COVID-19 for Italy: education doesn't stop

Since the first lockdown at the beginning of the pandemic, Mission Bambini has been in the front line to continue to guarantee concrete support to the network of over 35 partner organisations throughout the country: including primary and secondary schools, after-school centres and early childhood services. A network that includes about 5,000 children and young people living in conditions of economic and social deprivation.

One of the main objectives was to support and guarantee the continuity of social relations, through the use of all the technological tools we made available. Relations between student and teacher but also between children and educators, which until recently were fundamental points of reference, especially for those children and young people who lived in socially and culturally deprived family conditions.

After an important discussion with the teachers and school managers of the institutes with which we collaborate, the need to work also on didactic-methodological aspects rather than only on technological ones has emerged. As a result, since September Mission Bambini has organised training courses, in collaboration with WeSchool, the only Italian digital classroom platform, and Oppi, the Organisation for the Professional Preparation of Teachers.
Through the collaboration with WeSchool, topics such as creating and curating content suitable for distance learning lessons, setting up live distance learning lessons, organising remote group teaching activities, distance assessment, privacy and copyright were addressed. The topics dealt with through the collaboration with Oppi were the observation of class groups, the use of digital teaching platforms and the inclusion of students with Special Educational Needs. As a whole, the intervention therefore aims to improve the quality and methods of distance learning. These training courses will not only be useful during the health emergency, but also afterwards. When the pandemic is over, digital technology will not disappear completely, but it will become a useful tool for genuinely innovative, engaging and effective teaching activities, both in person and at a distance.