Educational Television goes Digital. Children's Television and Italian Public Service Broadcasting during Covid-19 Pandemic

Since its origins in the Fifties, Rai has always paid attention to pedagogical aspects of its offer,\r\nconsistent with its Catholic inspiration, combining different genres and divulgation approaches. In the first\r\nyears of its history, Italian public television represented a “second school” for different targets, producing\r\niconic titles in learning and training. A particular branch of educational approach to television content has\r\noften been represented by the direct involvement of school groups within the programs, in the logic of\r\ngame and soft competition oriented to the transmission of knowledge. During the Covid-19 pandemic,\r\nwith the closure of schools and the deployment of distance teaching, Rai recovered its pivotal role in\r\nlearning practices through TV programs; in a period marked by an increase of television and audiovisual\r\nconsumption, Italian public service broadcasting played a distinctive role in diversifying learning opportunities\r\nof Italian students and adults.