EDUCATION
Dal 2022
Tecno Profezie
Tecno Profezie is the cultural welfare hub for digital innovation, supported by the City of Turin with PON Metro React EU funds, and promoted by the Mufant Museum in collaboration with the University of Turin (Computer Science Dept. and Philosophy and Educational Sciences one), the ASL of Turin, the social cooperatives Altra Mente and Stranaidea, and the NGO CIFA.
The project, launched in October 2022 and with a duration of one year, responds to the social unease produced by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has led to the emergence of, among others, three phenomena: the persistent digital illiteracy of the Italian population (the DESI index places us at the last places among European countries), the delineation of the Neet social category made up of a increasing number of socially isolated young people without employment, and the persistence of socio-economic-cultural poverty in the city suburbs.
The goal of the project is to bring as many people as possible closer to the issues of digital innovation using science fiction, a genre aimed at telling the story of science through narrative fiction.
The project involves the territory of Turin’s District 5, is aimed at outreach audiences, students and disadvantaged social categories, and contemplates a series of actions with a cultural, educational and social matrix focused on the themes of digital innovation curated by the Digital Territories and Communities group of the Computer Science Department and the Department of Philosophy and Educational Sciences at the University of Turin. Specifically, through the use of digital civic tools FirstLife and CommonsHood, it will be possible to experience the potential of technologies such as blockchain, NFT, crowdmapping, democratic platforms, applied to active citizenship, co-design and participation projects.
CONCLUDED
From 2021
Edulife
This year, FirstLife has developed a platform dedicated to educational programs. Started in 2016 with the TeenCarTO project (in collaboration with the geography research group of the Department of Cultures, Politics and Society), they are now collected in a single platform, a large container, where all the considerations, analyses and proposals that have emerged can be traced in order to gradually build a collective geography of the teenagers’ city.
The aim of the educational paths is to raise awareness among young people on issues of public interest, using the digital as a tool to amplify reality and give voice to their specific needs, which are often underrepresented.
This year, two schools took part in the civic and digital education activities: the I.C Perotti Toscanini Secondary School in District 3 and a group of students from the Jesuit Fathers Social Institute in District 2.
The FirstLife courses are organised in didactic modules calibrated to the needs and expectations that emerge during the first stages of confrontation and acquaintance with teachers and students: in-depth studies with experience and direct knowledge of the territory, analysis techniques and tools such as the ‘inverted classroom’, mind maps, immersive walks, field analyses and meetings/interviews with community protagonists and with representatives of public and private territorial realities and institutions offering services for young people.
In the course of the 2021/2022 school year we have involved the following realities: Gruppo Abele Onlus, Associazione Eufemia, Ecocentro-Iren, Legambiente Piemonte e Valle d’Aosta, Toponomastica femminile in particular in the person of its President Francesca Troise and the Centro Adolescenti, Monica Cerutti political activist for inclusion, Invasioni creative and TheGate Porta Palazzo.
IN PROGRESS
From 2021
Nlab4cit
The Computer Science Department of the University of Turin is the lead partner in the European project Nlab4cit, which aims to build a network of laboratories run by organisations, research groups and institutions committed to bringing together and involving citizens in the creation of public services through civic digital technologies.
The project involves the municipalities of Collegno (Italy), Roeselare (Belgium) and Kaisariani (Greece) together with the University of Howest (Belgium), Open Lab Athens (Greece) and VVSG (Belgium).
The civic social network FirstLife and the wallet app CommonsHood will be made available to the Municipality of Collegno to co-design an intervention with young people.
More info > nlab4cit.eu
CONCLUDED
October 2020 - September 2021
N.E.O.N. - Not Excluded from Our Neighbourhood
A group of young people in Torino to identify and contrast hate messages on the territory, with the support of CSV Vol.To – Sportello GioVe. Actions:
- Make photos to catalogue and map degraded spaces in the 5th district, or mapping graffiti with hate messages – with the civic social network FirstLife;
- Collect and analyse material elaborating creative answers to hate messages;
- Organization of workshop and recreational activities as street art, protography, film-making, painting, acting,miming.
- Final event and initiatives for active citizenship as CommonsHood, a wallet app based on blockchain and integrated with FirstLife, for actions of financial inclusion in the neighborhoods involved.
CONCLUDED
2018 - 2019
Adopt a Monument
The Municipality of Torino joined to the national initiative “The school adopt a monument” with aims to involve students in the promotion of historical, artistic and cultural heritage adopting a monument, many of them unknown for the majority of citizens.
In the project FirstLife was used by students to map minor monuments enriching contents with photos, stories, historical research created and collected by themselves. FirstLife in the project is a tool for a public restitution of the work done by students in Torino, bringing citizens closer to the historical memory of these places.
Schools involved: Istituto comprensivo A. Cairoli, Istituto comprensivo P. Frassati, Is Gobetti-Marchesini, Liceo Berti
IN PROGRESS
2019 - 2020
Urban Alphabet
The purpose of the project is to increase the cultural offer in Borgo Vittoria e Madonna di Campagna, two neighbourhoods in the city of Turin, creating a shared Urban Alphabet. This represents a connection between different cultures, and uses music and theatre workshops as a different way to live school and public spaces.
The Computer Science Department supports the participatory process for urban and cultural regeneration actions with FirstLife. The map shows the places identified by students as relevant for micro urban regeneration activities, and reports on the actions and workshops done.
CONCLUDED
April - May 2018
UniCarto
UniCarto is part of a broader project called #UnitoGo#Food#Lab, with the objective to build shared knowledge on the nutritional habits of the university community, analyzing the territorial responses to these needs, and thee link between food and city.
With FirstLife was made a participatory mapping involving 200 students to identify all places in which they buy or consume food during the five weekdays when they attend university.
120 places have been identified near the Campus Luigi Einaudi and Palazzo Nuovo. The most of them are very close to universities, proving the relevant role of the territory to respond basic need as food (especially low cost restaurant and fast service). Some other places are used to consume homemade food, showing a widespread need for spaces dedicated to this type of use into the university.
CONCLUDED
2017 - 2018
M.A.D. - Teenagers mapping for Urban Regeneration
The main objective of the project promoted by the Municipality of Torino was to stimulate more the involvement of the teenagers in the public local life, through urban regeneration interventions; to make teenagers able to explain the city in a critical way, building representations of urban spaces from their point of view.
The project was developed in three phases: territorial analysis, participatory co-design, fulfilment of the project in practice.
Students from high schools used FirstLife for a participatory mapping highlighting their personal point of view living the city, also bringing into the school a deliberation about technologies as a tool for participatory citizenship and web education, increasing their digital skills.
CONCLUDED
2016 - 2017
TeenCarto
The project involved teenagers from high school in a participatory mapping using the platform FirstLife. The mapping was oriented to highlight all places lived by teenagers in everyday life, places in which develop their relationship, living actively into the community life - public space, youth associations, music band, artistic workshop, fab-lab etc.
The project has developed into three phases: territorial analysis, participatory planning, practical realization of the interventions.
TeenCarto involved teenagers into the public life in Torino through participatory urban regeneration, acquiring civic skills to develop an active and aware citizenship.
CONCLUDED
2016 - 2017
Openlabs
In 2016-17 took place many openlabs to experiment FirstLife in use-cases and real projects related to urban regeneration, valorisation of local resources, community services and so on. Each openlab saw the participation of different actors and similar projects, sharing challenges and ideas to facilitate social innovation and change.
The initiative involved participants in the co-design of a unique social network, contributing actively to enrich the platform with ideas and proposals for coordination, monitoring and evaluation of local projects.
Citytelling - The real-thought-lived city
The lab addressed architects and intellectuals with experience on buildings, public spaces, neighborhoods; artists and writers wanted to give voice to the places; to citizens and tourists that live the city everyday for the first time. Citytelling hosted projects and initiatives related to community mapping, with a strong involvement of citizens to share and discover local resources. FirstLife contributed to giving visibility and facilitating connections between projects and contents.
Resources - Local enterprises for the territory
The focus is the promotion of commercial, handcraft and professional activities in the productive and tourist ecosystem in the city. Resources tested the civic social network FirstLife as a tool to help small enterprises to collaborate with other companies in their networks, as a new participative model to share stories and the professional evolution of the enterprise collecting customers and workers point of view.
Regeneration - Urban regeneration paths
The lab addressed associations, citizen’s groups, local institutions involved in urban regeneration actions in the city, from people to people. Citizens participated to find innovative ways to reuse public spaces or urban commons. FirstLife was the tool to represent the entire regeneration process of a place, collecting and sharing activities and synergies with a participatory perspective.
WeGovernment - New models of shared governance
The openlab involved public administration and local institutions that tested FirstLife in local projects and initiatives regarding the co-design and co-management of public services and spaces, the co-production of new inclusive and integrated services. FirstLife was also tested in the two european projects WeGovNow and Co-City, based on a new model of governance and collaboration between PA and citizens.
Communities - Collaboration in the community services
Communities involved association, cooperatives, spontaneous groups active in the field of proximity and social services, but also projects with a strong impact for the local communities. It was a digital lab to experiment, with FirstLife, new models of internal and external coordination among association, companies, and local institutions in the same sector, improving the social innovation with a participatory approach.
EduLife - School, web education and territory
A lab for schools and educational institutions to facilitate the collaboration among teachers, staff students, families and other territorial organizations. EduLife is a virtual archive of projects developed by schools or classes to improve the continuity between the educational paths and the coordination between the different participating classes. FirstLife mapped and collected the projects from classes and schools; as a civic social network can also be a teaching tool for web education.
Transformation - The changing city
Transformation involved public administration, designer, local committees, facilitators in projects concerning new models to design and manage transformation areas through a participatory process, both on the territory and online. Goal of the project: a more involvement of citizens in the local policy extended the participatory processes, increasing the collaboration between civil society and administration.
