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My speech at the EIT EdTech Confernce 2025Read below or watch <a data-mce-href="https://youtu.be/-Gj5RMMJ3jk" href="https://youtu.be/-Gj5RMMJ3jk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>&nbsp;<figure id="figure-57np20g07mhgkpne3" class=""><img id="57np20g07mhgkpne3" src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/19KyNxgyB9BoFtifU1BjGf2V1lAqgF6bRBKsMP2c5snp8HyL5BMhcH4jm34QnRqR.png" alt="" title="" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 rounded-sm md:rounded-md lg:rounded-lg" style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="" data-positionx="undefined" data-positiony="undefined" data-fullwidth="false" data-mce-src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/19KyNxgyB9BoFtifU1BjGf2V1lAqgF6bRBKsMP2c5snp8HyL5BMhcH4jm34QnRqR.png" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;"></figure>I am afraid of heights. I’ve repeated this sentence to myself a billion times.I was in Paris for work once and wanted to see as much of Paris as possible in a short time. So, I ended up on the Eiffel Tower. As soon as I stepped out of the elevator, I froze. I couldn’t go near the edge and kept repeating to myself: “I’m afraid of heights.”<img id="z33bcevvcymhgkqpx4" src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/38h1ZzxV3ZWcAvEIzNWXZNPRBhF1P2QfZ4mQ2tHMrOS0981H4c4gKwXxhK0iWTtu.png" alt="" title="" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 rounded-sm md:rounded-md lg:rounded-lg" style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="" data-positionx="undefined" data-positiony="undefined" data-fullwidth="false" data-mce-src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/38h1ZzxV3ZWcAvEIzNWXZNPRBhF1P2QfZ4mQ2tHMrOS0981H4c4gKwXxhK0iWTtu.png" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;">And here I am, a few years later, climbing a mountain wall. Still terrified, but this time I could move. So, what changed?What changed is that I learned how to act outside my comfort zone, and I have my first start-up to thank for that.Creating a start-up is, in many ways, like climbing that wall. The ground feels far away. You feel exposed. But you learn to trust the rope, your partners, your vision.When I co-founded our first company, I used to tell myself: “I hate risks.” Yet I answered the call for adventure from my co-founder. Ten years later, we reached 40 million euros in turnover and sold the company to a multinational competitor.And I learned also a few other things that I keep close ever since.<figure id="figure-efq6nejphgmhgkuhv7"><img id="efq6nejphgmhgkuhv7" src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/18Vh2LACA6oJ26g9XGgArfExVW60gsfK5vZ7yFbTPSUyCkU6fTnVxXBEUQXfUjpC.png" alt="" title="" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 rounded-sm md:rounded-md lg:rounded-lg" style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="" data-positionx="undefined" data-positiony="undefined" data-fullwidth="false" data-mce-src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/18Vh2LACA6oJ26g9XGgArfExVW60gsfK5vZ7yFbTPSUyCkU6fTnVxXBEUQXfUjpC.png" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;"></figure>People first.Every organization is made of people. The team you choose, your co-founders, partners, and colleagues, will determine not only your success but also who you become, and how much you will enjoy your journey with them. Choose the ones who will challenge you when you’re wrong, celebrate with you when you’re right, and stay when things get hard, because they will.&nbsp;Communication matters.In all directions. Once, we asked a customer to “send us” her social security number, and she physically mailed it to our office. That day we learned that clarity is everything. This lesson has been the most important when I started working in education, having to connect with such a diverse group of people made of teachers, students, families…Start small, validate fast and stay flexible.We did so many mistakes, spending way too much money and time on product development with too little testing. Today, digital technologies allow us to prototype, validate, and pivot faster than ever, if we have the courage to listen to the feedback.&nbsp;But don’t lose focus. We need to make something work before chasing new opportunities.&nbsp;But we also need to stop, look around, and recognize when the context has changed, because it always does and we may need to adapt. New horizons will have unfold before our eyes while we were walking.<figure id="figure-cits0vmax1hmhgktry1" class=""><img id="cits0vmax1hmhgktry1" src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/3lKQJ3YatvpLFtXXVwjc4d1DdwHI1yf6JghBI53KuL3jc15KXFodcxyhNcGP7qsP.png" alt="" title="" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 rounded-sm md:rounded-md lg:rounded-lg" style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="" data-positionx="undefined" data-positiony="undefined" data-fullwidth="false" data-mce-src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/3lKQJ3YatvpLFtXXVwjc4d1DdwHI1yf6JghBI53KuL3jc15KXFodcxyhNcGP7qsP.png" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;"></figure>After selling my first company, I was ready for a new challenge, and I founded right away a non-profit organization.I wanted to empower young people with the skills to navigate the future using digital tools, STEM education and futures thinking.I thought I had a solution. After all, I had spent two-thirds of my life in classrooms and another third building an innovative company.&nbsp;And I soon realized I wasn’t the only one thinking this way. We all care deeply about education, we all have direct experience and many of us tend to believe (1) it needs fixing, (2) that we know how to do it, and (3) that technology will somehow do the trick, just as the narratives around technology and education have been telling us for years.I knew nothing of course.&nbsp;Schools are not machines to be optimized. They are living organisms, they are complex, dynamic and deeply human. And no single actor has all the answers.&nbsp;I started from scratch and after spending years on the road, visiting classrooms and working almost everyday side by side with teachers and learners, I felt that I was beginning to understand how schools worked.&nbsp;And then, Covid-19 happened.And I was suddenly invited to join the task force of the Ministry of Education to reimagine education after the emergency.&nbsp;It was a humbling experience. It taught me that learning never ends, and that systems change only when public, private, and civil society work together.<figure id="figure-errm9lcqn5mhgktcq2"><img id="errm9lcqn5mhgktcq2" src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/81y0aH8xlL6tBqI76Qdc0QRJ7g7b6vpuEZk1wC5SFclqKMxSa8gZRy9ga9bcqVma.png" alt="" title="" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 rounded-sm md:rounded-md lg:rounded-lg" style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="" data-positionx="undefined" data-positiony="undefined" data-fullwidth="false" data-mce-src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/81y0aH8xlL6tBqI76Qdc0QRJ7g7b6vpuEZk1wC5SFclqKMxSa8gZRy9ga9bcqVma.png" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;"></figure>After that, over the last five years, my non-profit raised money and evolved into an EdTech initiative supporting schools with training, digital tools, and content. Even as a now for-profit company I realized that Italian k-12 education is not merely a market. It’s a community. Competition doesn’t work the same way, it’s about partnerships, trust, and shared purpose.Technology without pedagogy doesn’t work. In Italy, we’ve been very lucky. A lot of funds were made available for school in the last years. Schools could buy a lot of technological equipment. But many struggled to integrate them, because the funding for technology was separated from the funding for teacher training.Some people tend to think that technology equals innovation.&nbsp;But this is wrong. We don’t need cutting-edge technologies to innovate.&nbsp;We don’t learn how to drive on a Ferrari, right? Likewise, we don’t need the most powerful AI to transform education. We need the right one. &nbsp;One that is not an adaptation of what we use in the workplace. One that is ethical, age-appropriate, culturally fit and inclusive.&nbsp;As Ed-Tech entrepreneurs our job doesn’t end when we sell a tool or a service. We need to sit in the process with teachers and learners and make sure that it creates value for them. That it promotes collaboration, agency and metacognition.&nbsp;<figure id="figure-5oiwzzrai9mhgksziy"><img id="5oiwzzrai9mhgksziy" src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/cmu4oVKZ21E3xMH7VxqqxiNrv9jd06IPItprvgCpUsvA766uLouNA1UozuAWwKDc.png" alt="" title="" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 rounded-sm md:rounded-md lg:rounded-lg" style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="" data-positionx="undefined" data-positiony="undefined" data-fullwidth="false" data-mce-src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/cmu4oVKZ21E3xMH7VxqqxiNrv9jd06IPItprvgCpUsvA766uLouNA1UozuAWwKDc.png" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;"></figure>Today, after a very recent second exit, I can finally enjoy the view of new horizons. I have the time to look back and reflect on what I’ve learned, and to look ahead at the challenges and opportunities that come with technologies, such as AI.AI is now everywhere. It is already impacting learning in informal, non-formal and formal education. &nbsp;All knowledge is mediated by AI and we now live in a new paradigm that I call AI DIXIT, “AI itself said it. Therefore, it must be true.” “I’ve seen it on that social network” or “found it online…”With a new paradigm, we need new strategies to make sure we are safe in the classroom, but also that we are when we step out of it. Equipped with the skills we need to cope with the challenges we may encounter.&nbsp;We need to know AI deeply and experiment safely with it first-hand.&nbsp;Professor Weizenbaum, the creator of the very first chatbot, ELIZA, once wrote that general-purpose technologies, such as in his view AI, are often slower in their development, and that true innovation comes not from their original design, but from the ways in which people use them, in unexpected and transformative ways.&nbsp;Think about the early days of the web. It was designed primarily as a tool to share files among researchers. Nobody anticipated that one of its most disruptive uses would be something as simple as sending each other emails. And yet, that unplanned application changed everything, forever transforming how we communicate, work, and live.Today, we stand at a similar threshold.We cannot foresee all the ways digital tools, and especially AI, will evolve and how they will impact learning.&nbsp;But we get to be the ones who experiment and innovate with it.&nbsp;We can decide why we use it, and who we want to become with it. Designing innovation in classrooms, not in boardrooms.&nbsp;So here I am, set for my next journey, exploring these horizons in front of us. I hope some of you will be willing to join me. Let’s build, and imagine, together, the most meaningful possible future of learning.<figure id="figure-pxuq7ucp5pmhgkxpbs"><img id="pxuq7ucp5pmhgkxpbs" src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/39b5aH9CZeFBFunNWAfqdvyMttO4XtB6KkX4G9A5WUvEWLtyYOP9NWkWUG4yZipc.jpg" alt="" title="" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 rounded-sm md:rounded-md lg:rounded-lg" style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="" data-positionx="undefined" data-positiony="undefined" data-fullwidth="false" data-mce-src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/39b5aH9CZeFBFunNWAfqdvyMttO4XtB6KkX4G9A5WUvEWLtyYOP9NWkWUG4yZipc.jpg" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;"></figure>

Learning At The Edge - EIT EdTech Conference

The Fundamental Condition of Human ExistenceIn "Being and Time," philosopher Martin Heidegger introduces the concept of Geworfenheit (often translated as "thrownness"), one of the central notions of his work. With this term, Heidegger describes the fundamental existential condition of the human being, which he calls Dasein or "being-there," as a being "thrown" into the world without having chosen it.We do not choose to be born, nor can we decide the historical period, the family, the culture, or the initial circumstances into which we come into existence. We find ourselves already immersed in a world structured by meanings, practices, and possibilities that precede us and which we did not create.This condition constitutes our starting point: the situated position from which we perceive the world and from which we begin to make our choices. Human existence is therefore always situated, rooted in a context that is given in advance. For Heidegger, our freedom is not limitless or abstract but embedded within a horizon of original constraints and conditions.Nonetheless, precisely within this thrownness, Heidegger sees the possibility for the human being to project themselves toward the future. Despite the circumstances that shape us, we can orient ourselves, take responsibility for our choices, and build an authentic existence. It is within this tension between determination and openness that Heidegger locates the meaning of freedom.We might summarize this perspective by saying that the future is open, but only to a certain extent: it is open in that it offers possibilities, but these are framed by the structural boundaries into which we are thrown.&nbsp;From Philosophical Concept to Future VisionThese boundaries are not only external or material; they also manifest within our minds, in the narratives we tell ourselves, and in the cultural representations we share. They profoundly influence our worldview and our understanding of what it means to be human. We all have an image of the future that is the result of conflicting forces and guides our decisions every day.The "Futures Triangle" by Futurologist Sohail Inayatullah represents this dynamic. According to Inayatullah, our image of the future is influenced by three different types of pressures that operate simultaneously and with different intensity: the weight of the past, the pushes of the present, and the pull of the future. These three forces form the vertices of a metaphorical triangle within which all possible future scenarios we can imagine are located.All the possible and plausible scenarios that we will devise will be included within this triangle, but they will be potentially infinite thanks to the dynamism of the system. Working on this triangle and learning how to generate new possibilities is the key to a responsible action toward a better future.This work is crucial because no one realizes a future they can't imagine. If we want to act, we should train our ability to imagine and activate long-term futures.Futures Literacy (FL): An Essential CompetenceWe all should understand which aspects of what is possible in the future can affect us, and which ones we can create ourselves. In other words: we should all learn to read and write futures. This competence is defined by UNESCO as "Futures Literacy" and is considered a key competence for the 21st century.Why now? Because we are in the midst of a multi-crisis: a historical moment in which the intellectual technologies we use, along with the cultural evolutions they generate, are profoundly and transformatively reshaping our reality.All the foundational pillars of society, as they were designed, adapted, and layered over time to respond to a world with specific resources, balances, and constraints, are now trembling. These structures are proving inadequate in responding effectively to the pulls of the future, the attractive forces that draw us toward new visions, new models, and new configurations.On one hand, this creates a space of opportunity: the triangle of social and institutional structures, historically rigid, becomes potentially more mobile, more open to change. On the other hand, the system activates reactive feedback: forces from the past and present that resist transformative change.This is not merely inertia, but the emergence of true countertendencies, preservation dynamics that oppose, sometimes subtly and sometimes forcefully, any attempt to deeply transform society.The Limits of Our ImaginationThis resistance is deeply rooted in our mindsets. In fact, when we think about the future, we activate the same areas of the brain involved in memory, in recalling images and experiences from the past.Like LEGO bricks, these memories become building blocks we use to construct possible futures. Even if the combinations were endless, we still must work with the pieces we have. And in times of deep, transformative change, like the one we're living through now, it's as if the pieces we need are missing.We search for a shape we've never seen and find ourselves disoriented. It's easy to feel discouraged when we lack reference points to imagine the future, when it appears so radically different from the world that we know that we are left without ideas, without language, without direction.In such a context, knowing the past is no longer enough to build the future. Uncertainty, acceleration, and increasing complexity are rewriting the rules, and we must learn to imagine with tools we have not yet fully invented.Education at the Centre of the StormIn this context, education and training find themselves at the centre of a perfect storm, under pressure from every sector of society, each with its own demands.Future-oriented skills for emerging jobs, mindsets capable of rethinking politics, sustainability, civic participation... everyone turns to schools and learning systems, invading the educational space with their own agendas and expectations.Every society shapes the structures of learning, its methods, content, timing, and environments, as part of a broader process of imagining its present and future. This balance between tradition and innovation becomes increasingly fragile in a world that is complex, interconnected, and marked by rapid, discontinuous change.Today's dominant education model, a linear progression from school to the labour market, with increasingly specialized and vertical pathways, is being disrupted by the uncertainties of the future, especially in light of the ongoing digital revolution.If we try to represent this domain through the Futures Triangle, we quickly realize that despite all the talk about "the future of education," we remain trapped in a triangle skewed toward the past and the present. A triangle that fails to be pulled by future-oriented forces, because it does not recognize or understand them.Working with tools like the Futures Triangle to give more space and voice to these emerging forces is not optional: it is urgent, if we are to address the issue meaningfully.Rethinking the Educational ParadigmEducation is the future, it builds the future, and yet right now, it does so by replicating the past. Through transmission.Marshall McLuhan, in "Education in the Electronic Age," warned us: in a world of abundant access to data and information, education must change its approach. It must shift from what we call instruction to what we might call discovery.Instruction preserves the past. Discovery pushes boundaries, reinvents, and thrives in information abundance. And yet, we are still stuck in the old paradigm.Rather than operating at the upper levels of Bloom's taxonomy, synthesis, creation, critical reflection, we remain trapped in a system designed for a world where data, information, and knowledge were scarce, as if we were not offered radical abundance by digitality as we are now, probably for the first time in history.And with that abundance comes the urgent need to completely rethink our educational model. Not only can we rethink our world completely, but we have the possibility and responsibility to do it, for us and for future generations.Technology, Learning, and SocietyThe application of new technologies to learning processes at all ages invites us to reflect deeply on the kind of society we want to build, and on the goals we assign to education within that society.It is essential to adopt a critical, human-centred approach, one that begins with people, communities, and the social role of learning, before focusing on the tools themselves.Learning and sharing knowledge and skills is a natural human activity: we have always done it, every day, through a wide variety of methods and means. Scholars consider it a foundational skill that facilitated a crucial leap in human cognitive development (Tomasello, 2000). And yet, today, cultural learning is treated as a scarce commodity, governed by the reproductive priorities of society and the capitalist paradigm.The result is that education and training have become functions of the economy, rather than expressions of the broader needs and values of society.The current context gives us a historic opportunity to radically rethink the educational paradigm. To do so, we must face a set of key challenges:<ul><li>Reimagining educational and training institutions, integrating new technologies while keeping humans "in the loop", in systems where human agents actively supervise, control, or make decisions in collaboration with technology.</li><li>Rethinking how we assess learning outcomes, moving beyond traditional evaluation models toward approaches that reflect the complexity, diversity, and evolving nature of learning.</li><li>And perhaps most importantly: designing a system that guarantees accessibility and justice, both for individuals and for society as a whole</li></ul>The Role of Artificial IntelligenceBefore moving forward, it is essential to pause briefly and reflect on the role of artificial intelligence technologies in this context.If culture and shared narratives are the material that fills the Futures Triangle, what we use to expand or reshape its boundaries, we must recognize that today, culture itself is increasingly mediated and filtered by these technologies.We generate, produce, share, consume, and transmit culture through tools that now form part of our extended mind. These technologies actively participate in the shaping of our thoughts, much like Friedrich Nietzsche noted how the typewriter began to influence his prose (Carr, 2010).As a result, cultural paradigms are shifting. We are entering a new epistemological model, a new relationship with truth, which we might call "AI dixit" (Pozzi, 2024): what the machine says becomes authoritative.Our capacity to imagine the future, and to creatively explore its potential evolutions, is now deeply influenced not only by these tools but also by the narratives surrounding them.More than any other domain, learning - the central object of our analysis - is exposed to this filter in all its contexts:<ul><li>In formal education, where AI tools are being adopted rapidly, often without having been designed for educational purposes.</li><li>In non-formal education, in workshops, training, and lifelong learning programs.</li><li>And most pervasively in informal learning, through social media, family interactions, peer conversations, and leisure time. </li></ul>This adds a further layer of complexity to our capacity to imagine and shape the future. AI systems are trained on past data. They are inherently biased toward the past and tend to reproduce dominant narratives. As a result, we risk compressing the very diversity and divergence that are essential for imagining radically new futures.Take, for example, the issue of alignment in large language models. Recent studies have shown how the answers generated by these models are implicitly rooted in specific cultural frameworks and may fail to reflect the diversity of perspectives found in other regions or cultures where these tools are exported.Futures Literacy, Hope, and Fraternity: Method, Energy, and CompassThis is why, in a world on the edge of profound transformation, and exposed to the risks of homogeneity, automation, and epistemic reduction, the development of FL becomes crucial.We need it to understand the world we live in. To design our lives with maximum freedom, from within the Triangle, the "thrown" position we inhabit, to borrow Heidegger's language, and to rethink and reshape society, starting precisely from education and learning.There are three key reasons to expand FL across all levels of education:<ul><li>It cultivates transversal skills and essential attitudes such as critical thinking, abstraction, creativity, problem-solving, communication, collaboration, analytical reasoning, and logical-deductive thinking.</li><li>It helps us understand and orient our own sense of the future, making us aware of the ways we influence the present and shape collective trajectories.</li><li>It fosters scenario thinking as a life skill, one that transcends disciplines and exists beyond the classroom, empowering people to become more responsible, active, and free citizens.</li></ul>This brings us straight to a second point: Whenever we can imagine a different tomorrow, we unlock our freedom. But what is freedom, if it is not accompanied by hope?Today, many people are disillusioned about the possibility of change. They lose hope. And there is nothing more dangerous than a hopeless society. We have a responsibility to nurture this vital energy.We can do so through an educational model that encourages young people to experiment, to learn from mistakes, and above all, not to give up. Gamifying the learning process, rather than reducing it to grades, and adopting a challenge-based, creative approach should be integral parts of any learning journey.Method and mindset on one side, propulsive energy on the other. Now we need a third ingredient: a compass.Today's extreme individualism has led us toward a society increasingly unable to pursue common goals. Yet the most pressing challenges of our time are precisely those that transcend the individual and cannot be solved by solitary action.We must learn to collaborate, to base our decisions on the awareness that our destinies are shared, with other humans, with other species, and across generations: past, present, and future.Interdependence means recognizing that the collective good is also our personal good. This is what philosopher Edgar Morin calls fraternity.Futures Literacy (the method), hope (the energy), and fraternity (the compass): These are the three essential forces we need to embark on the adventurous journey of building a new world, together.Conclusion: From "Thrownness" to the Freedom to CreateReturning to the concept of Geworfenheit from which we started, we can now understand how our condition of being "thrown" into the world is not just a limitation, but also the horizon within which we can exercise our authentic freedom. FL represents precisely the tool that allows us to expand this horizon, to see beyond the apparent boundaries of our situation, and to imagine possibilities that incremental thinking alone could never achieve.The development and exercise of this new kind of mindset may well be the answer we need to rise to the great challenges of our time. The tension between determination and openness that Heidegger places at the centre of human experience thus becomes the fertile ground from which a new vision of education can emerge and, with it, a more conscious and shared future.Our imagination may inspire us to improve the world in ways that incremental thinking alone could never achieve, transforming our condition of "thrownness" into an opportunity for authentic collective creation. This post is partly based on After, Il mondo che ci attende (DUSI, POZZI, Bompiani, 2022) and Pozzi C., (2022, February 17). 3 Skills You Need to Thrive in a Post-Pandemic World. Agenda, World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/stories/2022/02/futures-literary-skills-post-pandemic/

Education Futures

“No.” Two letters, one word, an entire universe of meanings that I avoided pronouncing for a long time. Yet, this very word is changing my life, helping me make space for new possibilities and rediscover myself.I have always been competitive, driven by an idea of success measured by perpetual movement. I lived by saying many “yeses”: to my studies, to work, to every opportunity that could help me achieve my goals. However, I was also very lucky because, in some cases, when faced with opportunities with a high degree of uncertainty, outside my comfort zone, I was able to look up, evaluate them, and embrace them with a “why not?”. This approach took me far, opening doors I had never imagined. It was a powerful mechanism for breaking down prejudices and challenging myself, giving me important and transformative experiences.But now, I have made space for another tool: “no.” Not a refusal that shuts down, but an invitation to pause, to take a break and better observe what surrounds us.I have discovered a “no” that does not exclude; rather, it frees. A “no” that allows me to notice, to dedicate attention and time to what truly matters. Something impossible before, as I was always caught up in an endless race of commitments and obligations. Have you ever felt this way?It’s as if, since I was a child—since the time when, for no valid reason, I confidently stated that I wanted to become an accountant—someone had handed me a map, on which I was supposed to mark my future destinations. A map where you can move in different directions based on the decisions you make. There are those choices that push us forward toward our goal. They are the ones that seem obvious and logical, the ones we make without thinking too much. Even when they are difficult, we know they are necessary, and we find the willpower to take the longer but safer path. For example, when we commit to earning a degree necessary to access our dream job, or when we set an early morning alarm every day to go to the gym and stay in shape. These choices are, in a way, inevitable yeses.For instance, when I chose my high school, I would have happily pursued any subject based on my interests. But there was always one thing I struggled with: drawing. I found it so difficult that my middle school technology teacher created a separate program just for me, with more computer science and electrical circuits, just to spare both of us the agony of my continuous ink smudges. Therefore, logically, any path involving related subjects was excluded, and between the two options presented to me—scientific high school or classical high school—the latter won hands down. At that time, my goal, my destination on the map, was simply to study things that would allow me to make my next choice with maximum freedom. An easy “yes,” then.The same logic guided my university choice: I wanted to choose between chemistry, philosophy, and economics. The first was ruled out because a teacher advised against it. I trusted her. The second was where my heart wanted to go, but doubts about job prospects, reinforced by many voices around me, ultimately prevailed. Economics, on the other hand, was a certainty. Again, the most logical choice. The one everyone expected from me. Another easy “yes.”This brings us to graduation and my first job in strategic consulting. Another solid “yes.” Everything was falling into place according to the expectations shaped by my past choices: I was who I was expected to be, and I had become that person through a series of rational and perfectly logical decisions.These “yeses” are well-marked paths on our map, straight roads toward our goal. And they work: they make us progress. However, I have learned that they are not the only way to move through life.Because the map also allows for “why nots?”, for detours that end up completely changing our destination. I remember my first “why not?”: a coffee with a colleague that, from a simple conversation, turned into a proposal to work on a start-up together. That “why not?” pushed me out of my comfort zone, making me explore unknown territory. It was an uncharted path at the time, so much so that, for a while, I struggled to explain to friends and family what I did for a living. But then, when things started working out, people around me understood, they found a label for me and called me an entrepreneur. The unconventional choice from years earlier had kept me uncomfortable for a while, but in the end, it had fit into a path that had found its place on my precious map. And so, the “yeses” could resume. Though, as a small revenge, I did earn a degree in philosophy. In any case, at that point, without ever stopping, I moved from one project to another, from one challenge to the next. Logical choices, safe choices, choices that reinforced the idea of me as an entrepreneur.But the more I said “yes”, the more I lost sight of something fundamental: because, I don’t believe I am an entrepreneur. Yes, it’s one of the things I have done, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be something else too, that I can’t explore new spaces. That label started feeling too tight. I discussed it with a friend who, in turn, complained about being a slave to his sense of duty and about discovering the importance of saying “no”—at least occasionally—to understand himself. If it hadn’t been him telling me this, I would have thought it was just the complaint of a lazy person, but I knew who I was listening to, and I decided to pay attention.Thanks to him, I made a discovery: saying “no” is actually a pause. It’s the moment when you stop running and allow yourself the luxury of lifting your eyes from the map to observe the landscape. And then, you also allow choices that don’t seem logical to carve out space among the possible paths. It’s another way of opening up to new things, different from the “why not”, but unlike the latter, its power doesn’t lie in movement but in stillness. And it was precisely this pause that started allowing me to see things differently.First of all, I began to ask myself: Why am I making this choice? Does it serve to achieve my goal? But also, what is my goal? Am I doing it because it’s truly what I want, or just because it’s what others expect from me?This question changed everything.I realized that many decisions had been made just to please others, to avoid disappointing the expectations I imagined others had of me. After all, we are human beings, and to live in society, it is important to consider what others expect of us and how we imagine their opinions might influence our future. This is not only useful, but also necessary. But if taken to the extreme, it can become a trap—like a player so obsessed with winning points that they forget the joy of the game itself.James P. Carse wrote that there are two kinds of games: finite games, with fixed rules and a goal to win, and infinite games, played for the joy of continuing to play. My friend was telling me to stop chasing rankings and points and to start playing an infinite game—one that more closely resembles life, relationships, and personal growth.Saying “no” taught me this: the value of standing still, observing, discovering that even in stillness, new things appear on the horizon—things I couldn’t see before but that had perhaps always been there, waiting to be discovered.Now, standing uncomfortably still, I watch my desires and aspirations reshape. And I realize: I can take the time to enjoy my world before narrowing it again with the next ‘yes.’Originally published 25th January 2025, Sette.&nbsp; <a href="https://www.corriere.it/sette/25_gennaio_29/il-superpotere-di-prendersi-una-pausa-dire-no-ha-spalancato-il-mio-mondo-32280c6b-4905-490e-b9ce-a4634a71fxlk.shtml?refresh_ce" data-mce-href="https://www.corriere.it/sette/25_gennaio_29/il-superpotere-di-prendersi-una-pausa-dire-no-ha-spalancato-il-mio-mondo-32280c6b-4905-490e-b9ce-a4634a71fxlk.shtml?refresh_ce">https://www.corriere.it/sette/25_gennaio_29/il-superpotere-di-prendersi-una-pausa-dire-no-ha-spalancato-il-mio-mondo-32280c6b-4905-490e-b9ce-a4634a71fxlk.shtml?refresh_ce</a>

The Power of Saying No

two hands reaching for a flying object in the sky

AI+ED = Artificial Intelligence + Education

<h3>A practical guide&nbsp;</h3>Even though we live in a world where the internet is rich in content on a wide range of topics, the work of researching, analyzing, selecting, creating, reworking, and sharing digital educational materials is demanding and crucial for the success of educational practices that utilize digital tools.By implementing the right processes and paying attention to some fundamental elements, it is possible to tackle this challenge successfully.In general, I believe it is important to clarify that there are no universally applicable solutions. The proposed steps, like any educational practice and evaluation of educational pathways, should be considered a draft that needs to be adapted to the specific context. My advice? Modify it, improve it, critique it, and share your experiences with other schools: effective innovation is born only from collaboration and comparison.To bring innovation into the school context, all stakeholders (families, students, and school staff) must be involved and committed, and the objectives and responsibilities must be clear and transparent.Below, I suggest some steps to follow to initiate a process of digital innovation: <figure id="figure-t9lf0tslemlzu1b7kf"><img id="t9lf0tslemlzu1b7kf" src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/86Vo10auqgaHPDfohCoFy1Ir4Lh9fgPMDhzCe5QwqWbZU58pcHpKD60JnSmDZkF0.png" alt="Happy black public speaker during business conference in convention center looking at camera." title="Happy black public speaker during business conference in convention center looking at camera." class="object-cover bg-gray-100 rounded-sm md:rounded-md lg:rounded-lg" style="aspect-ratio: 1/1; object-position: undefined undefined;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="1:1" data-caption="" data-positionx="undefined" data-positiony="undefined" data-fullwidth="false" data-mce-src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/86Vo10auqgaHPDfohCoFy1Ir4Lh9fgPMDhzCe5QwqWbZU58pcHpKD60JnSmDZkF0.png" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 1/1; object-position: undefined undefined;"></figure> DEDICATED TEAM Identify a group of people who can lead the process and hold its members accountable for the objectives. The group should include representatives from each subject area and the digital facilitator. The objectives of this group might include:<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100.002%;" border="1" data-mce-style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100.002%;"><tbody><tr><td style="width: 99.9975%;" data-mce-style="width: 99.9975%;">Designing an action plan and monitoring its progress.</td></tr><tr><td style="width: 99.9975%;" data-mce-style="width: 99.9975%;">Assessing the current and future availability of the best tools based on the context to initiate effective digital teaching.</td></tr><tr><td style="width: 99.9975%;" data-mce-style="width: 99.9975%;">Identifying the most suitable ways to use and produce digital content to achieve the educational objectives and the technological resources of the school and involved families.</td></tr><tr><td style="width: 99.9975%;" data-mce-style="width: 99.9975%;">Monitoring the quality, accessibility, and safety of digital content and the tools needed to access it.</td></tr></tbody></table>ASSESSMENT Before creating a plan, it is important to conduct an assessment of the starting point. Aspects to consider include:<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100.002%;" border="1" data-mce-style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100.002%;"><tbody><tr><td style="width: 99.9975%;" data-mce-style="width: 99.9975%;">A mapping of the school's technological resources (computers, screens, digital whiteboards, headsets, etc.).</td></tr><tr><td style="width: 99.9975%;" data-mce-style="width: 99.9975%;">A mapping of the students' technological resources.</td></tr><tr><td style="width: 99.9975%;" data-mce-style="width: 99.9975%;">An evaluation of the minimum skills needed to use the tools available to both the school staff and students. For this, we suggest using frameworks such as DigCompEdu and DigComp or similar tools.</td></tr><tr><td style="width: 99.9975%;" data-mce-style="width: 99.9975%;">A mapping of any digital teaching materials already available to the teaching staff and the school.</td></tr></tbody></table> DEFINE OBJECTIVES AND PLAN First, the group should consider the ideal final outcome to be achieved over a medium-term period (e.g., 3 years). Based on this outcome, we suggest creating a series of steps with bimonthly or quarterly milestones to achieve the final result. Each goal should be ambitious but achievable and easily measurable/verifiable. ASSIGN RESPONSIBILITIES For each activity, responsible individuals must be identified: depending on the activity, this may involve individuals or groups, but it is helpful to always identify a single person to take charge of coordinating the activity, checking deadlines, and identifying any potential issues. INVOLVE FAMILIES AND STUDENTS Using digital content and innovative new pedagogical approaches means creating a collaborative pathway between all involved stakeholders. It will be important to involve families and students in the innovation project, keep them updated on progress, and periodically gather their suggestions and feedback on the selected content used in the activities that involve them. MONITOR AND ADAPT THE PLAN No plan, no matter how well designed, will perfectly reflect reality. Therefore, it is useful for the dedicated group to periodically spend time (every 2 months, for example) evaluating the plan itself to make any necessary adjustments based on real progress. These changes should be shared and communicated transparently to all involved stakeholders. <h3>ACTIVITIES OF THE DEDICATED TEAM</h3>Once the project is underway, the group will organize its activities, keeping in mind some key principles.Accessibility and Equity The content and tools used for accessing it must respect the principles of accessibility and equity from various perspectives.Special Needs and Cultural and Linguistic DiversityIt is important to ensure that all involved individuals can fully benefit from what is provided and achieve their learning objectives. For content, it is advisable to check that it is designed and presented according to the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). SkillsBased on the assessments carried out, actions should be taken to ensure that all involved (students, teachers, and families) possess the necessary skills to effectively use the provided content. DevicesThe content should be accessible from different types of devices to ensure that everyone can access it without limitations related to the device they own. Internet Connectivity: If the content requires a connection to be accessed, it is important to ensure that connectivity is adequate in all contexts (e.g., avoiding assigning tasks and additional work at home to students who do not have access to fast internet at home). Inclusive Language and Bias-Free ContentIt is critical to monitor for gender, cultural, or any other type of bias, based on the context. Security and Sharing Content should be shared among all teaching staff and easily accessible through an effective storage and retrieval system, and should be evaluated and modified over time. To this end, internal systems can be designed or existing market platforms can be used. Some of these platforms also offer their own or third-party content. Whatever setup is chosen, it is important to choose an IT architecture or platform that:Ensures cybersecurity standards to protect content and usersEnsures standards for data and privacy protection for all involved users. Content Appropriateness Online, we have access to a wealth of content that can be used in the classroom or for classwork. However, not all of it is appropriate, even if it is high quality. Content is appropriate if it is designed for digital use and to be used in an educational context with a specific target audience in terms of school grade. Assessing the appropriateness of content is a fundamental principle for the success of a teaching program integrated with digital tools. Note that content may be appropriate for guided classroom use by the teacher and not for individual use, or vice versa. It is, therefore, useful to pay attention to this aspect as well.Trust and Quality It is important to choose sources and publishers you trust and establish open and collaborative contact. The beauty of digital is that content can easily be improved, expanded, and optimized. It is helpful to define the parameters and qualities sought in the content or sources used, establish guidelines and a list of recommended sources, and share them among teachers. The guidelines and sources can be constantly updated to account for actual effectiveness and any changes.Balance and Effectiveness Not everything needs to be digital, nor does everything need to be analog. The selected content is just part of the curriculum, and it is used where its format is effective or, ideally, more effective than other learning forms.Multimedia Digital educational materials can come in different forms: images, graphics, or photographs; audio and video clips; simulations and animations; and lessons. Each medium or mix of media has advantages and disadvantages, and it is important to choose the best application based on the context and content.Sociality and Interaction Ensure that materials and their use promote interaction and collaboration between students, between students and teachers, and among teachers.Teachers Training and Peer Learning It will be important to organize specific training sessions on researching, selecting, reusing, creating, and sharing digital educational content and to foster an environment of exchange and collaborative learning among teachers to spread the necessary skills. Training on the content and its use should be as integrated as possible with reflection on the different pedagogical approaches that can be adopted and the validity of the content in relation to them.User Generated Content (UGC) In cases where conditions are created for the production of content by teachers and its sharing with colleagues, it may be useful to incentivize this through mechanisms for recognizing the best content created.Measure, Evaluate, and Improve Content Periodically Digital content must be constantly evaluated and updated based on the context and the results achieved through its use.It will be important to establish specific periodic moments to carry out this activity with the help of all the teaching staff, taking into account students' feedback as well as shared and easily recognizable and measurable quality evaluation parameters over time. This goal can be achieved by organizing periodic evaluation questionnaires closely linked to the individual content used. The dedicated group should then set specific checkpoints 2–3 times a year or at the most suitable frequency for the context to continuously improve the available content.

Digital innovation for schools

My TEDx about AI and the paradigm shift we are living in is out! <figure id="figure-lebwtekrhxclzkzbysu" data-full-width=""><iframe id="lebwtekrhxclzkzbysu" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bP5fYGPaKQ8" class="w-full bg-gray-100 rounded-sm md:rounded-md lg:rounded-lg" style="aspect-ratio: 16/9;" allowfullscreen="" data-url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP5fYGPaKQ8" data-corners="default" data-fullwidth="true" data-mce-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bP5fYGPaKQ8" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 16/9;"></iframe></figure> Here is a English translated transcript!&nbsp;______________________________It's a day like any other. You are heading to work, mentally going over all the news you want to share with your confidant as soon as you take a break with her.But then, when you enter the office, something feels off: whispers, smirks, faces... It almost seems like your colleagues are aware of the two or three secrets you shared just with her. Could she have betrayed you like that?&nbsp;And so, in an instant, you find yourself shouting at her, demanding explanations.However, these explanations cannot come because you are shouting at a wall... a digital one: that is, you are shouting at a screen. Well, this woman shouting at the screen exists because the traitor is ELIZA, and she is a chatbot, the first chatbot in history. It's 1966 at MIT, and our protagonist, the human one, is Professor Weizenbaum's secretary, the professor leading the ELIZA research project. Everyone in the lab could chat [with ELIZA] whenever they wanted, and of course, it was a test, so all conversations were recorded, analyzed, read, and reread by everyone. And so, she let herself go a bit and didn't realize she was actually sharing her personal matters with all her colleagues. However, the point isn't that she was careless. The point is that she was the first victim of what we today call the ELIZA effect: if we have something in front of us that expresses itself in natural language, we immediately tend to overestimate its intelligence. It must be human.&nbsp;After all, what other species have we found in the universe that express themselves with language like us? This is the power that language, this technology we have invented, has over us. And yes, of course, you might say, well, we were in 1955, now we are all a bit more used to these chatbots and algorithms, and we would never get involved in this way as it happened to her. Yet, in reality, exactly the same things happen. In 2015, 50 years after ELIZA, just a short time after voice had joined language, we found ourselves with our voice assistants in our pockets, at home, and we started conversing with them. And indeed, already in 2015, we read stories like the one Luis tells us in this review, where he says that Alexa helped him get over a breakup. But not only that, but he also adds that now that Alexa is at home, why bother going out with friends? He has her company. And this is the power that voice has over us. And yes, speaking of voice and company, today I brought it with me, let me introduce you to Kirobo, a Japanese companion robot, who, believe it or not, accompanied Japanese astronauts in space. It's a personal robot designed to dialogue with us and our technologies, with our smartphones. And above all, can we say it? ... Yes. How cute is it? This is its main feature! And it's cute for a reason: because at this moment, while we look at it, our bodies are producing oxytocin. It's a hormone also known as the love hormone because it can provoke behaviors of mutual care, genuine love, trust, and even happiness in us. It makes us feel good, so good that other robots like it, specifically designed for this purpose, like the seal Paro, are used to combat depression. So, it's an effect absolutely studied to make us feel good. And this is the power of design when it's intended for this purpose. And it's no coincidence that this design often comes from Japan because the way technology is perceived is also influenced by the way it is talked about, and in Japan, take artificial intelligence, the narratives are completely different because intelligence in the term artificial intelligence is more akin to wisdom, a wisdom that, according to Japanese culture, resides not in the brain but in the heart, and for this reason, it is impossible for an artificial intelligence project not to also have a body. Whatever its form, an animal, a little robot like this, or a humanoid body. That body is needed because that kind of intelligence cannot be separated from emotions, empathy, imagination, consciousness, and what is built, in fact, is a harmony, an interaction between human and machine where there is also a certain mutual respect. Well, it’s a completely different story compared to the dichotomy we are used to between technology and human. And think, all this just for the power of the words we choose and that then accompany us in our narratives, in the values they evoke in us, and in the emotions we feel.&nbsp;Amazing. And speaking of things that can excite us and catch our attention, the truth is that yes, robots like these are very cute and well-designed, but sometimes much less is needed for us humans. Sometimes even a well-designed mechanism with just a few pixels is enough. And perhaps for those of my age, you will remember a famous hit of the '90s. Do you?&nbsp;The Tamagotchi: a digital alien pet to carry with us always, and that occasionally notifies us because it wants to go for a walk, play, eat, drink, be cuddled, or sleep, and our goal is to keep it alive, healthy, and happy. It's a game. Eh, but a game if well-designed..., and indeed I add, a digital service of any kind like many of those we use today, if well-designed as if it were a game, and therefore gamified as we say today, well, a game is powerful. And then again, if a game requires us to cooperate: oxytocin, we start producing it. But not only. A lot of things happen in our body: adrenaline, dopamine, endorphin, just to name a few. Everything that happens in us ensures that our attention, motivation, excitement, sense of pride, and again our happiness increase. And all this sense of well-being somehow also creates a certain dependency. I mean, who wouldn't want to repeat such a positive experience? And this happens in our bodies, and it's the power that games have over us, which, after all, touch fundamental levers in us humans. But there is something that not only touches fundamental levers of humans but also manages to modify us significantly. And these are intellectual technologies: all those technologies that we somehow use in our cognitive activities. Thinking, solving a problem, reading, writing, learning, but also media, communicating, and collaborating.&nbsp;And here you see Nietzsche writing on a typewriter because when they pointed out to him that since he started using this medium, his prose was changing, well, he expressed very well how these technologies impact us, because he said that these technologies participate in the formation of our thoughts. Today we would say they are part of our extended mind that relies on external objects. And today we know they also physically change our brain. That is, when we train our brain to perform certain activities, it physically modifies itself and therefore maybe dedicates entire areas to doing something we deem important, or it converts other areas that are no longer useful to us. And so today, well, if we need to find information or solve a problem, the first thing we activate is not what in our brain digs into our knowledge, we activate what goes to seek outside towards search engines. And on the other side, we are excellent at multitasking, jumping from one place to another, from a link to a notification, constantly dividing our attention. We have become less good at concentrating on one thing, reflecting, because this requires us a lot of time and few distractions. And this is the power that intellectual technologies have over us, which doesn't stop here because it is so strong that we could, if we wanted, also construct a sort of timeline where, depending on the cultural paradigm, we find different intellectual technologies at our disposal. And then in antiquity, where much was based on orality also because the supports were cumbersome to consult, carry around, rare, expensive... well, what would you have done if you were lucky enough to have in your hand a writing of Aristotle or Pythagoras? One thing: learn it all by heart. So, when you needed it, you could bring it to mind and use it to support your reasoning by appealing to the good old principle of authority, that is, IPSE DIXIT, he said it, word for word.Then came the book, came paper, printing, and suddenly the tools to carry around culture became much less rare, less expensive, easier to carry in our pockets but, above all, also easier to consult again to maybe find the mark.And so, I can dedicate a little less space to memory because I can rely on the book.And above all, I add, even the movement we make when we read a book facilitates a consequential reasoning, a reasoning much closer to the scientific one. Here we are ready for a new paradigm. Today our filter is artificial intelligence, we access and disseminate culture with search engines, social networks, analytical tools, predictive tools, today even with generative artificial intelligence. Well, we are in the new AI Dixit paradigm and in this new paradigm, I believe it is very explicit that we dialogue with these technologies, we converse, and they participate in the formation of our thoughts. They participate in our reasoning and will participate more and more in what becomes a dialogue also useful to be more creative, to try to look at things from different points of view, to structure our reasoning. If we use them well, they can do this, so, they almost become a kind of... I don't know, an inner voice? Maybe in the future, we will talk about the “Talking Cricket Effect”. A synthetic digital talking cricket that participates in our cognitive activities and after all, just as the talking cricket helped Pinocchio become human, in some way this new synthetic talking cricket is helping us humans become different humans who express their intelligence differently. It therefore participates in the construction of our memory, our identity, the image we have of the world, and therefore also of the role we humans have in that world. And so, it is also changing the way we give meaning to our existence. Well, this is the power and impact that culture has on us, it is a change of the cultural paradigm. And so: language, voice, design, words, game, intellectual technologies, now even generally all culture… the fact is that all these levers, these powers, are converging today into a single space, an enormous space of power that, like all powers, we can choose to delegate more or less to third parties. Third parties who can also be very few people managing the technological companies leveraging all those powers we have seen. But the point is that this is not the path, there are others we can inhabit both individually and collectively in this space. We can make it our own as a space of freedom of action and therefore I would also say a bit of resistance.How?Well, bringing on board this space always different points of view questioning the tools and content bringing cultures, viewpoints, ideas, visions, futures all things in the plural that express the wonderful diversity of us humans. And at this point, it will become a space of sharing. You know, Michael Tomasello showed that this very ability to share, to focus attention together on a single concept, and therefore to learn from each other, to change our points of view, well, this is what was the key to the cognitive leap that in fact made our species evolve. So, I say: this is the most important power of all because this is what allows us to direct all the other levers, all the other powers, and to participate in the construction of this new cultural paradigm. In short: this, after all, is the power of being human.