Italy’s Educational Transformation: AI-Assisted Learning in Classrooms
To bridge a digital-skills gap that is alarmingly low compared with the rest of the European Union, Italy will introduce artificial intelligence to schools. There will be trials of AI-assisted learning in 15 classrooms across four regions of Italy under the guidance of the Giorgia Meloni government. It will install AI tools on classroom tablets and computers as virtual assistants to help with learning for both students and teachers, including personalized ways of educating and helping them better understand complex topics. If this initiative is successful, the model may be extended to more schools in the future.
The initiative is part of wider actions for improving the people’s digital literacy, since Italy stands among the lowest countries of the EU in the basic skills of using digital technologies, with rates lower than only a few countries such as Latvia, Poland, and Romania. The rollout, however has not been straightforward, given that more than half of the teachers of Italy are older than 50, which was also the reason for previous failed attempts at introducing digitalized learning instruments, especially during the pandemic of COVID-19.
While the experiment remains in its early stages, persons such as Francesca Bastagli from Fondazione Agnelli are optimistic about it, especially regarding inclusive and effective AI in education. Besides that, Italy banned using mobile phones in classrooms to limit distractions in learning.
It fits well within the package of Meloni’s broader agenda to implement AI for sectors such as education, as committed through Italian G7 summit pledges and responsible benefit-harvesting while managing the risk associated with AI 7†source 8†source 9†source.
This AI-in-schools initiative aligns with Meloni’s broader agenda of integrating AI into various sectors