Guglielmo Trentin

Guglielmo Trentin, graduate in electronic engineering with a specialization in ICT, is Research Director at the Institute of Educational Technology (ITD) of the Italian National Research Council (CNR).

In 2014 he obtained the National Scientific Qualification as full professor in the sector 11/D2 - Methodologies of Teaching, Special Education and Educational Research.

From 2002 to 2011 he taught Network Technology, Knowledge Flow and Human Resources Development at the University of Turin.

From 2016 he is member of the faculty board of the doctoral school in Digital Humanities at the University of Genoa where he teaches Network Enhanced Learning and Online-Education Design.

He has worked in the field of Educational Technology since 1985 studying the use of ICT in formal, non-formal and informal learning in different contexts (school, university, organisation/enterprise). In this field he has (a) managed several projects and scientific activities, (b) developed ICT applications and educational design approaches to support networked collaborative learning, and (c) studied the relationship between technology enhanced learning and knowledge flows. A particular area of interest is the use of network technologies to support the processes of social and educational inclusion.

In 1995 he obtained the Online Education Certificate at the British Open University - Institute for Educational Technology - discussing the theme “Teaching and Learning Online: design, development, implementation and evaluation”.

In 1998 he was appointed member of a special commission of the Italian Ministry of Education established to define the national guidelines on the use of ICT in in-service teacher training.

In 2008 he received the 13th Knowledge Management Forum Award assigned for the research on “Informal learning and endogenous knowledge growth: how to evaluate the effects of a community of practice”

In the latest years he has investigated the always-on education that takes place in the so called "hybrid learning spaces" i.e. the spaces that are determined by the interpenetration of the real and the virtual dimensions of the spaces where the teaching-learning processes take place.

These studies were the starting point for a more general and careful reflection on how hybrid learning spaces can become the ideal humus for seamless learning processes.

More recently, intrigued by multi-modal/multi-surface conversational applications (eg chatbots), he has launched two research lines aimed at exploring their potential (a) in the second language learning and (b) in the I-Mooc (or interactive Mooc) online tutoring.

Guglielmo Trentin has authored and co-authored more than 300 papers, 24 books and 7 patents on the themes of educational technology and, in particular, on the use of network and mobile technology in education.

He is also Contributing Editor of Educational Technology (USA), member of the TP&E Editorial Board (International Journal of Technology, Pedagogy & Education - UK), member of the IJAS Editorial Board (International Journal on Advances in Software is a Journal of the International Academy, Research and Industry Association - IARIA) and member of the JAER Editorial Board (International Journal of Advances in Education Research).

In the following, the main projects directed during the last decade.

[2009-12] Principal investigator of WISE (Wiring Inclusive Special Education), a FIRB project (basic-research investment funds) funded by Italy’s Ministry of Universities and Research (MIUR) that studies network technology in homebound special education.

[2013-16] Research manager of TRIS (Network Technology and Socio-educational Inclusion), a research project under the framework agreement between Ministry of Education, CNR and TIM Foundation aimed at the study of new models of schooling for students with difficulties to normal school attendance due to specific disabling diseases or social distress (the project was funded by TIM Foundation).

[2018] Research manager of CLIPSO (Hybrid Classrooms for School in Hospital) which aimed to ensure educational continuity between young long-term patients and their classes, thus trying to counteract the effects of socio-educational isolation caused by hospitalization (the project was funded by the Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation).

[2018-21] Research manager of the TRIS.2, i.e. the transfer phase of the results achieved during the experimental three-year period of TRIS, in particular, of the socio-educational inclusion model built around the concept of “inclusive hybrid classroom” (the project was funded by TIM Foundation).

[2019-21] Research manager of the Hey-Tutor! project, for the development of tutor-bots to support the management of massive online courses, i.e. automatic agents able to assist/support and, when possible, replace tutors online in many of the activities, both routine responses to the students, and in the proactive and engagement ones of the participants (the project was funded by TIM Foundation).

[2021 till now] Research manager of H-SL (Hybrid - Seamless Learning) project, aimed at the study (a) of seamless learning processes, enhanced by the hybridization of physical and digital spaces; (b) didactic-pedagogical approaches centered on the hybridization of formal, non-formal and informal learning; (c) of new evaluation methods modeled on the characteristics of the H-SL, where the planning of evaluative episodes (of learning, skills, competences), disseminated/provoked along the training path, acts as a guide in the process of design and planning of the H-SL according to the backward planning approach (Assessment-driven H-SL design).

Complete list of scientific and teaching activities

Last update: March 23rd, 2022