Elisa Paradiso Meucci's experience between autonomy and shared educational responsibility
Educational innovation does not stop at the classroom door. It enters homes, study afternoons, and questions that arise when faced with a complex page. This is where Pathway Companion shows one of its most significant dimensions: becoming a bridge between school and family. The platform for inclusive learning, developed by Fondazione Mondo Digitale with the support of Google.org and in collaboration with Fondazione Don Gnocchi, Università degli Studi Roma Tre and ITLogiX, is designed to accompany students between the ages of 8 and 16 with special educational needs. But its strength emerges when it involves the entire educational ecosystem. This is recounted by Elisa Paradiso Meuccii, mother and class representative at the Lucio Lombardo Radice primary school in Sesto Fiorentino.
Not just SLDs: a tool that helps the whole class
Elisa approached the experiment with a specific goal in mind: to support children with specific learning disorders in her daughter's class. However, the experience broadened her perspective: “I find it very useful even for children who do not have SLDs”. This is an important step. Because inclusion does not mean creating tools “for some”, but building better opportunities for everyone. In the study of subjects such as science, geography and history, the platform has become a daily ally: a support for understanding, reworking and organising content. In this context, artificial intelligence does not simplify in a superficial way: it helps to clarify, focus and make accessible what risks becoming an obstacle.
Studying better, with greater awareness
Among the features Elisa appreciates most are the ability to transform complex texts into summaries more suited to her daughter's age and the creation of concept maps. But the point is not just technical. It is relational. The platform has made studying “more enjoyable”, offering a different way of approaching content: more visual, more structured, closer to the learning methods of the new generations. In this sense, Pathway Companion also becomes a tool for method education: it does not provide ready-made answers, but helps to organise thinking.
A protected environment for teaching the use of AI
Then there is a central issue for every parent: safety. Elisa emphasises how reassuring it is to use a platform designed specifically for teaching, with a focus on privacy management and data protection. In a context where children are coming into contact with generative artificial intelligence tools at an increasingly early age, having a controlled, learning-oriented space makes all the difference. ‘It's also convenient for teaching her to do certain things on her own, under my supervision, of course.’ This sentence encapsulates the deeper meaning of the experience: AI does not replace parents, but becomes an opportunity to accompany children towards gradual and conscious autonomy.
