More than 700,000 views in seven weeks of programming, with 6,000 minutes of live footage and 18,000 hours on-demand, across 33 days of coverage with 3 different daily formats, 80 live streams and thousands of interactions on social media. The numbers show the huge success of ‘Maestri d’Italia’, the special online school devised and curated by Riccardo Luna and promoted by TIM together with over 30 partners as part of Operazione Risorgimento Digitale, bringing digital culture into Italians' homes through talks with public figures and innovative educational content even for young children. A great big online school – welcoming, participatory and safe – delivered over platforms that can be easily accessed by everyone, with content also available on demand, allowing viewers to learn from experts and interact with them, asking questions and requesting clarifications.
The closing talk takes place today at 4:30 p.m. CET with TIM Chairman Salvatore Rossi and well-known blogger and online educator Salvatore Aranzulla, streamed live on the Operazione Risorgimento Digitale website and the YouTube and Facebook channels.
“TIM has stood beside Italians during this terrible emergency and will continue to do so in the restart phase,” TIM Chairman Salvatore Rossi said. “We have facilitated the spread of digital technologies, firstly by securing and strengthening the voice and data transmission network, but also by offering various sections of the Italian population lessons and talks on the theme of innovation. Thanks to TIM, businesses, families and students have been able to benefit from a top-class education in digital skills – the real key to the country's development.”
“Maestri d’Italia has been an exciting experience,”. Riccardo Luna, creator and curator of Maestri d'Italia – Operazione Risorgimento Digitale commented: “For seven weeks we kept children company and taught them the basics of coding and science, and the five adult digital skills courses were all sold out. Every day, we also hosted a big-name teacher, who gave lessons to students doing their school-leaving exams. Everything was done online by streaming, reaching really significant numbers. It's further confirmation that the internet and web-based tools are essential. There is now greater awareness of the importance of having adequate digital skills: for school, for work and for people's social life. Operation Digital Risorgimento will start again from this point: from this new demand for the internet.”
“Maestri d’Italia” was the first large-scale, free and interactive online school made possible by combining virtual 'places' and an extensive programme of meetings and interactive content lasting about an hour, available live on the Operation Digital Risorgimento website, on the YouTube and Facebook channels, and on demand. The programme supported Italians through the hardest phase of lockdown, with lessons that helped them to see everything from new and different points of view, as part of a synergistic and multidisciplinary project that has run right through until phase 2 of the coronavirus emergency.
The main themes included the pandemic, the impact on the economy, the changing future of Europe and the world with new cities, culture and artificial intelligence, as well as school-leavers' lessons on Dante, quantum physics and much more.
In its final week, Maestri d'Italia offered ten programs as part of the Milano Digital Week, with five edutainment workshops for children and five expert lessons, and a series of webinars on remote working, Extended Reality technologies and innovative solutions developed by TIM WCAP start-ups to support urban transformation.
Maestri d'Italia included a series of more than thirty lessons held by the "Maestri", who investigated the social and economic impacts of the Coronavirus emergency, all with the aim of creating opportunities for dialogue with knowledge leaders who have stepped forward to help citizens gain an understanding of big issues.
Sincere thanks to all the contributors to “Maestri d’Italia”: Italo Rota, Carlo Ratti, Carlo Cottarelli, Ilaria Capua, Massimo Recalcati, Patrizia Caraveo, Valentina Sumini, Roberto Burioni, Stefano Mancuso, Domenico De Masi, Rita Cucchiara, Telmo Piovani, Gianrico Carofiglio, Stefano Boeri, Francesca Cavallo, Walter Ricciardi, Francesco Bonami, Bruno Mastroianni, Vera Gheno, Alex Zanardi, Monica Guerritore, Tomaso Montanari, Paolo Vineis, Silvia Onesti, Luca Serianni, Gemma Calamandrei, Elena Cattaneo, Enrico Giovannini, Giovanni Malagò, Fiona May, Gregorio De Felice, Giuseppe De Rita, Luciano Violante, Makkox, Gabriella Greison, Guido Silvestri, Salvatore Aranzulla, and Piergiorgio Odifreddi. Thanks to the partnership with Treccani, a whole week was dedicated to Italian culture, with five "Maestri" from the world of science and the humanities.
Maestri d’Italia also included special morning programming for children, with five edutainment programs to help them learn digital skills through play. The educational content was curated by Fondazione Mondo Digitale, OFpassiON, Maker Camp, Telefono Azzurro and Codemotion. The Masterclasses also received an enthusiastic reception, offering a practical, useful and enjoyable format for industry experts (Salvatore Giuliano, Ernesto Belisario, Arturo Di Corinto, Silvia Vianello and Giampaolo Colletti) to share their knowledge and digital skills for distance learning, the digitalisation of the public administration, remote working, cybersecurity and social media.
Operazione Risorgimento Digitale
Delivered in collaboration with the European Commission and in line with the Manifesto della Repubblica Digitale promoted by the Italian Ministry for Innovation. As part of the project, major MoUs have been signed with Italy's Minister of Public Administration, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Justice. The initiative also benefits from collaboration with the Italian State Police, is supported by the National Association of Italian Municipalities (ANCI) and the Industry Federation of Confindustria Digitale, with the collaboration of CENSIS research institute, Treccani, Fondazione Mondo Digitale, ItaliaCamp, JA Italia, Gruppo Maggioli and Telefono Azzurro. Top-level partners have taken part in the TIM-led initiative, including Google, Cisco, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Huawei, ZTE, Samsung, Accenture, Lenovo, Ericsson, Nokia, Engineering, NTT Data, Oppo, Dell, Qualcomm, SAP, Reply, Adobe, Xiaomi, Manpower, Arthur D. Little, PWC (PricewaterhouseCoopers), BCG (Boston Consulting Group), and Generation (McKinsey), as well as INWIT and Olivetti. The initiative has also received support from trade associations, the third sector and key players in social innovation.
Rome, 29 May 2020
