Educating for the responsible use of technology: Mirta Michilli speaks in *Style Piccoli*
How is learning changing in the age of artificial intelligence? And what role are teachers and adult mentors called upon to play in a context where children and young people are using technology at an increasingly early age?
These questions are the focus of “Learning in the Age of AI”, an in-depth feature published in the September–October 2026 issue of Style Piccoli, the magazine of the Corriere della Sera. The feature reflects on the transformations that artificial intelligence is bringing about in educational processes, without losing sight of two essential elements: the relationship between teacher and pupil and the centrality of critical thinking.
Among the voices featured by journalist Manuela Ravaro is that of Mirta Michilli, Director-General of the Fondazione Mondo Digitale, who warns against a still very widespread misconception: confusing young people’s familiarity with smartphones, platforms and apps with genuine digital literacy.
‘We confuse the so-called digital lifestyle with the digital skills needed for full citizenship.’
For this reason, Michilli emphasises, parents and teachers must not shirk their educational responsibilities simply because they feel less adept than young people at using technology. The role of adults is not to know everything, but to help young people develop the ability to make choices, a critical mindset and a sense of responsibility.
This perspective also sums up in a single sentence the principle that has guided the Foundation’s work for years:
‘The digital transformation of schools does not depend on tools, but on people.’
The article also describes some initiatives that are bringing AI into educational settings in a practical way. These include Experience AI, the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s programme developed in collaboration with Google DeepMind, which has already involved over 4,300 teachers and 271,000 pupils and which, from the new school year, will be enhanced by AI Quest, a programme enabling pupils aged between 11 and 14 to experiment with research by applying artificial intelligence to topics such as climate, health and science.
This is a way of transforming AI from a tool to be used passively into a subject of knowledge, experimentation and responsibility, restoring the school’s fundamental role: to help young people not only to use technology, but to understand it and question it.
