of individuals' lives (Crafa & Rizzo, 2019).

The resulting digital divide is an extremely relevant issue that necessitates a thorough analysis, especially due to phenomena occurring during the Covid-19 pandemic. These have highlighted pre-existing social inequalities, such as the exclusion of students with disabilities and those from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds (Ianes & Bellacicco, 2020; Selva, 2020), in addition to highlighting criticalities in the professionalism of teachers, such as a lack of familiarity with using digital tools.

This scenario appears to outline a condition that does not favor adequate processes of school integration and does not support the well-being of students, teachers, and families (Zurru et al., 2021).

With the much-desired "return to normality" and to face-to-face teaching, it is pertinent to question whether and to what extent teachers can actually leverage the competencies acquired during the lockdown, despite adversities.

In what terms, then, do virtual lessons adopted to respond to immediate needs retain their relevance in the current structure of educational pathways?

How do teachers conceive and incorporate technologies into their teaching practice: are they considered merely as occasional tools, or as essential didactic mediators that influence the design process?

These questions highlight the need for a broader and more reflective perspective on the posture of teaching professionalism in the digital age, emphasizing the continuous development of skills and knowledge towards a meaningful integration of technologies within the educational sphere.

In light of these considerations, the contribution - an integral part of a broader action-research project employing a mixed quantitative-qualitative approach (Creswell, J. W., Clark, V. L. P., Gutmann, M. L., & Hanson, 2003; Guba & Lincoln, 1994; La Marca, 2014; Picci, 2012) - offers a preliminary evaluation of data pertaining to the conditions of ICT use, on one hand, and to the potential prospects for professional development that teachers are capable of achieving, on the other, in primary schools in Sardinia (Niederhauser & Perkmen; 2008Benigno et al., 2013).

Since the late 1970s, the integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) into educational settings has emerged as a significant trend in the innovation of teaching and learning processes (Ahn, 2020). The ICTs, encompassing a broad array of tools such as the internet and mobile phones, have transformed the accessibility to the information and emphasized the importance of communication in the educational landscape (Ratheeswari, 2018). Within this context, policymakers have actively sought to promote and guide the digital transition in learning environments. Highlighting this, the European Union Council's 2020 declaration underlines that digital technologies enrich learning and teaching experiences, substantially ensuring inclusive and high-quality education accessible to all. Narrowing the focus to a national perspective, Italy is among the European countries that include (at a regulatory level) the development of specific digital skills by teachers, recognizing them as a fundamental component for maximizing investments in digital technologies and ensuring that educational systems keep pace with the needs of the 21st century (Eurydice, 2019).

However, the pandemic crisis has magnified the complex nature and profound influence of 'disadvantage' and 'poverty' on children's developmental opportunities. Amid these challenges, the 'digital divide' concept has evolved to encompass more than just access to Information and Communication Technology (ICT). It now includes a secondary level, which concerns the skills required for effective ICT use, and a tertiary level, focusing on the ability to leverage ICT for tangible benefits, highlighting the necessity for advanced digital competencies (Gremigni, 2019; Pasta, 2021). These shapes of the digital divide underscore the risk of perpetuating and exacerbating existing social inequalities. Such disparities can lead to exclusion, diminished community engagement, restricted access to educational resources, and disproportionately impact students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, though not exclusively (Marangi et al., 2023).

As the integration of ICT in education continues to evolve, bringing opportunities and challenges (Kormos, 2021), the necessity to critically assess the impact of digital teaching technologies in schools has never been more pressing. Our study seeks to delve into this by examining the digital transition processes within schools, evaluating the inclusivity levels experienced by students, and scrutinizing the strategies and policies employed by teachers and principals toward ICT. We designed a bespoke questionnaire to achieve these objectives, allowing for a comprehensive analysis across various educational settings. Our research methodologically explores principals' attitudes and policies towards ICT, classroom dynamics, and teachers' pedagogical approaches to integrating digital tools. Additionally, we assess students' experiences with hybrid education (Rivoltella, 2019), their sense of well-being, and their encounters with potential exclusionary practices, paying particular attention to those with disabilities or from socio-economically or culturally disadvantaged backgrounds (l. 104/1992; l. 170/2010; DM 27/12/1; MLPS, 2017).

Adopting this holistic approach, our study aims to portray the digital educational landscape in selected Italian schools. It aims to unearth both the limitations and prospects presented by ICT, providing targeted recommendations to enhance student inclusion and the effective integration of ICT within educational frameworks.

Digital technologies have made massive inroads into the education system during the pandemic, not only for learning purposes but also as tools for mediating institutional relationships between school, family, teachers and students, however, the debate on the topic had already been developing for several years. Some authors have claimed that the use of smartphones and computers would discourage studying and learning processes in favor of a communicative ecosystem of entertainment (Spitzer, 2012), also weakening the ability to socialize in reality (Nass & Yen, 2012). Other authors pointed out that learners could acquire richer information and resources beyond teaching materials included in the curriculum, to enhance the learning effect (Lin et al., 2017). In the same way, the dialogue between the actors involved in the educational process seems to be influenced by the tools through which it is realized (McLuhan, 1964). Within this context, the research was carried out - between 2019 and 2020 - in a school complex in the Marche region, to investigate how the use of new technologies ​​can impact both the institutional relationships between school and family and the quality of learning by developing skills and attitudes of students (Benassi 2013). Following Pacinelli (2008), both qualitative and quantitative methods were used. In-depth interviews were realized with experts in the field of learning technologies and the cognitive transformations they brought, as well as focus groups with educators, psychologists, social workers and community workers. Also, questionnaires on a reasoned sample of teachers and parents were administered. Results showed that the interpolation of physical and virtual spaces to mediate social relationships and methods of interaction between private, public and institutional contexts, turns out to be problematic. This, due to the great stratification of information, languages, practices and representations, causing a condition of fragmentation within which schools, families and teachers try to transmit consistent values ​​and knowledge to children. In this regard, the difficulty of exercising control over what information to make available to young people and when, has undermined traditional family and school roles. As a consequence, such control seems to be implemented, within the educational environment, through a more stringent orientation towards performances evaluation. Although it has been underlined that digital technologies can also represent a solution to these critical issues, allowing the creation of more inclusive and immersive learning environments, these are currently hindered by organizational limitations and lack of resources within the education system. Such limitations results into a widening of material and cultural inequalities (e.g. between those who have greater access to technological devices, or greater knowledge/ability to use them, and those who do not). This, will have to be the subject of careful political planning both at national and European level, also considering the possibility of introducing professional figures (e.g. educators, psychologists, social workers) to mediate in the dialogue between schools and families, and dedicated to consultancy and support for students, which could have positive effects on the process of integrating digital technologies within an increasingly complex and precarious educational context.