The Fondazione Mondo Digitale and the Italian Ministry of University, Education and Research have launched a national network of phyrtual innovation gyms to provide schools with a 21st century life education model.
The initiative, which is also supported by the City of Rome, starts at the birthplace of the first Phyrtual Innovation Gym, the Rome Città Educativa.
Further information on the model proposed by Prof. Alfonso Molina is available on-line: presentation video and booklet.
The first signatories include 47 schools in 14 Italian Regions that are participating in today’s event at the first (and to date only) Phyrtual Innovation Gym created by the Fondazione Mondo Digitale in March 2014, a model that was also included in the Italian Ministry of University, Education and Research report entitled “La Buona Scuola” (The Good School).
The Phyrtual Innovation Gym is a physical and virtual (phyrtual) environment that promotes self-awareness, creativity, entrepreneurial spirit and 360-degree innovation: technological, social, civic and personal. It is a place that allows young and old alike to find the right tools for their personal and professional development. The Gym makes use of all the most advanced types of learning: from digital manufacturing to immersive and virtual realities, to self-awareness and problem solving, to gaming and robotics. The language used is that of experimentation and creativity as it acquires users to acquire fundamental skills for living and working in the 21st century.
Participants include: Donatella Solda Kutzman from the Italian Ministry of University, Education and Research, Mirta Michilli, Director General, Fondazione Mondo Digitale and the man who first conceived a phyrtual Innovation Gym, Alfonso Molina, Professor of Technology Strategy at the University of Edinburgh and Scientific Director of the Fondazione Mondo Digitale.
““The best way to prepare for the future is to participate in its creation with an open mind and be interested in curiosities, research and experimentation. It is undoubtedly easier to innovate outside of the school system, but the real challenge is to innovate from within the existing system with all its opportunities and difficulties,” explains Alfonso Molina in a booklet.
"This is the process that we are interested in as it touches the lives of the people who work in over 40,000 Italian schools: teachers, headmasters, students, families, administrative and technical personnel. It’s a process that involves all the individuals and all the organisations in the country, as everyone can and should play a role in this. We have a dream: that all Italian schools will develop a space dedicated to innovation.”
This is the challenge of the Fondazione Mondo Digitale: the creation of myriad phyrtual innovation gyms that can be custom-tailored and configured based on local and scholastic needs.
This initiative also involves all of the schools participating in the Rome Città Educativa Project (“La Città educativa di Roma Capitale… capitale di Roma – Alfabetizzazione digitale nel mondo della scuola”) supported by Roma Capitale – Department of Shcolastic and Educational Services, Youth and Equal Opportunities.
