Learning More is back: three days towards the future of knowledge

Back to Modena for his fourth edition The Learning More Festival, the first and most significant festival in Italy entirely dedicated to’learning and to the’evolution of the training in the digital age. For three days, from Friday 20th to Sunday 22nd February, the Emilian city will become the crossroads of ideas, research and best practices. In addition 120 appointments, including lessons, workshops, in-depth talks, experiences, installations and learning shows in 5 locations distributed throughout the city's historic center. Modena will host teachers, trainers, human resources managers, academics and researchers, educators, startuppers, entrepreneurs, and learning professionals., more than 150 experts coming from Italy and abroad united by the urgency of reflect on the conscious and strategic use of technology in educational processes and in everyday life.

The Learning More Festival aims to offer concrete ideas and respond to the growing demand for transversal professional skills in the contemporary panorama, creating a fundamental meeting point between the science of learning and seemingly different sectors such as design, i visual languages, the communication and the digital skills. Current and crucial topics will be addressed: from the discussion on the impact of reading on paper and on screen to the crucial role of Artificial Intelligence in educational processes, to analyzing emotional relationships in the digital ecosystem and the concept of well-being in organizations and learning contexts. As in previous editions, the Festival will dedicate a’special attention to families and schools, with workshops and orientation sessions designed to explore the new frontiers of digital education, the future of work, and the development of critical and personal skills.

The ultimate goal is to provide critical tools to accompany people in’intentional and conscious use of technology, making full use of the resources and opportunities of the present. 

 

The Festival is promoted by FEM – Future Education Modena, an international center and the first innovative hub for EdTech in Italy, created by Wonderful Education and the Modena Foundation. FEM develops highly innovative educational and professional development models, content, and formats with a high social impact, generates EdTech startups, activates educational centers, and advances the frontiers of applied research on the relationship between education and technology. FEM's international team includes over 60 people, including pedagogues, cognitive psychologists, neuroscientists, designers, game experts, technologists, AI experts, mathematicians, linguists, and scientists, along with a network of more than 150 experts, 100 national and international partners, and 10 strategic R&D programs in education and training.

 

«Now in its fourth edition, Learning More Festival has become much more than a festival: it is a model of empowerment, a system of knowledge and people that connects the best national and international energies.»", declare the co-founders of FEM and Learning More Festival Damien Lanfrey e Donatella Solda. «A cultural event that brings together the science of learning, Artificial Intelligence, languages, organizations, and cross-sector audiences, connected by a powerful thread: the awareness that training and human capital are the only challenge that matters. The Learning More Festival has become the leading national event on these topics, combining rigor and accessibility, research and experimentation, content and quality. For three days, Modena becomes a laboratory on the frontiers of learning, training, and technology, offering concrete tools to those who plan their learning, work, and future every day. The new program on Medical Humanities and the growth of the EdTech, Learning Organizations, and Family Lab programs further confirm that learning is not just a matter for professionals, but a commitment for society as a whole.».

 

The Learning More Festival is a reality also thanks to the Municipality of Modena, at the Foundation of Modena, at the Emilia-Romagna Region e a Modena City of Festivals, which together with FEM – Future Education Modena are co-promoters.

They are institutional partners Confindustria Emilia Centro, Chamber of Commerce, Anitec-Assinform, EdTech Italy, AIRI. Partners and projects Foncoop, Human, Spaggiari Group, PagoPA, BPER Bank, FiberCop, IFOA, Inaz, reader (MLOL), VEM Systems, Sanoma, ZNext, ERG. They are cultural and technical partners AGO Foundation, San Carlo College Foundation, Kopernicana, Purple Dot, Uppa, Ayros Editore, Alef Consulting. Discover all the festival's partners

THE PROGRAM

The rich man plan of the Learning More Festival is divided into six thematic areas, and each explores the themes of training, learning and human capital, analyzing them from different perspectives.

 

NEUROSCIENCE AND LEARNING: THE LEARNING MIND

How does the mind work in learning? How does technology influence the way we learn? How can we adapt learning spaces to promote learner well-being? Learning represents one of the most important challenges of our time, especially in a context where change is constant and tools are ever new.

In this context, the world-renowned expert Barbara Oakley, full professor at Oakland University and author of Learning How to Learn, Uncommon Sense Teaching and numerous international bestsellers, will explore, in the light of neuroscience, the role of internal knowledge and cognitive capabilities in human-AI collaboration during the talk Optimizing Human-AI Collaboration: The Value of Internal Knowledge in Digital Transformation.

Next, Igor Sotgiu, associate professor of General Psychology at the University of Bergamo and author of the book Psychology of happiness and unhappiness (Carocci publisher), in the talk Teaching happiness: opportunities and risks will address the meaning of happiness and well-being according to positive psychology, discussing whether and how they can be taught. On a similar topic but in a laboratory setting, The Emotion Code: Myths and Emotional Regulation It is the workshop led by the communications and marketing expert Isabel Gangitano and from the psychotherapist Serena Barbieri, authors of the book The Code of Emotions (HarperCollins) and creators of the podcast The Basics (The Post). Instead, during the workshop Inside the Learning Mind: Learning, Emotions, and Mental Load in Real Time, Fabio Babiloni, full professor of Physiology at Sapienza University of Rome, will lead the audience in an immersive experience demonstrating live how the mind and emotions interact during learning. Furthermore, Gaetano Cotena, psychologist, psychotherapist and teacher, will lead Educating about relationships in the classroom, the workshop designed to help teachers stay in touch with the emotions of the classroom without being overwhelmed by them and ensure peaceful learning.

Shifting attention to learning spaces, neuroarchitecture researcher Ana Mombiedro and the architect, school principal and trainer Lidia Cangemi will participate in the talk Neuroarchitecture and Educational Organization: How the Environment Influences Learning and Well-BeingThey will discuss how architecture, neuroscience, and pedagogy can transform educational spaces into active tools that improve learning, emotional well-being, and the quality of relationships. 

With a focus on inclusion, the psychologist expert in specific learning disabilities Gianluca Lo Presti will hold the talk DSA: the invisible borders, a presentation on how specific learning disabilities affect reading, writing, and arithmetic, highlighting practical tools, false myths, and strategies to promote equal opportunities.
Through the language of play, the digital psychologist and videogame therapist Elena Del Fante and the researcher in Didactics and Special Pedagogy Mariarosaria Nardone They will talk about how video games, if designed and guided consciously, can become learning tools in the talk Playing Video Games Together: Beyond Fears and Commonplaces. 

 

HOW AND WHAT WE LEARN: LANGUAGES, ENVIRONMENTS, AND EXPERIENCES THAT BUILD KNOWLEDGE

 How do we learn in a world pervaded by data, images, new technologies, and Artificial Intelligence? What languages, spaces, and experiences foster critical and inclusive learning? This program explores the evolution of learning formats and content, bringing together diverse disciplines such as neuroscience, education, design, gaming, data visualization, and sustainability. This journey explores how to transform the way we construct knowledge, develop skills, and make sense of the complexity of the present.

Among the numerous guests of this thematic core Alberto Cairo, Spanish information designer and journalist, Knight Chair in Visual Journalism at the University of Miami and one of the world's leading voices on data visualization, visual information, and visual literacy. Cairo will give the talk How Charts Lie: Getting Smarter about Visual Information, in which he will discuss the ability to critically read and interpret graphs, maps, and visualizations and, starting from concrete examples, will demonstrate when data truly helps us understand reality and when, instead, it risks orienting or distorting perception. 

Then there is Tips for better information. A lesson in Francesco Costa: a talk in which the journalist, director of the Post, blogger and essayist will reflect on how to distinguish reliable news, maintain critical attention and consciously navigate sources, media and fake news.

Several events will then concern the theme of reading, starting with the neuroscientist linguist Maryanne Wolf That will hold the talk Reading in the Age of AI: Rethinking the Bi-literate Brain to explore how digital and artificial intelligence are transforming the reading brain, reflecting on educational strategies to develop critical and informed readers. Following, Federico Pianzola, professor of Computational Humanities at the University of Groningen: he will participate, instead, with the talk Debunking digital reading myths: When technology helps you read better, a discussion on the biases associated with digital reading to evaluate how social reading platforms and practices can broaden participation, motivation, and depth of the reading experience. Furthermore, the workshop The “TELL ME” approach to developing critical and competent readers will be animated by Gabriela Zucchini, a researcher and editor expert in children's literature: she will guide teachers, librarians, educators and parents in a practical experience on reading education, experimenting with the “Tell me” method.

We will return to talk about spaces in the talk Neuroarchitecture: Learning Environments and Embodied Technologies, in which Davide Ruzzon, architect, director of TA Tuning Architecture in Milan, and professor at IUAV University of Venice and POLIdesign Politecnico di Milano, will demonstrate how to design educational and training spaces where technology is integrated into the environment, becoming an active part of the learning experience and encouraging attention, participation, and inclusiveness. In continuation, the service designer Irene Caputo will be the protagonist of the workshop Spaces that teach: services and environments for learning, a participatory design activity to rethink educational spaces and related services with the goal of creating environments that concretely foster learning, relationships, and sustainability. There will also be a panel discussion Learning at the Museum: New Frontiers in Museum Learning and Accessibility, which will unite the voices of Julian Gaia, a pioneer of digital technology for museums and creator of the Web and New Media Department of the National Museum of Science and Technology, and the architect Luca Dal Pozzolo to reflect on the museum as an inclusive learning space, combining Neuroarchitecture, Storytelling, and Artificial Intelligence to improve accessibility and visitor experience.

Shifting focus to the world of video games, Francesco Bocci, psychologist, psychotherapist and founder of “Video Game Therapy”, and computer science researcher Marcello Sarini they will hold the workshop Video Games and Learning: (Co)Flow as an Educational Experience To explore how video games can be used consciously, promoting motivation, flow, emotional regulation, and learning in school settings. Along the same lines, Benjamin Sidoti, writer, trainer and craftsman of the Narrative Game, and Erika Maderna, writer and scholar of ancient Myths and Traditions, will speak in Play and storytelling in the classroom: playing with ancient myths and stories, a talk on the educational value of stories and myths, and the importance of storytelling and play in addressing universal themes and stimulating imagination and shared learning. Gianluca Daffi, instead, author, trainer and teacher of Psychology, will speak in The role of play in managing difficult classes at school to propose a new perspective on the management of "difficult classes", bringing into play games and new relational approaches. We will continue with Francesco Toniolo, teacher and scholar of Media and video games, who will participate with the talk Video games and online communities. What's really happening online and why it affects schools.Here, the panel will discuss how online communities related to video games influence students' digital identities, skills, and behaviors, highlighting the connections between virtual environments and school contexts. This will be followed by a panel discussion. How to make math an engaging and accessible experience, which will bring together the voices of Alessandro Ramploud, teacher at the “JF Kennedy” institute in Reggio Emilia, Giorgio Bolondi, full professor of Mathematics Didactics at the Free University of Bolzano, and Nadia Caporrella, Istat technologist: i Three experts will discuss how to make mathematics and statistics more accessible and meaningful, exploring teaching and outreach approaches to strengthen numerical literacy and the informed use of data in everyday life. Another interesting perspective is that of Marco Ferrari, philosophy teacher, school principal and author of the book Educating to Think: Theory and Practice of Regulated Dispute (Carocci publisher), who will speak at the talk The Art of Argument: Thinking and Arguing with the Age Contra Method to discuss how regulated dispute tournaments help students develop critical thinking and argumentative skills by combining play and competition. 

Thomas Minerva, scientific director of EduNext, director of Edunova and full professor at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Susanna Sancassani, director of METID and full professor at the Polytechnic University of Milan, and Rita Cucchiara, Rector of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia and CRUI representative, will be engaged in a discussion on The future of universities after the PNRR: digital transition, AI, and new organizational models. 

Foreign language teaching will be the topic of the talk Language Learning in the AI Era: Back to the Roots or Fast Lane to the Future? held by Christian Ludwig, professor of English Teaching at the Free University of Berlin, who will reflect on how Artificial Intelligence is transforming language teaching, demonstrating how to integrate digital skills and AI literacy while protecting student well-being. The teaching theme will continue with Mariano Laudisi, creator of the educational model "The Schools of Happiness", at the centre of the workshop The "Schools of Happiness" model (Sanoma) and the new role of the teacher coach, in which he will talk about this new role and how to integrate coaching, motivation, positive psychology and soft skills into teaching, creating a school environment focused on personal growth and student well-being. Instead Roberto Bondi e Luigi Parisi, teachers for the Marconi TSI Service (USR Emilia Romagna), will be involved in the workshop Artificial Intelligence, methodological innovation, and media education: choices, tools, responsibilities to explore with the public the use of Artificial Intelligence in teaching, combining practical activities and ethical reflections for informed adoption in schools. There will also be Richard Bovetti, EY partner, who will speak on how to integrate Artificial Intelligence into university teaching in the talk AI as an "amplifier" in the classroom: how to enhance teaching methodologies. Finally, through real workshops, Andrea Ligabue e Glauco Babini, expert play educators from the Ludo Labo cooperative and organizers of the Play Festival del Gioco, will introduce the public to some games that can be used to address STEM, Coding, History and Civic Education topics in the classroom during the workshop Bringing Play into the Classroom: From Coding to Ludic History.
With STEM, Girls, and Robotics: Deconstructing Gender Biases, Laura Cesaro, a researcher in Educational Robotics at the University of Padua and a primary school teacher, will present the results of her experimental research to analyze how gender biases and stereotypes discourage girls from approaching STEM subjects, highlighting inclusive strategies and educational robotics methodologies to promote participation and empowerment.

Four key voices in the contemporary educational debate, Maria Ranieri, full professor of Teaching and Educational Technologies at the University of Florence, Pier Cesare Rivoltella, educationalist and full professor of Didactics and Educational Technologies at the University of Bologna, Stefano Moriggi, historian and philosopher, and Luca Botturi, full professor of Media education at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI) will hold a debate on Educating in the AI Age: Conceptual Frameworks for True AI Pedagogy. Always looking at the impact of Artificial Intelligence in educational contexts, Susanna Sancassani will hold the talk Artificial Intelligence in Education: Skills, Risks, and Concrete Choices. 

Speaking of digital platforms, Massimiliano Panarari, journalist and sociologist of communication, will hold the talk (De)constructing collective knowledge with social media, showing how social media redefine information, opinion, and citizenship, and highlighting risks and strategies for developing critical thinking and awareness in navigation. 

The LMF will also focus on sustainability, starting from the panel Educating for sustainability: what skills are needed for 2030? which will bring together three voices from the Italian educational landscape: Maria Chiara Pettenati, Research Director at INDIRE and expert in Education for Sustainable Development and Behavior Transformation, Roberto Trinchero, full professor at the University of Turin and expert in research methodologies and assessment by skills, and Serena Notaro, PhD student and collaborator of the "School of Sustainability" initiative: here they will discuss how to develop and assess sustainability skills in schools, sharing good practices and European experiences. Furthermore, George Vacchiano, forest ecologist and among the eleven emerging scientists in the world according to Nature, will investigate the fundamental role of vegetation and ecosystems in human and urban health in the talk Green as a skill between outdoor education and participatory planning: forests, cities, and resilient communities. Another panel of specialists will be led by Francesco Tonucci, pedagogue, designer and creator of the project “The city of children”, Daniele Ara, councilor for schools of the Municipality of Bologna, Federica Venturelli, Councillor for Educational Policies of the Municipality of Modena with responsibility for relations with the University, Italo Fiorin, educationalist and service learning expert, and Davide Ferraresi of Future Education Modena. The meeting, entitled From School to City: Service Learning and Students as Change Makers, will focus on the school as a laboratory of participation and sustainability, involving students and communities in designing more inclusive cities through Service Learning. Educational Applications of Future Thinking it is, instead, the workshop of Olivia Levrini, full professor of Teaching and History of Physics at the University of Bologna, who will lead the audience through practical future thinking activities to train their imagination and use future scenarios as a tool for understanding the present and guiding informed choices. 

Finally, a focus dedicated to companies with Claudio Vandi, Chief Product Officer of NUMA, who will hold the workshop Soft Skills, Hard Impact: The Competence Challenge of New Organizations, to discuss how to transform organizations by focusing on culture, leadership, and soft skills, enabling companies to address change beyond technology. On a complementary level, Simonetta Pozzi, an expert in communication strategies and immersive training, as well as a pioneer in the use of augmented reality, virtual reality and metaverses for business, will deal with Virtual reality, immersive training, and new learning dynamics, a talk on how immersive technologies are transforming corporate training.

Darjan Hil e Nicole Lachenmeier, instead, authors of Visualizing Complexity: Modular Information Design Handbook (Birkhauser), will start from their practical experience to talk about how using Visualization and Modular Information Design can help students and professionals to understand and manage complexity: this is the talk Modular information design: systems and practices to cultivate a problem-solving mindset.

In the panel Training and work: building skills for growth, organized by ANITEC-Assinform and moderated by Andrea Langfelder, the representatives of will meet Anitec-Assinform, Fibercoop, INAZ, PagoPA, Human e VEM on what skills are needed today, especially in the digital and artificial intelligence fields, and how to help workers and businesses update themselves more quickly, bridging the gap between required and available skills, for a more effective training-to-work chain.

 

During the Festival, several strategic collaborations will also be presented. Among these, the readER project, the digital library open to all schools in Emilia-Romagna, funded by the Region and created with the Regional School Office. The conference will review the results achieved, the collaborations between school libraries and civic networks, and best practices in cooperation. The day will conclude with the presentation of the work of the classes selected for the readER 2025–2026 Challenge, including book trailers and video reviews that recount the students' creative experiences with the digital library. Participants Jessica Allegni, Angelo Bardini, Gabriele Benassi, Chiara Bulla, Claudio Leombroni, Paola Pala, Nunzio Papapietro, Giuseppe Schena.

Immediately after, two workshops School of Energy: teaching renewable energy, in collaboration with ERG, They will bring the energy transition to primary and secondary school classrooms. Teachers will experiment with hands-on learning experiences and teaching kits, including cooperative challenges, missions, and micro-narratives, artificial intelligence, and data science, to transform students into protagonists of their own stories, combining learning, creativity, and awareness of the intelligent use of energy. 

 

FEM to launch two platforms and a strategic collaboration, through three events:

Learn to collaborate with Canva: Discover how to design visually, dynamically, and collaboratively., with Claudia Ciulla, will relaunch the Global collaboration between FEM and Canva, in the presence of Valentino Magliaro, Partnership & Education Manager of Canva for Italy.

Vera: the new kit of activities and resources to make visual hierarchies effective in training will be launched by Information Designer Francesca Grignani.

Design for Learning: A New Design Thinking Toolkit for Instructional Design, will be launched by Giacomo Astolfi, Advanced Design Lead at FEM.

 

ORGANIZATIONS THAT LEARN, SOCIETY THAT GROWTH

 How can we create organizations that thrive in change and navigate complexity? How can we use training as a lever for competitive advantage? How are training models and related technologies changing? How can we integrate Artificial Intelligence into business processes, and how does work change when AI is incorporated into organizational flows? And finally, how can we design organizations where well-being and productivity coexist, with transparent pay, working hours, spaces, and welfare?

With these premises, Giorgio Sacconi, co-founder of FAIRFLAI and expert in digital innovation and organizational design, will show how to integrate Artificial Intelligence into organizations, starting from the mindset and not just the tools, and will give an example of it in the workshop Artificial Intelligence in Workflows: How to Use and Integrate It, for Real. Subsequently, Paul Homer, co-founder of infoFACTORY and professor at the University of Udine, will return to the LMF with the talk From prototypes to reality. Strategies, processes, and sustainability of digital transformation with AI in the enterprise. to update on how AI is actually entering business processes once the pure experimentation phase has been overcome. In parallel Gianluca Diegoli, expert in AI-based digital marketing and strategies, teacher and co-founder of Digital Update, Lorenzo Maternini, at the helm of Perspective, Gianfranco De Simone, general manager of Foncoop, Marco Moscati, CEO of Sideius and president of the Youth Group of Confindustria Emilia and Claudio Stefani, CEO of Acetaia Giusti, will be involved in the panel Artificial Intelligence, organizational change, and new work models. In continuity, the labor lawyer and founding partner of WI LEGAL Gianluca Spolverato will talk about the concept of productivity and organizational well-being in the talk Is it time to reduce working hours? Time, continuous training, and organizational well-being. Chiara Bacilieri, innovation director of Mindwork, Sandro Leonardi, communication director of Tetrapak, will instead address the topic of organizational wellbeing in the panel The different dimensions of Wellbeing Design. Among the prominent talks, that of Lavinia Mehedintu, co-founder of Offbeat and learning architect, who will accompany the public in the Learning & Development panorama with Learning in Organizations: New Trends and Dynamics in the L&D World, in which he will explore how to move from a “reactive” to a strategic training model; furthermore, Anamaria Dorgo, L&D expert and manager at Adyen, will explain how learning can arise from relationships and the work environment in Keep learning – Building learning communities in the corporate environment. 

Continuing with the theme of language in organizations, Roberta Zantedeschi e Fabiana Palù, business consultants and founders of Purple Dot, and Matteo Socciarelli, linguistics experts at Future Education Modena, will lead three workshops dedicated to language and organizations that integrate reflection, consultancy, and technologies to support change: What kind of company do you want to be? Leading change, one word at a time; Transformative Feedback: From Correction to Connection; From slang to frames: language and intergenerational dialogue. The workshops are part of “Linguistics for Corporate,” the new training strategy developed by FEM and Purple Dot.
It will follow Paul Iacci, expert in human resources management, president of ECA Italy and national vice president of AIDP, teacher and essayist, who will be at the Festival to talk about New learning paradigms: between fragmentation and organizational needs. Furthermore, Francesco Frugiuele, co-founder of Kopernicana, will address the topic of self-management in the talk Growing Up Without Bosses: How Financial Responsibility Transforms Organizations; Furthermore, Valentina Tosetti (Bracco) and Alberto Gangemi (Kopernicana) will give the public a practical demonstration through the talk Inside the Organization: Building Representations with Organization Network Analysis. Also Emanuela Donetti, partner of Kopernicana, will give its contribution to the LMF through the workshop Redesigning Work: Workshop on Designing Decision-Making Systems in Organizations. In the end, Matthew Gatti, organization development consultants at ALEF Consulting, will lead the workshop From Reacting to Acting: An Experiential Workshop on Distributed Leadership to explore with the public the intersection of learning and leadership.

Several representatives and experts in the sector, including representatives of Foncoop, IFOA, PagoPA, Villani Spa, ERG Academy, they will confront each other in Corporate Academies: Building Training Ecosystems effective, the panel on corporate academies as a strategic lever for bridging the skills mismatch, integrating training into production processes, and supporting innovation through models and concrete cases. 

Vincenzo Colla, Vice President of the Emilia-Romagna Region with responsibility for Economic Development and Green Economy, Energy, Professional Training, University and Research, Maria Raffaella Caprioglio, president of Umana, Giacomo Villano, Development Director of Confindustria Emilia, Andrea Bairati AIRI will deal with Attracting Talent: Structural Responses to Territorial Competitiveness, a panel on how territories and businesses can become attractive again by transforming data and policies into quality work ecosystems.

 

MEDICAL HUMANITIES: THE CENTRALITY OF THE HUMAN IN CARE AND ILLNESS AS A PROCESS OF EDUCATION

How is the relationship between healthcare professionals and patients changing in an increasingly complex and informed world? How can humanistic culture, storytelling, and creative tools support relational skills, empathy, and uncertainty management? This year, the LMF is dedicating an entire thematic panel to Medical Humanities which, together with Narrative Medicine and Graphic Medicine, offer an innovative training approach that places the human experience of illness at the center, transforming treatment into a more conscious process.

Among the great guests of LMF Michael Rich, nicknamed “The Mediatrician,” pediatrician, researcher, and founder of the Digital Wellness Lab and the Clinic for Interactive Media and Internet Disorders (CIMAID) at Boston Children's Hospital. In the talk Digital wellness for families: growing healthy in a digital world He will bring all his experience on the condition of Problematic Interactive Media Use (PIMU), the use of technology as the only source of gratification, offering a scientific and evidence-based reading. 

In the opening, Silvana Quadrino, psychologist, family psychotherapist, teacher of communication techniques and systemic-narrative counseling, will speak at the talk Listening, understanding, communicating: the humanistic challenge of contemporary medicine, demonstrating how Medical Humanities and Narrative Medicine can strengthen the relational skills of healthcare professionals, improving the care relationship with increasingly informed and demanding patients. Following this, in the presentation Vertigo: Skills for Navigating Uncertainty During Illness, Beatrice Mautino, science communicator and essayist, will start from her latest book, Vertigo (Mondadori), to reflect on how to develop critical thinking and emotional balance to deal with uncertainty, especially in illness, without falling into false certainties or illusions, learning to "stay in doubt." Finally, Valentina Conti e Stefano Calabrese, authors of the volume What is narrative medicine? (Carocci publisher), will deal with Healing Images: Graphic Medicine and Visual Storytelling, that is, how comics and graphic novels, through Graphic Medicine, can become therapeutic tools.

 

EDTECH: TOOLS FOR INNOVATION

What technological frontiers are learning, training, and work moving toward? The learning sector, from formal and collective education to individual learning, is undergoing a significant transformation that affects all its essential components: environments, teaching methodologies, learning tools, and the dynamics of content access and consumption. The EdTech sector represents the set of tools used daily by teachers and students to build effective, personalized learning paths that accommodate all learning styles. The Festival continues its collaboration with EdTech Italy, an association that brings together nearly 100 startups, scaleups, and players in the EdTech ecosystem in our country. During the three days, in fact, there will be a selection of 10 startups of the EdTech Italia network. 

In this setting Modena will host an event of international prestige: the third European public meeting of the European network of EdTech Testbeds e GETN (Global EdTech Testbed Network) to discuss validation criteria, frameworks, and practices and understand how to measure the impact of EdTech solutions on learning. EdTech Validation in Europe: how do we really validate learning technologies? will involve the main international voices on the topic: Alison Clark-Wilson, lecturer at the UCL Institute of Education London, Anna Akerfeldt, researcher at Stockholm University, Albena Spasova, co-founder of Education Technology Cluster Bulgaria and board member of the European EdTech Alliance, and Alicia Berlanga, director of EduTech Cluster Spain.

Artificial Intelligence is also revolutionizing the world of product design, transforming processes and roles: products become adaptive systems, and designers move from creating single outputs to designing flows, behaviors, and decisions shared between humans and AI. Marcello Majonchi, product lead of Arduino, and Nicholas Morning, director of product at Translated and expert in the creation of digital products, will start from concrete cases, practical examples and, by openly dialoguing with the public, will compare their experiences in the panel The Future of Product Design: New Work Paradigms with Artificial Intelligence.

Instead, Pierluigi Stefanini, president of the Monte di Bologna and Ravenna Foundation, Matthew Tiezzi, president of the Modena Foundation, Martina Lascialfari, general director of the Digital Republic Fund, the representatives of ACRI and of the foundation CRC they will gather in Investing in the Human Factor: Funding Models Compared for Impact, Innovation, and Sustainability, a strategic panel that will explore different approaches to funding education and skills development, comparing the experiences of foundations, social projects, and businesses among the country's major funders.

In the end, Elena Lavezzi by ZNext – Zanichelli's new venture builder, Matthew Bartholomew, CEO of AImpact, Rhys Spence, Head of Research at Bright Eye Ventures and Future Education Institute Venture Builder, FEM's new venture builder will focus on How investors evaluate and choose educational technologies in the panel Investing in Learning Technologies: Trends and Frontiers of Learning with Technology.

Among the cutting-edge technologies, FEM will present AI for Learning, advanced AI-based instructional design platform Winner of second prize in the Italian semi-finals of the global GESA Awards contest, which rewards the best EdTech startups in the world.
The EdTech programme is created in collaboration with EdTech Italy, the Italian association of startups, scaleups, and ecosystem builders in EdTech. 

 

FAMILY LAB

Many sessions will address the topic of parenting in the digital age. Specifically, the issue of trust and control in the relationship between parents and children, to understand how to establish a dialogue with your children and use technology in a conscious and balanced way. 

Among the voices of this important panel, the French psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Serge Tisseron, international reference in the study of the relationships between development, images and technology, and author of the volume 3-6-9-12: Growing up in the age of screens, (Scholè). In his lectio Families, Technology, and AI: Educating and Managing Screens in the Digital Age, Tisseron will focus on how to educate children and young people to use screens consciously, enhancing the role of the family through rules and rituals. Following Barbara Volpi, psychologist and psychotherapist, who has been involved for years in the study of emotional relationships in the digital ecosystem, which will start from her book I asked him about Instagram. Romantic relationships in the age of social media. (Carocci Editore) to address "love vocabulary" and e-life, discussing the signs of distress and emotional dependence mediated by technology and which educational tools can help families, teachers, and children protect emotional well-being. Silvia Demozzi, full professor of General and Social Pedagogy and Philosophy of Education at the University of Bologna, will give his contribution on the topic through the panel Romantic relationships and the emotional sphere in adolescents' digital overexposure: from dating apps to AI buddies, in which she will discuss how youth affectivity and sexuality are transforming in the digital ecosystem, including social media, AI buddies, phubbing, and new educational challenges in relationships. The professor of Developmental Psychology will return to the topic of phubbing. Dolores Rollo, with the talk Parents, Screens, and Relationships: The Phenomenon of Phubbing. Still on the dangers of the digital world, during the workshop Cyberbullying: Recognizing and Countering It. A Practical Guide for Parents and Children, Luigi Cirelli, FEM media literacy, and Matteo Socciarelli They will explore with the audience what concrete actions can be taken, at home and at school, to prevent and combat cyberbullying. In the talk Families, digital, and AI: What the data tells us and how to educate for the future, Stefano Pasta, a researcher at CREMIT at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, will offer an objective perspective, based on data from the CISF Family Report 2025, on how education and communication between families and schools are changing in the digital ecosystem and with Artificial Intelligence. The researcher, an expert in sociology, will Alberto Acerbi in the talk Beyond false alarmism about digital: Assessing unjustified fears, towards conscious use It will scientifically analyze fears about digital technology, debunking recurring alarmism and proposing research-based criteria for understanding real risks and promoting critical use.

On the sidelines of the Festival, FEM launched the project Family Lab, a new model of parental engagement, to bring parenting into the digital age and the age of artificial intelligence. Tested in Modena, Family Lab will be extended throughout Italy.

 

EXPERIENCE AND LEARNING SHOW

There will be various events in the Festival spaces digital education experience, starting from BlurM3Not, an interactive Data Gamification installation to uncover the dark phenomena of the web Conceived in collaboration with Sheldon.studio and born from the encounter between the rigor of scientific research and the creativity of interactive design, it is a visual representation of scientific data from the CNR related to phenomena of contemporary digital culture such as phubbing, lootboxing, and ghosting. The installation, exhibited in the room at Largo Porta Sant'Agostino 230, represents an experience that the public can touch, explore, and play, and will be presented during the panel that brings together the voices of Sonia Cerrai, biologist and epidemiologist of the CNR, e Matteo Moretti, designer and co-founder of Sheldon.studio, who will delve into the creative context, providing the public with the keys to understanding it and experiencing it in a conscious and participatory way during the Learning More Festival. 

In continuity with the Data Gamification Experience, the Festival also offers a’audiovisual and narrative experience, conceived as a moment of collective viewing, listening and reflection. Saturday 21st at 11:45 am at the Cinema Arena the documentary will be screened The Energy of Creation: A Documentary on the Value of Work, produced by INAZ and curated by Linda Orsola Gilli, president and CEO of INAZ, under the direction of James Gatti. It will be a journey through twenty-two exemplary realities to describe human labor as a creative act and generative force, analyzing the role of science, error, community, and regeneration in the production of value and innovation.

The documentary will be preceded by Future of Work, a public meeting with over 300 students from Modena and the province on the future of work and skills, with important representatives of companies involved in the Festival. 

He will also be present at the Cinema Arena Pinxit Experience: Art in Gigapixels, an immersive journey into art; an interactive, multidisciplinary experience bridging art and design, starting with HaltaDefinizione's unique gigapixel images and immersive lessons using Pinxit technology.

They are also planned two learning shows: the first, Saturday 21st at the Storchi Theatre, with Richard Galliano and theModena and Brescia Mandolin Orchestra after two days of training during the Festival; on Sunday 22nd an experimental AI-based sound design event in collaboration with the Conservatory of Modena at the Cinema Arena.