Education Books

From Friday 5 to Sunday 7 June, children, families, teachers and education professionals will be able to take part free of charge in a wide range of events, talks, workshops, concerts and stand-up comedy at Edufest, the Education Festival.

The event, one of the leading education festivals in Italy, takes place in the park and inside Villa Ghirlanda in Cinisello Balsamo, in the province of Milan. The event, conceived and organised by Progetto A and Orsa, and curated by Roberto Prencipe and Alessandro Quattrino, is fully backed by the Municipality of Cinisello Balsamo, which is proud to confirm its position for the third consecutive year as a national reference point for educational culture and a vibrant space for community engagement.

Eros Giampiero Ferri, President of Progetto A and Orsa, explains: “Schools, families and society are now called upon to redefine the boundaries between rules and freedom, between what is normative and what is divergent. In this encounter between generations and different perspectives, boundaries are no longer fixed lines, but living spaces for dialogue. Edufest 2026 will feature some of the most influential voices in contemporary culture, opening new pathways of thought on how we grow, teach and live together.”

The guiding theme of the 2026 edition is ‘Boundaries’, understood not as fixed lines but as living spaces for exchange, redefining the limits between rules and freedom, between norms and divergence.

Within this framework of transformation comes the partnership with Rizzoli Education, as a supporting sponsor of the event. The education publishing house of the Mondadori Group has chosen Edufest as a national platform to expand the reach of PariPasso, its research project on teaching and learning practices focused on inclusive education. PariPasso was created to respond in a concrete and systemic way to the challenges of inclusion in increasingly diverse classrooms. Validated by a scientific committee of experts, including psychologist Giorgia Ortu La Barbera, Prof. Roberto Trinchero of the University of Turin, Fondazione Bullone, Centro Leonardo and Fondazione Mondo Digitale ETS – PariPasso guides the publishing house’s educational works for primary and lower secondary schools. The project is based on a true Manifesto which states that there is no such thing as a separate “inclusive” teaching approach distinct from “traditional” teaching, and promotes the use of technology and personalised approaches to ensure educational success for every student.

Alongside innovations introduced in textbooks, this year the publisher’s free educational offering has actively supported teachers and families through an ecosystem of live streaming events and in-depth articles. The programme has addressed some of today’s most pressing educational challenges, from tackling bullying and gender stereotypes to managing ADHD and autism, as well as assessment, career guidance and the responsible integration of AI and new technologies.

Within the Edufest framework, PariPasso further expands its reach, offering schools new inspiration and practical tools to address the challenge of inclusion.

Edufest 2026 programme

The festival will feature some of the most influential voices in contemporary culture.

• Friday 5 June: at 6.00 pm institutional opening hosted by journalist Valeria Ciardiello with internationally renowned writer and essayist Alessandro D’Avenia. This will be followed by a sharp comedy monologue by Stefano Rapone.
• Saturday 6 June: at 10.00 am, discussion on the boundaries of the school system with Gigi De Palo, Suor Anna Monia Alfieri, Marco Erba, Franco Nembrini, Fabio Marchisio, Raffaele Mantegazza and Erika Poli.
  From 3.00 pm, focus shifts to “The boundaries of adolescence” with a reading by Matteo Lancini and Sara Lazzaro, followed by contributions from Stefania Andreoli and Michele Viana, concluding with a keynote lecture by philosopher and psychoanalyst Massimo Recalcati. In the evening, music by Leonardo De Andreis (Sanremo Young 2026) and comedy by Antonio Ornano.
• Sunday 7 June: at 10.00 am, a World Café dedicated to educational relationships with Emily Mignanelli, Luca Mazzucchelli, Alberto Pellai and Elena Soppelsa.
  At 3.00 pm, a journey exploring “Overstepping boundaries” and freedom with Tonino Cantelmi, Stefano Rossi and physicist and professor Vincenzo Schettini. The festival closes at 6.00 pm with a performance by comedian and teacher Filippo Caccamo.

Workshops and teacher training

Alongside the main panels, afternoon “Breakout Sessions” will offer workshops in the park, seminars and participatory meetings. The entire Edufest programme is accredited on the S.O.F.I.A. platform of the Italian Ministry of Education and Merit for teacher training hours, aligning with the educational commitment that Rizzoli Education also promotes through its channels and the HUB Scuola platform.

Against the backdrop of talks, Villa Ghirlanda will become a large open-air laboratory: more than 100 free activities and performances (painting, science experiments, virtual reality, sports and role-playing games) curated by 70 partners and third-sector organisations will animate the weekend for children and families.

Patronage and Media Partners

The event is endorsed by: Regione Lombardia, Metropolitan City of Milan, the municipalities of Cinisello Balsamo, Bresso, Cusano Milanino, Cormano, Monza, Brugherio, Cologno Monzese, Sesto San Giovanni and Paderno Dugnano, Fondazione Cariplo, UNICEF, IPIS Insieme per il Sociale and ANCI Lombardia. Media partners include: Rai for sustainability, Repubblica Mondo solidale, Il Giorno, Metropolis, NordMilano24, Dire Fare Insegnare and ZeroSeiUp.

Information and contacts:

• Official Festival website: edufest.it
• To learn more about Rizzoli Education’s PariPasso inclusion project: rizzolieducation.it/paripasso

Mondadori Education, Rizzoli Education and Deascuola will take part in Didacta Italia, the leading event dedicated to training and innovation in the education sector, taking place in Florence from 11 to 13 March 2026.

At the Fortezza da Basso, the three publishing houses of the Mondadori Group will present a rich programme of meetings and seminars aimed at all levels of schooling. Experts, authors and specialists will engage with the public on key themes shaping the present and future of education, while also presenting the main new developments in their editorial offerings.

The programme will also be enriched by initiatives from HUB Scuola, the digital teaching platform of the three publishing houses, alongside activities promoted through Formazione su Misura, the professional development programme for teachers by Mondadori Education and Rizzoli Education, and Deascuola Formazione, the project dedicated to the training of school staff developed by Deascuola.

Among the key topics at the centre of the meetings will be pedagogical criteria and teaching practices for the conscious and responsible adoption of Artificial Intelligence in educational contexts; understanding the changes introduced by the 2025 National Guidelines and assessing their impact on teaching design; and practical strategies for preventing and tackling bullying and cyberbullying.

The initiatives organised by Mondadori Education, Rizzoli Education and Deascuola will take place over the three days of the event in the Event Area of the publishers’ stand (Stand H17) in the Cavaniglia Pavilion, from 9:30 am to 6 pm.

During the event, the initiative “Space for Kids” will also be presented, a project created by Fondazione Leonardo ETS in collaboration with HUB Scuola. The meeting, scheduled for 11 March at 11:30 am in the Spadolini Lower Pavilion, Room E15, will explore languages, tools and strategies for communicating space science in ways that are accessible, rigorous and engaging, including for younger students.

Didacta Italia represents an important opportunity for dialogue and exchange with school leaders, teachers and education professionals, offering a space to share ideas, tools and best practices in support of an increasingly innovative, inclusive and forward-looking education system.

Rizzoli Education, a school publisher long committed to delivering high-quality educational content and innovative learning tools, presents PariPasso, a new project dedicated to inclusion and to teaching and learning practices built around inclusive education. The initiative is deeply rooted in the company’s history and identity, and it takes shape across content, activities, study methods and teaching approaches promoted by the publisher.

“PariPasso (literally “step by step together,” evoking the idea of moving forward at the same pace, side by side) builds on an established editorial practice that places the principle of inclusion at the centre of our work and draws inspiration from it in both our publishing and our training programmes, as shown by the work carried out on gender equality,” says Annalisa Aceti, General Manager Sales & Marketing of Rizzoli Education. We chose to integrate inclusion into every phase of the editorial process, not as a separate project but as a transversal benchmark of quality. From 2026 onwards, PariPasso will guide all new titles for primary and lower-secondary school, offering a concrete, systematic response to the challenges of inclusion. This commitment translates into books, digital resources, teaching tools and training pathways. The name PariPasso evokes collaboration, recognising that learning is a shared journey. Walking “a pari passo” with schools means supporting teachers, students and families in pursuing a common goal: building a school that is truly fair, innovative and capable of valuing uniqueness as a resource.”

Validated by a scientific committee of leading experts, ,PariPasso is grounded in several key principles:the design of teaching tools tailored to different cognitive styles and learning rhythms; the adoption of personalised and meaningful teaching and learning practices, including digital content and tools; the enhancement of every learner, ensuring that each student can achieve educational success; and the promotion of teaching deeply connected to active, critical and responsible citizenship.

THE PARIPASSO MANIFESTO

This policy brings together the core values of the project in a single declaration of intent, articulated through its main guidelines and objectives:

• there is no such thing as inclusive teaching separate from “traditional” teaching
• a personalised and universal pedagogical approach
• personalising teaching to achieve solid and long-lasting learning
• inclusive teaching as a context that promotes educational relationships
• “essential knowledge,” but also depth and dialogue between disciplines
• promoting reflection on methods and processes
• technology and teaching innovation as allies of inclusion
• inclusion as a shared objective
• school inclusion and social inclusion

“In Italian schools today,” says Aaron Buttarelli, General Manager Editorial Area of Rizzoli Education, “teaching based on an inclusive approach is guaranteed at a regulatory level, but everyday practice is much more complicated, given the strong differentiation and heterogeneity found in classrooms. PariPasso was created to promote, support and encourage a culture of inclusion. By its nature, it is an open and continually updated path. The principles stated in the Manifesto will be the guide we will follow in the design and implementation of all our educational activities in the broadest sense, for teachers and students, starting with school textbooks.”

THE SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

PariPasso is an inclusion project with a solid scientific foundation, validated by a committee of experts who share the guidelines and supervise the quality of the project, ensuring its effectiveness and consistency with educational goals.

The committee includes Giorgia Ortu La Barbera (psychologist), Roberto Trinchero (Professor of Experimental Pedagogy at the Department of Philosophy and Education Sciences, University of Turin), Fondazione Bullone, Centro Leonardo, and Fondazione Mondo Digitale ETS.

The members of the Committee will take part in live and in-person training events organised by the publishing house, bringing their voice and field experience while offering insights, in-depth analysis and strategies on specific topics related to inclusion.

ACTIONS

PariPasso will find clear and visible application first of all in Rizzoli Education textbooks and, over time, will provide a set of services and content to support all components of the school community: communicative and didactic accessibility of all content, continuing specialised training for teachers on the project’s themes, livestreams and more than 30 events across the country between February and April, articles and best-practice features on the publisher’s website to address the topic at school, content on the digital learning platform HUB Scuola, contests and podcasts.

For more information on the content of PariPasso, visit www.rizzolieducation.it/paripasso

Rizzoli Education, the Mondadori Group’s schoolbook publisher, offers a comprehensive range of books for all levels of education, from primary school to middle and high school.

HUB Scuola, the teaching platform of the Mondadori Group publishers Mondadori Education, Rizzoli Education and D Scuola, together with Fondazione Leonardo ETS, have announced a new collaboration to promote STEM education (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). The aim is to inspire curiosity in students and help them develop the key skills needed to face the challenges of the future.

The project, A scuola di STEM (STEM at School), created by Fondazione Leonardo ETS and available for students and teachers on HUB Scuola, offers two series of 30 online video lessons. Each is designed to support teachers in the classroom and engage students from primary to upper secondary school.

Topics covered

The lessons explore some of today’s most important themes for understanding the present and imagining the future. It begins with an introduction to the world of STEM, then move on to global issues such as sustainability and climate change. Other topics include the new frontiers of urban mobility and aerospace, as well as emerging technologies, from innovative materials to cybersecurity. There are also lessons dedicated to robotics and its applications, quantum physics, artificial intelligence and space exploration. The programme ends with a focus on the professions of the future, giving students a clear picture of the opportunities that await them.

A story told by expert voices

The project brings together a team of science communicators and education experts, able to make even the most complex topics engaging and easy to understand:

• Sofia Porta, actress and voice artist, for primary school;
• Ilaria Iacoviello, Head of Education at Fondazione Leonardo, and Antonio Santamato, journalist at Fondazione Leonardo, for lower secondary school;
• Marina Geymonat, Head of the Artificial Intelligence Lab at Leonardo, for upper secondary school.

A shared commitment

The A scuola di STEM project was created through collaboration between the educational publishers Mondadori Education, Rizzoli Education and D Scuola – via the HUB Scuola platform – and Fondazione Leonardo ETS, which developed the lessons using an innovative, interdisciplinary and accessible approach. At the heart of the initiative is a shared belief: that promoting a culture of STEM from the earliest years of school is essential to give all pupils the tools they need to understand the world around them and to build their future with awareness and confidence.

The Leonardo ETS Foundation (www.fondazioneleonardo.com) works to promote the cultural growth of civil society through science, industry and technology. Founded in 2018 to mark the seventieth anniversary of Leonardo S.p.A., Fondazione Leonardo ETS has been a third-sector organisation since January 2024. As a non-profit entity, it pursues civic, solidarity-based and socially beneficial goals through activities that promote scientific and technological knowledge.

HUB Scuola (www.hubscuola.it) is the digital learning platform of Mondadori Education, Rizzoli Education and D Scuola. It provides teachers and students with access to digital textbooks, supplementary content and tools to support teaching and learning. The three educational publishers of the Mondadori Group, offer a complete range of educational materials for all levels of schooling. From primary to lower and upper secondary education, and through to university. Their offering is further enriched by educational programmes on cross-cutting themes such as inclusion, guidance, STEM, civic education, the environment and digital citizenship.

Schools cannot ignore the various forms of fragility affecting adolescents’ lives: from illness to emotional isolation, eating disorders and a pervasive sense of disorientation. With this aim in mind, the first series of free webinars ‘Training for life – turning fragility into opportunity’ was created by the Bullone Foundation and Deascuola with the support of the Guido Venosta Foundation, which has also been involved in health promotion and education for many years.

The first edition consisted of four webinars aimed at 6,200 secondary school teachers and involving 2,500 students. These webinars offered those who are in close contact with boys and girls every day a series of concrete tools: a training course with targeted content, testimonials and good practices in response to the growing need for listening, understanding and orientation in schools.

The experience of the Bullone Foundation, which works with young people who have experienced serious illnesses, offered an authentic insight into the possibility of transforming fragility into awareness, growth and value. This is an approach that the Guido Venosta Foundation has chosen to support, recognising the strategic role of schools in preventing forms of profound distress.
This support also stems from a shared sensitivity: Giuseppe Caprotti, president of the Guido Venosta Foundation and one of the founders of the Bullone Foundation, has repeatedly emphasised the importance of building alliances between education, health and culture to address the new needs of young people in a systemic and profound way.

With the aim of strengthening this link, the project also provided teachers with authoritative references and useful tools to deal with complex situations, not only in emergencies, but in everyday educational relationships.

Due to the positive feedback from the first edition of ‘Training for Life’, a new webinar series is already planned for 2026, with the aim of involving even more schools and further developing the dialogue between adults and adolescents.

THE EXPERTS
This year, the webinars – distributed through the Deascuola network, one of the leading school publishing companies in Italy – involved recognised experts in the psychological, educational and clinical fields:

• Alessia Lanzi, a psychologist and president of the Minotauro cooperative, which has been a point of reference for adolescents for new forms of fragility for thirty years;
• Ettore Corradi and Marcella Tajani, respectively director and psychiatrist of the Struttura Complessa di Dietetica e Nutrizione Clinica of the ASST Grande Ospedale Metropolitano Niguarda, a national centre for eating disorders;
• Paola Missana, General Director of the Galdus vocational school in Milan, which offers educational paths tailored to the emerging needs of young people.

THE WEBINAR SERIES
The following topics were covered in the training sessions of the first edition of the webinar (available to teachers on the website: https://formazione.deascuola.it/allenarsi-alla-vita/):

• Staying well in today’s world, turning difficulties and fragility into opportunities: a meeting for teachers to accompany boys and girls to recognise and overcome difficulties, discover themselves, understand their limits and resources, and train themselves for life and future challenges.
• Recognising fragility and supporting it: experts in dialogue on psychological fragility, dropping out of school, social withdrawal, digital addiction, and behavioural disorders
• Seeing, touching and transforming scars: a meeting for teachers to develop hard and soft skills through the methodologies and activities pioneered by the Bullone Foundation, which can be tested in and out of the classroom, in line with the new guidelines on teaching Civic Education.

At the end of the course, a meeting dedicated to students included the testimony of two young people who, through their work with the Bullone Foundation, recounted how their experience of illness marked a positive turning point in their lives. This powerful message spoke directly to their peers, highlighting the transformative potential of fragility.

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Guido Venosta Foundation
The Guido Venosta Foundation intends, by honouring the memory of Guido Venosta and changing his experiences, to promote and contribute to educating the public on the highest cultural ideals and solidarity. Founded on 27 June 2000, it is now chaired by Giuseppe Caprotti, Guido Venosta’s grandson and a supporter of the Bullone Foundation since its inception. Guido Venosta was one of the architects of the AIRC (Italian Association for Cancer Research), which he ran from 1966 to 1996. The Foundation operates according to four guidelines: protection of health and the environment, promotion of culture, and solidarity. www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org

Bullone Foundation
The Bullone Foundation is a third sector organisation founded by Milan-based entrepreneur and philanthropist Bill Niada in 2012. The mission is to accompany adolescents and young adults with serious illness experiences in rediscovering their identity beyond their illness, building together paths of reintegration into social and professional life. The intention is to bring about a paradigm shift to build a world in which illness is not an insurmountable obstacle, but an experience that can be welcomed, faced, shared and transformed. www.bullone.org
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D Scuola
D Scuola is one of the leading educational publishing houses in Italy. The company, which has been part of the Mondadori Group since December 2021, operates in the market through various brands, including Deascuola with production aimed at institutions of all levels. It publishes texts, manuals, guides, supplementary digital content, eBooks and applications for study and teaching from primary school to university. Since 2013, D Scuola has been a training provider accredited by MIUR, organising training courses for schools and teachers. Its mission is to contribute, together with teachers and families, to educating young people and thus to building the society of the future. This is a delicate task that is carried out every day with dedication, involving a high level of expertise and a sense of civic responsibility.

The Mondadori Group’s scholastic publishing houses will be at Didacta Italia, the most important event on training and innovation in the educational sector which, from tomorrow, will transform Florence into the capital of the school of the future.

From 12 to 14 March Mondadori Education, Rizzoli Education and Deascuola will be inside the Fortezza da Basso in the Cavaniglia Pavilion, at stands H46, H45 and H47 respectively, offering a place for discussion and knowledge on the world of the education of today and tomorrow.

The calendar is rich and includes meetings and seminars aimed at teachers, school directors and education professional, with all the latest updates on publications for the educational sector.

Mondadori Education, Rizzoli Education and Deascuola will address current issues, including innovative teaching methodologies, gender education and artificial intelligence. It’s an opportunity not to be missed to stay updated and reflect on the new frontiers of education, with authors from all school cycles.

Ample space will be dedicated to training sessions and meetings with teachers organised by HUB Scuola, the digital platform of the Mondadori Group’s school publishing houses, Formazione su Misura, the training proposal for teachers by Mondadori Education and Rizzoli Education, and Deascuola Formazione, the educational project for training Deascuola school staff.

HUB SCUOLA EVENTS

• On March 12, from 12.30pm to 1.15pm, presentation of the main features of the HUB Scuola platform and the HUB Young and HUB Kids reading apps;
• on the same day, from 5.15pm to 6.00pm, the talk will be about tests and exercises in class: how HUB Scuola can help with HUB Test and HUB INVALSI;
• on March 13, from 9:30am to 10:15am, the event HUB Scuola: teaching and learning with digital teaching is scheduled.

CUSTOM TRAINING EVENTS

• On March 12, from 10:30am to 11:15am and on March 13, from 9:30am to 10:20am, there will be a presentation of the MIYA course on artificial intelligence at the service of school: a training path designed to support teachers by transforming AI into a precious resource for daily teaching and the work of teachers.

At the following link you can register for events and find further details.

DEASCUOLA TRAINING EVENTS

• On March 12th from 1.30pm to 2.15pm “Education after the RRNP” to reflect on how to create and keep alive practical learning communities;
• March 13th from 4.15pm to 5.00pm “Continuous Professional Development” to design and implement a structured training system to respond to new educational challenges.

At the following link you can register for events and find further details.

Great news for English language learners due to the ‘Oxford Test of English Advanced’, the new exam aimed at students wanting to certify their proficiency in English at an advanced level: levels B2 and C1 of the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages).

This new test — developed by Oxford University Press (OUP), a leading publisher, and distributed in Italy exclusively by the educational publishing house Rizzoli Education — is the only language proficiency test accepted and certified by Oxford University.

According to a recent survey conducted by Oxford University Press, 91% of students prefer a test that is also valued in the job sector and by educational institutions. Such is the case with the ‘Oxford Test of English Advanced’, which is already recognised for admissions to postgraduate programmes at Oxford University.
Oxford University Press also extended its survey to English teachers, which revealed, in particular, that:

• 85% of respondents expect an increase in students interested in obtaining English certification in the next 12 months;
• 88% of teachers expect an increase in the importance of learning English in their country;
• more than 90% recognise the importance of English for both students’ employment and their personal and professional development.

The main features of the Oxford Test of English Advanced, which joins other English language proficiency examinations by Oxford University Press (Oxford Test of English and Oxford Test of English for Schools) are as follows:

• alignment with CEFR descriptors: developed following the latest versions of the descriptors in the CEFR Companion Volume, the test assesses the examinees’ actual skills, which are indispensable in academic and professional environments such as mediation and presentation;
• convenience: certification is fully online and available year round, for maximum flexibility;
• adaptation: the exam lasts approximately two hours and is adapted to the student’s reading and listening levels, minimising stress and providing an accurate reflection of English language proficiency. Like the other tests in the Oxford Test of English suite, it is not possible to fail: a result is always obtained.

Upon presentation of the ‘Oxford Test of English Advanced’ in Rome at an event organised by Oxford University Press in collaboration with the British Embassy and Rizzoli Education, Anthony Calanducci, Head of Italy at Oxford University Press English Language Teaching, said: ‘We are happy to present the Oxford Test of English Advanced, thus expanding our range of educational solutions for teachers and students. For students, the possibility of being assessed is an indispensable tool, as it provides an opportunity to demonstrate their level of English proficiency. With this new test, Oxford University Press provides a fast, flexible and reliable assessment tool, perfect for anyone wanting to prove their competence at a higher level (B2–C1). The Oxford Test of English Advanced helps to establish educational standards and benchmarks, ensuring that learning objectives are aligned with the desired outcomes. In essence, it is not only about measuring knowledge, but also about promoting growth, inspiring progress and improving the quality of education,’ Calanducci concluded.

Andrew Nye, Director of Assessment at Oxford University Press English Language Teaching, added: ‘Our English language proficiency tests are the result of years of rigorous research to ensure the highest standards in English language assessment. All levels of the Oxford Test of English have been designed and developed by OUP and a team of independent education, language and assessment experts. The process lasted several years, and great care was taken at each stage to ensure reliability, accuracy, alignment to the CEFR and quality.’ He continued: ‘This alignment with international standards implies the presence of mechanisms to ensure a high level of quality, such as the validation of test questions with different language groups to ensure that the questions are balanced and reliable. Our processes are also audited by Oxford University to ensure that they meet the highest testing standards,’Nye concluded.

Santiago Ruiz de Velasco, Director General of OUP English Language Teaching, emphasised: ‘I am delighted that we can now offer English language learners the opportunity to certify their skills with the world’s largest university publishing house, validating the months and years often patiently spent “finding the words”. As the most widely used language in international exchange, English allows people to participate in global conversations on the most pressing issues, from the climate crisis to social movements. I am proud of the fact that with the Oxford Test of English, we are helping students to demonstrate their advanced English proficiency, which can help them find job and education opportunities around the world, as well as express their opinions on topics of international importance,’ Santiago Ruiz de Velasco concluded.

Oxford University Press and Rizzoli Education

Part of the University of Oxford, a university par excellence in research, scholarship and education publishing worldwide, Oxford University Press (OUP) is the world’s largest university publisher, with the widest global presence: it publishes thousands of new publications each year, has offices in about fifty countries and employs around 5,000 clerical staff worldwide. It is known to millions of people through its varied publishing programme, which includes scholarly works in all academic disciplines, Bibles, music, school and university textbooks, children’s books, materials for teaching English as a foreign language, business books, dictionaries and academic journals.
Publications and new digital products by Oxford University Press (OUP) are distributed by Rizzoli Education exclusively for Italy. Rizzoli Education, Mondadori Group’s educational publishing house, operates in the sector on all levels of education, from primary to secondary school. For over 45 years, Oxford University Press and Rizzoli Education have supported quality education and training in Italy, preparing future generations for an increasingly interconnected and global world. This strong partnership involves millions of students in Italy with the supply of high-quality educational resources that support learning and growth.

Deascuola, one of Italy’s leading educational publishing houses and part of the Mondadori Group, presents the results of the research conducted in collaboration with Massimiliano Andreoletti – university professor in Educational Technology and Media Education in the field of technologies applied to learning at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan – on the use of Ross e la Sgrammanebbia, the innovative and inclusive video game, launched in September 2022 and aimed at teachers in secondary schools.

Ross e la Sgrammanebbia, designed by Deascuola in collaboration with teachers who are experts in playful education and developed by the software house, Tiny Bull Studios, was created to integrate and support classroom teaching by fully matching game levels and textbook topics, bringing teachers closer to a tool that students use every day and adapting the products developed for entertainment to different teaching needs.

Linked with the basics of Italian grammar, the video game presents a journey where narrative, education and play alternate. In order to progress and advance to the next stage, male and female students must face stimulating challenges and solve small grammatical puzzles in the form of mini-games that increase in difficulty.

In addition to reaching and supporting the teacher in the design of his or her own learning pathway, Ross e la Sgrammanebbia promotes the value of inclusiveness, with a view to guaranteeing equal educational opportunities and meeting the needs of students with special learning needs. Not surprisingly, the game opts for a highly readable font and mini-games with no response time.

The research conducted by Deascuola, in collaboration with Professor Massimiliano Andreoletti, analysed how Ross e la Sgrammanebbia was used by students and teachers after being included in the Italian language teaching programme from September 2022. It obtained a high popularity rating: all 185 students from the six secondary schools involved, from the Milan and Turin pool, stated that they enjoyed trying the game under the guidance of their teacher. At the same time, teachers noted a very high level of engagement by students: the video game not only increases motivation but also stimulates socialisation within the class, inviting reflection on the themes covered and encouraging them to create learning content that can be used as a tool to assess and reinforce skills.

Ross e la Sgrammanebbia also won a place among the finalists of the Italian Video Game Awards 2023, in the Best Applied Game category, dedicated to digital games or recreational resources with an educational purpose.

Click here to access the demo.

The full version is available for teachers and students who use one of the Deascuola grammar textbooks for secondary schools. In addition, teaching support materials for teachers will be provided to go with the game.

Discover Ross e la Sgrammanebbia on ross.deascuola.it.

Deascuola, one of the leading Italian educational publishers from the Mondadori Group, and TikTok, a digital platform with more than 1 billion global users, are launching “Social media and digital platforms: new learning environments”, an innovative course for secondary school teachers designed to learn and discover how to integrate traditional teaching with the common ordinary tools and languages of students.

The world of culture and information is increasingly growing on digital platforms, and schools are also requiring a growing number of teacher-creators capable of offering educational activities aimed at ensuring greater engagement and interest among scholars.

Deascuola and TikTok’s programme will start on November 8 and consists in 3 free online sessions, designed to explain how to best orient oneself or identify the positive and negative effects so as to transform such information into real educational supports usable both in and out of the classroom, and in a free teaching guide that can be downloaded at the end of the 3 webinars.

Registrations are managed via the following link: https://l.deascuola.it/TikTok/index.html

“More and more youngsters currently use digital platforms, such as TikTok and Instagram, to stay informed, socialise and follow innovation in a wide variety of fields. How can schools transform such tools into real educational supports to be used both in and out of the classroom and how can the same be transformed into new learning environments? The 3 meetings planned, and involving experts in sociology, neuroscience, pedagogy and education, were designed to respond to such question”, explains Luca Vajani, General Manager of D Scuola S.p.A.

“TikTok is also increasingly becoming both a primary reference for the world of education and the most popular medium used to share knowledge and train, by simplifying complex subjects and contents through its immediate language and inclusive approach, thus making them more accessible to all. Such project is very important as it allows us to support the scholastic activities of teachers and the education of their young students in a concrete way, by promoting intergenerational dialogue”, says Luana Lavecchia, Institutional Relations Manager of TikTok Italy and Greece.

The first meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, November 8, from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m: Social media and digital platforms: perceptions and impacts.

Michela Balconi, psychophysiology and cognitive neuroscience professor at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Milan, Giovanni Boccia Artieri, sociology professor at the University of Urbino, and Valentina Ghetti, teacher and content creator, will delve into the social and cognitive aspects involved by analysing successful projects, so as to help teachers understand the mechanisms implicated in students’ use of social networks before finally addressing issues aimed at promoting a correct, safe and useful use of digital platforms. An insightful neuroscience, sociology and BookToker meeting.

The second meeting, Social media and digital platforms: teaching tools, scheduled for Thursday, November 23, from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m., includes the participation of Emmanuele Massagli, Education and Pedagogy researcher at Lumsa University, and Stefania Manca, researcher at the Institute for Educational Technology of the CNR, who will illustrate some successful projects on how to use TikTok for teaching.
Digital media modify learning by changing the way our body and environment perceive their effects: technology is absorbed by the user, thus becoming part of it. Both verbal (“new alphabets”) and non-verbal (social networking netiquettes) language is also changing. Various research projects were implemented by focusing on such elements, in particular, a project on the use of TikTok, based on studies of the educational and pedagogical aspects, will be explored to transmit the Shoah memory and to preserve the collective historical one. Users can share experiences, historical facts and personal reflections on the Holocaust through short creative videos, thus reaching a wide audience of young people and creating awareness on this tragic event.

The last meeting, entitled At TikTok School, will be held on Wednesday, December 12, from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. Secondary school teachers and content creators of different subject areas – humanities, science and foreign languages – will share their experience under the guidance of Elia Bombardelli, teacher, creator and author at Deascuola. This will be a unique opportunity to interact with the creators Federico Benuzzi, @federicobenuzzi, Norma Cerletti, @normasteaching and Alessia Giandomenico, @studiafacileconale, and to learn how to apply the videos and materials they make to the educational practice.

This course allows teachers to better understand and explore digital platforms so as to bring them closer to their students.

D Scuola S.p.A is one of the leading Italian educational publishing operators focused on schools at any level. Part of the Mondadori Group since December 2021, the company operates through the the following brands: Deascuola, De Agostini, Petrini, Garzanti Scuola, Garzanti Linguistica, Marietti Scuola, Valmartina, Liviana, Ghisetti & Corvi, Cedam Scuola, Cideb, and Black Cat. The University offer is entrusted to UTET Università, Città Studi and ISEDI. Deascuola is present online via deascuola.it (books, additional digital contents, eBooks, portals and study and teaching applications), formazione.deascuola.it (initiatives and courses on the most current educational issues for schools and teachers), garzantilinguistica.it (linguistic dictionaries) and blackcat-cideb.com (books and materials for learning languages) and has a widespread presence on the social media.

A MIUR-accredited Training Body since 2013, D Scuola organises courses for schools and teachers. The wide range of free webinars, seminars, conferences and courses developed in partnership with educational experts, internationally renowned neuroscientists, established science popularisers and leading authors, makes it possible to get acquainted with the various systems of paid training projects, which include customised programmes and online courses for schools and teachers, in line with the training priorities identified by the Ministry of Education.

TikTok is the leading environment for short videos from mobile devices. Our mission is to inspire creativity and liveliness. TikTok has offices worldwide, including in Los Angeles, New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Dubai, Mumbai, Singapore, Jakarta, Seoul, and Tokyo. http://www.tiktok.com.

Rizzoli Education reinforces its commitment to gender equality and inclusiveness with the launch of the Glow UP empowerment campaign for its sales network.

The initiative has two key goals. The first is to continue interpreting and concretely implementing the Manifesto for gender equality and plurality launched in 2021, promoting the values of multiculturalism and the coexistence of different generations; principles the publishing house has always supported, inspiring not only its editorial and educational offering but its work environment.

The second main goal is boosting self-confidence among the people forming the Rizzoli Education team: highly qualified professionals with certified know-how whose work provides teachers with top-level assistance every day.

With Glow Up, the Mondadori Group publishing house wants to “add glow” to the value of the people in its sales network and establish the conditions for casting light on these people’s “unique”, specific talent, boosting their sense of belonging and fidelity.

In addition, the company wishes to develop an increasingly inclusive workplace where everyone can express their own qualities in the best possible way, creating a system capable of attracting the new generations, who are increasingly sensitive to these issues.

Rizzoli Education’s empowerment campaign will begin with a series of events focusing on women, promoting the affirmation of an increasingly feminine and inclusive leadership style in its sales network. The pillars of this process, which will be the focus of a series of webinars, meetings and events, are three keywords:  education, to generate awareness of one’s own value, flexibility, to support women making important life choices, and confidence for development of personal skills.

The first event – intended for women in the publishing house’s sales network – featured Francesca Rigolio, Chief Diversity Officer and Head of Human Resources in Trade Education Books for the Mondadori Group, with Alessandra Andriani, partner and general manager of the consulting firm MCA, and Annalisa Aceti, Rizzoli Education Sales Manager. The themes discussed at this inspirational meeting included career, power, language and stereotypes that can represent obstacles for gender equality.

Rizzoli Education‘s Glow Up campaign will continue throughout the year 2023 with monthly initiatives for the entire sales network to boost self-confidence and the ability of members of the publisher’s sales staff to respond to the new challenges of the market.