From the inkwell to e-ink … the elderly in Latina are not taken aback; not even the eldest among them, those who are back at the students desks fifty years later and have discovered that the old chalk blackboard has been replaced by an interactive electronic board.
The public Alessandro Volta Middle School was the first pilot institute to run a Grandparents on the Internet course. The class there is composed of 27 over sixty year olds and their sixth grade tutors.
Principal Giuliana Di Veroli is enthusiastic about the initiative: “although the school has limited economic resources, I am proud to have accepted the Foundation’s proposal for the quality of its didactic contents and the aperture of the school towards the outside.”
The pilot experience in Latina is also testing the use of new didactic methodologies. Starting this year, the multimedia lab of the school is equipped with an interactive board. Grandparents and grandchildren, together for the first time in the history of schooling, are experimenting the efficiency of this new learning tool.
With Grandparents on the Itnernet, over 60s in Latina have discovered the digital world and there now is a long waiting list of grandparents anxious to participate in the project.
Romano Santoro, Schools Coordinator for the Fondazione Mondo Digitale, is working on this issue. Contacts are underway with other schools in southern Lazio.
To participate in Grandparents on the Internet:
