Abstract

Education in Territorial Information Systems is offered in Italy in two ways: either permanently or through occasional courses.
The permanent offer is supplied by University Diplomas, available at two Institutions: the Venice Istituto Universitario di Architettura and the Torino Polytechnic Institute. A third Diploma is in preparation at the Rome University La Sapienza. Starting this year (1998) there is also available, through the support of the Consorzio Nettuno, a Teledidactic University Diploma in Territorial Information Systems. The purpose of this initiative is to make education available to a high number of users, particularly managers and employees of technical divisions of the public administration.
The occasional courses include those offered by the European Social Fund (ESF), by the UniGIS and other short or intensive courses.

INTRODUCTION

Permanent and temporary programs of education in Territorial Information Systems have existed in Italy for a few years. In the first group there belong the University Diplomas (both traditional and telematic), while the second includes a variety of occasional courses aimed at improvement of professional qualifications.

PERMANEN COURSES

The SIT Diploma of Venice’s Istituto Universitario di Architettura
The Diploma was initiated in the academic year 1994/95.
Its purpose is to create professional operators able to handle and maintain the computerized tools necessary for the management of all kinds of territory-related issues.
When a student graduates from the course, he/she must be able to handle all the tools necessary for gathering, processing and delivering territory-related information, such as are currently used by private and public subjects for building, programming and implementing territorial policies.
As a consequence of the rapid development of applications in private and public concerns, there has been a growing awareness of the potential value of Territorial Informations Systems and of the technologies related to GIS ( Geographical Information Systems). Those have proved useful both as supports to the processes of territorial management and as means to respond to the growing citizen concern about territorial and environmental policies.
The techniques connected to computerized territorial management are acquiring growing importance also in the debate about urban reform. The Territorial Information Systems constitute a set of tools for the acquisition of knowledge and for the monitoring of environmental and territorial phenomena, thus being of interest to different levels of public administrations (region, province, city) and to private firms operating in the related fields.
From the point of view of the work market, expertise in Territoria Information Systems offers a wealth of employment possibilities, ranging from control and management of technological networks to systems for environmental monitoring, to computerization of tools for urban planning, to storage of and access to information related to the so-called cultural stocks (works of art), to city maintenance, to support systems for territorial decision making, to the establishment of citizen-oriented information points.

The SIT graduate is expected to:

• possess a cultural background related to territorial issues and to their governance, with a clear awareness of the role played by Territorial Information Systems as sources of information and as support to decisions;
• be able to plan, realize and maintain complex territorial databases;
• be familiar with and able to handle the different hardware platforms and the operating systems in current use;
• be familiar with and properly use the relevant software applications, with particular reference to the Geographical Information Systems (GIS).

The didactic activity consists essentially in three components: the territory, the information systems and the territorial infotmarion systems.
The first component is aimed at defining and analyzing the issues related to the territory, with special attention to the demand for systematic information. Territorial phenomena and problems are then referred to the country’s legislative and institutional framework.
The second component takes the students inside the technological world of the Information Systems, both in the public and private sectors. The student will learn the basic know-how necessary for planning, realizing and managing Information Systems.
Finally, the third component takes the students inside the Territorial Information Systems. Students are taught the techniques of SIT planning and managing and the behavioral models which public authorities expect within specific legislative frameworks.
The didactic activity is organized in one-discipline courses of 50 hours and in a set of integrating courses of 25 or 50 hours. High educational standards are maintained also thanks to the presence in the faculty of at least twenty per cent extra-academic professionals. This mixtures allows an important educational balance, in view of the capabilities required for efficient performance in the work market.
The total course load for students is of 2,400 hours. Of these, 1,600 are for didactic activity, 400 for laboratory work and 400 for stage training. The one-discipline courses are taught with traditional classroom methods, while the integrating courses have a more practical focus.
The lab work is intermediate between classroom courses and stage training. It is directed by faculty members drawn both from the academic world and from public and private enterprises. Its aim is the acquisition of experience in the construction of information systems related to concrete and real issues.
The stage training takes place normally during the third year of enrollment. Its aim is to face students with the professional practices related to the acquired education. This is obtained by placing students within fully qualified structures external to the University, either in Italy or abroad. Such structures can be professional firms, divisions of planning, research or development in private or public concerns, and different institutions operating in the field of Territorial Information Systems. The main purpose of stage training is to establish a permanent interaction between the educational world and the different subjects operating as suppliers and/or users of Territorial Information Systems.

The Venice Diploma in SIT was selected by the Campus Project of which it is a full component. The Campus Project, organized by the Conference of Presidents of the Italian Universities (CRUI), was realized within the framework of Objective 3 of the European Social Fund, an agency which finances educational activities for the area of Central and northern Italy through the Italian Ministry for Work and Social Welfare.
The Project is sponsored by the Ministry for Universities and Scientific Research (MURST) and by the Conference of Presidents of Regions and Authonomous Provinces with the participation, beside CRUI, of Confindustria, ENEA and Unioncamere.
The Projects’s specificity is the realization of University Diplomas in the fields of engineering, of technological sciences and of advanced services in order for higher education to be in line with the updated demands of the work market.
Project Campus represents an important innovation in the relationship between Universities and Business World. It was born as a joint effort in order to establish educational curricula capable of a correct balance between academic knowledge and business operating needs. This interaction has caused remarkable progress in terms of educational efficiency and in view of the employment opportunities for graduates.

As cornerstones in the innovative educational landscape created by the University Diplomas we might indicate: the high level of the professional training, the new system of course credit, the evaluation of teaching quality, the presence of extra-academic faculty, the stage training with operating firms. Those are essential features for all attempts at University renovation in the entire European Community.

The Venice SIT Diploma has also been involved in an effort aimed at quality assessment both in terms of course planning and of everyday didactic activity. The idea is that quality improvement is a cultural goal which must be constantly present also in the Universities and must guide the overall organization as well as the routine didactic activity. A system of quality assessment with related certification is an essential point also in view of funding or co-funding of Diplomas.
A meaningful thrust in that direction was supplied by the Campus Project, which considers the creation of reliable evaluation systems for educational efficiency a very important feature. With such encouragment, the Venice SIT is engaged in a specific project aimed at the creation of a certification system for quality assessment based on the UNI EN ISO 9001 regulations with Det Norske Veritas.

REMOTE EDUCATION. THE TELEDIDACTIC UNIVERSITY DIPLOMA IN SIT

A teledidactic Diploma in SIT will become operational starting in October, 1998, in care of Venice-IUAV and Turin Polytechnic (University of Pisa, Polytechnic of Bari and Rome’s La Sapienza are also interested).
The Italian public administration system has been the object of numerous, recent legislative actions, ranging from Law 142 of 1990 on the Local Authonomies to the legislation on transparency, to the Bassanini law and to the latest State Budget measures. Both directly and indirectly, such bills of law call for a re-engineering of the entire Public Administration system in view of better efficiency, equity and transparency. A global reform strategy must necessarily include technological innovation, outsourcing and updated professional training.
In this framework, higher education is called to play an important role as a tool for the implementation of reform policies. Such education must be aimed at improvement of professional skills in public administration employees, not so much through classroom learning as through concrete training on the job.
In this context the issues related to the management of the territory turn out to be highly relevant. Environmental monitoring, surveys, local taxation, protection of territory, management of public estates will constitute as many tests for the willingness and capacity of the public administration to efficiently reform itself.
Computerized and telematic technologies are very advanced in this field (Geographical Information Systems, Remote Sensing, GIS-WEB et al.). Their correct use is therefore a must for improved efficiency, equity and transparency in territory management and governance. Professional updating and continuous education constitute at the same time a potential bottle neck and an opportunity for real innovation and decentralization.
As noted, the public University system has created educational opportunities in those fields (the Diplomas at Venice and Torino and the one under construction at Rome). This created a substantial know-how, which is now mature to be exploited, with proper adaptments, in extra-University contexts. Such is the Teledidactic Diploma in Territorial Information Systems, created with the support of the Consorzio Nettuno, which already handles a dozen teledidactic University Diplomas, with more than 200 active courses and 3,000 students.
The main idea is to offer cultural and technological education in strict connection with professional training through laboratory work and stage training, as successfully tested in the existing Diplomas.
The courses in basic culture aim at presenting the range of the principal territory-related problems and at moderating a purely technological approach to the available tools.
The professional training guarantees the acquisition of know-how in a technological field in constant evolution and produces interest in innovation as well as capability to absorb it.
Laboratory work and stage training could be scattered on the territory by making use of a network of partner enterprises, which will guarantee the proper integrations to the academic curriculum.
The specific objective remains the achievment of a high level merging of academic notions with professional and business practices.

FORMATION COURSES

A further educational opportunity is offered in Italy by courses of the European Social Fund, UniGIS and by intense or short courses created by public and private enterprises.
UniGIS is a telematic network for remote education in GIS. It is promoted and managed by a number of European Universities. Its original concept was created and developped in England by the Universities of Hudderfield, Manchester Metropolitan and Salford. It was then developped in collaboration with the Universities of Salzburg and Amsterdam. The course thus offered is operative in England, Austria, Holland, Rumenia, Hungary, Czech Republic, South Africa, Canada, USA and Italy with a total of more than 600 students.
Through the European Social Fund – traditionally destined to professional education all through Europe – there was created a merging between first level University education and professional training. Objective of such courses is to provide young job seekers with a high level of professional training and to further qualify those who already work with professional responsibilities.
Such courses are open to high-school and/or college graduates. They often refer to new professions, such as they emerge from careful monitoring of the work market, so that preparation is often not possible through a simple revision of existing University curricula.
Starting in 1994, the Venice Doploma in SIT is also offering a series or brief or intensive courses on specific issues related to territorial problems. Among the most recent (1998) were: "Environmental Management and SIT", "Urban Planning Tools, Territorial Management and SIT".
Those courses are directed towards users who work in public or private enterprises and have responsibilities somehow connected with the management of the territory (administrators, managers, technicians, employees). Their objective is to create familiarity with computer technologies as applied to Territorial Information Systems.

THE CURRENT TREND

Education and, even more, remote education in Territorial Information Systems are rapidly growing in Italy. In the recent years a large number of public and private enterprises have distributed a remarkable amount of resources in this field. Educational projects are mostly addressed at various levels of the public administrations (communes, provinces, mountain communities, regions). There is little doubt that in the next few years the field of remote education will be among the most intensely developped, both in terms of investments and of human resources. In a few years it will be highly interesting to make an assessment of the results produced by this transformation process upon the users’ culture as well as upon the development of SIT and GIS technologies.

CONCLUSION

After a few years of experiments, University education in Territorial Information Systems has reached in Italy a definite profile. The didactic programs are by now solid and regularly implemented.
The present didactic organization calls for curricula centered on relevant and compelling themes, such as those related to the environment (ecology, hydrogeology, evaluations of environmental impact of prospected works, etc.).
Remote education through teledidactic techniques makes large use of the experience acquired with the new SIT Diplomas and will provide further tests as to the efficiency of long-distance education as well as of the SIT teaching techniques.
Short and/or intensive courses will depend and the market demand and on the Institutions’ capability to be in tune with it. It is expected that the market will be more and more oriented towards themes concerning the environment, the fiscal equity, and the geomarketing.

REFERENCES

• "Il valore dell’Autonomia" (Acts of a CRUI Conference), Rome, April 1998.
• F. Butera et al., "I lavoratori della conoscenza", 1998.
• S. Amaduzzi, E. Astori, "Il Diploma Universitario in Sistemi Informativi Territoriali dello IUAV di Venezia", in "Mondo GIS", n. 3 (October 1996).