PariPasso with Rizzoli Education: first webinar in the series on inclusive technologies
Yesterday saw the launch of the new series of webinars “Inclusive Technologies. Wellbeing, Guidance and Educational Quality”, promoted by Fondazione Mondo Digitale in collaboration with Rizzoli Education as part of the PariPasso programme, an initiative centred on a vision of inclusion as a daily educational practice, based on accessibility, personalisation and collaboration among all members of the educational community.
The first session, entitled The Invisible Companion. How AI can support inclusive teaching, was aimed at teachers, educators and carers. It centred on the presentation of Pathway Companion, the artificial intelligence platform developed by Fondazione Mondo Digitale in collaboration with Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi, Roma Tre University and IT Logix, with the support of Google.org.
A partnership, not a replacement
The webinar was opened by Francesca Meini, who immediately clarified the purpose of the initiative: to view artificial intelligence not as a substitute for the teacher, but as an ally capable of adapting content, suggesting strategies and offering personalised feedback, in line with the Universal Design for Learning approach.
Andrea Taurchini, CEO and founder of IT Logix, elaborated on this point, explaining that Pathway Companion arose from a very concrete question: how to use AI to improve educational inclusion without undermining the role of those who support students in their learning journey every day. The platform’s proposed solution is a model of hybrid intelligence: AI does not make decisions in place of teachers, families or specialists, but works alongside them to make the educational journey more seamless, personalised and sustainable. Not an automated assistant, then, but an intelligent infrastructure that helps those who teach and support students to make better decisions.
The educational relationship remains at the centre
One of the most interesting aspects to emerge from the webinar concerns the platform’s architecture. Pathway Companion was not designed as a general-purpose system nor as a ‘black box’, but as an environment organised into modules, with specific functions and precise limits. Every suggestion generated by artificial intelligence is directed at the designated adult and not directly at the student: it is the caregiver who receives the suggestion, interprets it, confirms it or modifies it.
This is not merely a technical choice, but also an ethical one: in educational contexts, particularly when dealing with students with special educational needs, innovation is only valuable if it strengthens human relationships, without replacing them.
From the student’s profile to continuous monitoring
Taurchini also explained how the platform works: an initial assessment phase allows the student’s profile to be outlined and compensatory tools and support methods to be identified. From there, the teacher can create personalised teaching content, receiving guidance on the suitability of the proposed materials. The platform then continues to monitor interaction with the content and suggests any necessary adjustments, thereby supporting the learning journey over time. The strength of the system, therefore, lies not only in generating suggestions, but in doing so in a progressive, contextual and responsive manner, adapting both to the student’s emerging needs and to the teacher’s choices.
Working on needs, not labels
The clinical perspective was provided by Lorenzo Antonucci, a psychologist specialising in neuropsychology and child development at the Don Carlo Gnocchi Foundation. His presentation clarified a key decision in the development of Pathway Companion: not to start from diagnostic labels, but from broader areas of need. The platform has been designed to support, in particular, two fundamental areas for access to learning: reading and text comprehension. This approach allows us to work not only with students who have a specific diagnosis, but also with young people facing difficulties linked, for example, to linguistic, cultural or socio-economic vulnerabilities.
Practical tools to make content accessible
As regards reading, Pathway Companion integrates various compensatory tools within a single platform: text-to-speech, visual adaptation of text, images to aid decoding, and the ability to adjust fonts, spacing and line spacing. The aim is to make content accessible from multiple perspectives, reducing visual clutter and facilitating interaction with the text. But it is above all in the area of text comprehension that artificial intelligence becomes, in Antonucci’s words, a powerful ally. The platform provides two key tools: text simplification and guided comprehension. Simplification does not produce summaries and does not alter the content arbitrarily: instead, it works on vocabulary and syntax to lighten the linguistic load and make the text more accessible. Guided comprehension, on the other hand, extracts key information such as characters, places, times, facts, narrative sequences and inferences, offering the student active guidance to navigate the text.
The teacher decides, AI supports
This point was strongly emphasised: the platform does not replace the teacher’s selection of content. It does not summarise in their place, nor does it decide what to convey and what not to. Its task is to make the materials chosen by the teacher more accessible and to support the creation of truly bespoke learning pathways. This is another reason why the decision to address special educational needs in a broad sense becomes strategic: the tools developed can be useful in a variety of situations and help to build a more flexible teaching approach, capable of responding to the real complexity of classrooms.
UDL as a design framework
Roberto Raspa, an engineer and secondary school teacher, rounded off the discussion by linking the platform to the Universal Design for Learning approach. UDL, he noted, offers a methodological framework for designing teaching pathways that take into account the diversity of students, providing multiple ways of presenting content, engaging pupils and facilitating expression. From this perspective, Pathway Companion becomes a valuable ally because it helps with personalisation and lightens part of the operational burden, leaving more room for pedagogical attention, relationships and the quality of the educational journey. The reference to UDL is particularly significant in relation to the vision of PariPasso, which views inclusion not as a separate form of teaching, but as effective teaching, based on flexible, accessible environments that can be adapted to the needs of each individual.
During the final meeting, it was also noted that access to the platform is free for teachers, subject to registration via the form available in the supporting materials, and that it is already possible to start exploring it before the next webinar.
Upcoming events
The programme continues with two new webinars dedicated to the practical exploration of the platform and a broader reflection on inclusive learning environments:
21 April, 6.30 pm
What happens when AI supports learning
The second webinar delves into the operational heart of the Pathway Companion platform. Teachers can observe at close quarters how an intelligent tutor breaks down tasks, proposes differentiated activities and provides targeted feedback, whilst also gaining an understanding of the ‘behind-the-scenes’ aspects: data, algorithms, pedagogical rules and the integration of clinical, educational and technological dimensions.
23 April
Technologies for an inclusive school
The third session broadens the perspective: from technologies as individual support to their capacity to transform the entire classroom environment. Through digital storytelling and multimodal tools, technology becomes an expressive and inclusive space, where every student can find a voice, guidance and a sense of belonging.
