Training program with the support of Google.org and promoted together with the State Police, Altroconsumo and Anteas
The activities and new tools of “Experience the Internet at its best” (Viam), the training program of Digital World Foundation with the support of Google.org and promoted together with State Police, Altroconsumo and Anteas to help young people and adults experience the web responsibly according to the principles of digital citizenship and online security. With the new school year, the Viam program continues to help children, teenagers, parents and teachers to live the Net responsibly and also contributes to reducing the social isolation of minors affected by high functioning autism spectrum disorder, with a main deficit of language pragmatics and fragile minors with special educational needs.
This year, the focus of the project is the value of diversity and the challenge of inclusion, thanks to collaborations with the Don Gnocchi Foundation and with the Childhood and Adolescent Neuropsychiatry Unit of the Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital. The Interland4All game was created by the Don Gnocchi Foundation, which is inspired by the online video game Interland [g.co/interland] developed by Google to help children learn the fundamental lessons of web safety through journeys across four different experience-realms. The team of experts from the Fondazione Mondo Digitale and the Don Gnocchi Foundation, with the support and collaboration of the Child Neuropsychiatry Unit of the Irccs Don Gnocchi in Milan and the Innovation Development Department, have created a virtual (physical and virtual) version of the game suitable for children with special educational needs. In Interland4All augmented reality scenarios, accessible from smartphones, are combined with a concrete kit, with board, pawns and question cards. The result makes it possible to extend the educational purposes of the game, making it accessible to different abilities.
Fondazione Mondo Digitale explains that the training modules on “Digital Wellbeing”, which teach how to find a balance between offline and online life ( caregivers and children with disabilities), and on “Kind communication” to prevent and combat the phenomenon of cyberbullying and hostile language online. “Today a series of actors have joined their efforts to protect the safe growth of adults and children with frailties who, through these experiences, can take advantage of technology for an increasingly aware and risk-free use of the Internet. I propose a meeting with the actors here present at the Ministry that I represent to give further support to these fundamental and fruitful collaborations” commented Alessandra Locatelli, Minister for Disabilities.
Senator Elena Murelli, Group Leader of the Social Affairs, Labor and Health Commission, noted that “interventions are envisaged within the Pnrr for projects in favor of the inclusion of people with fragility. The Social Affairs Commission, in concert with with the Ministry for Disabilities, it will try to identify the most critical contexts in order to then be able to work on integration starting from the schools, also thanks to technology.It is precisely from the classrooms that we start to counter the sense of exclusion and discrimination that can accompany the conditions of fragility of children”.
Google is also involved in the program. Martina Colasante, Government Affairs & Public Policy Manager of Google Italy, during the presentation noted that “Vivi internet, at its best, is committed to helping children and young people to learn the principles of digital citizenship and acquire knowledge and tools to navigate online in a positive and aware. Today we are particularly proud to make Experience the Internet at its best even more accessible and tailored to the specific needs of children and young people with special educational needs. The goal of Google.org – Google’s philanthropic foundation – is to contribute to to face the main challenges of our age thanks to technology and resources.We believe that making the internet safer and more inclusive is one of them and we will continue to work together with the non-profit world and the entire educational community to give everyone, and especially the most vulnerable people, the tools to get the best out of technology and face the risks with awareness age””.
For Mirta Michilli, general manager of the Fondazione Mondo Digitale, “our work starts from the idea of guaranteeing that the benefits of digitization are to everyone’s advantage, without excluding anyone. To achieve this goal, we develop tools and programs tailored to different recipients, including in conditions of fragility or with special needs, to ensure the highest quality of learning and the best inclusion”. Finally, Michilli underlined that “behind the idea of the Interland4All game, for example, there is the concept of phyrtuality developed by Alfonso Molina, an integrated physical-virtual space dedicated to the development of education, learning and planning and innovation, above all social A game that develops the virtual dimension, such as attention to different abilities, then becomes a quality activity for all children”.
Source-www.adnkronos.com