It seems that nothing ever changes and instead things do change, and how. Take the schools. Twenty years ago I took part in a great campaign by Repubblica to bring a computer to each desk. It seemed essential to enter the future. Ten years ago, together with others, I fought for the digital world to arrive at school and in particular to teach coding, the language of computer programming with which to develop sites and apps, already in elementary school. Now the political debate is about the opportunity to introduce clay pigeon shooting lessons: teach kids to shoot. All right, let’s not misrepresent ourselves: clay pigeon shooting is an Olympic sport in which Italy excels, but is this the school we want?
Education and AI
Is the Italian school ready for the impact of ChatGPT?
by Francesco Marino
Fortunately, as we speak, the school goes on by itself “in a stubborn and contrary direction” to our paranoia. In recent days, for example, fifteen hundred teachers have arrived in Brindisi from all over Italy to participate in two days of training managed by the “Majorana” Institute of the principal Salvatore Giuliano, one of the great innovators of the school world: the program included courses on how to integrate lessons augmented reality tools, artificial intelligence, coding, robotics and 3D printers.
The school
Italian Tech Academy, enrollment is open for the new masters
The goal wasn’t to learn the technology itself, but to learn how to use it to make better, more engaging lessons in any subject. As will happen on 14 February in another exceptional school, the “”Mattarella” in Modena of the principal Daniele Barca, where the students will produce a news program on traditional subjects and then take it into the metaverse. Then of course, a falling tree – the proposal of an undersecretary – makes more noise than a growing forest. But it is the forest made by thousands of generous and visionary teachers that will save the school. Don’t shoot it big.