Carlo Mazzone: Growing a Digital Community from the Sannio Valley

Education has always been part of the air I breathed since I was a child. I come from a family deeply involved in school life. My father was a school principal, my mother and my sister are teachers, as are many other close relatives.

As someone who has always been passionate about science and technology, I had initially chosen a different path, starting with a degree in Computer Science. Over the years, however, my natural inclination toward teaching, together with the computer science skills I developed through many years of work in several important companies in the sector, helped me experiment with teaching approaches that were always current and strongly connected to the real world.

Since my first days at school in 2004, I developed a teaching method that I called vivariumware, based on the creation of simulated startups in the classroom. I have therefore oriented an important part of my teaching toward the entrepreneurial context, using it as a lever to make students passionate about the technologies I teach and as a way to make school, as much as possible, enjoyable and engaging.

EU Code Week represents this vision very well. It is not only a week dedicated to coding, but a European community that helps schools, educators, students and citizens feel part of a broader movement, one that sees a passion for coding as a tool for growth and sharing.

Initiatives such as EU Code Week play a fundamental role because they help local communities not to feel isolated, creating that so-called glocal context: from global to local and, at the same time, from local to global.

Often, in more peripheral territories or inland areas, there are energies, skills, active schools, curious young people and available professionals, but what is missing is a shared framework capable of giving visibility, vitality and connection to all this. EU Code Week offers exactly that: a European framework within which even a small local initiative can find meaning, recognition and connection.

For a reality such as Sannio Valley, this is essential. It means being able to tell the boys and girls of our territory that what we do is not marginal, not “provincial” in the reductive sense of the term.

Sannio Valley was born from a very concrete need: to create a physical and cultural place where digital skills could meet, grow and generate opportunities for the territory.

In the Sannio area, as in many inland territories, the risk is that the most talented young people see the future always and only elsewhere, often also because girls and boys are not always aware of the opportunities already present locally. In any case, moving, studying elsewhere and having international experiences are important. But it is equally important to build the conditions so that the territory is not only a place to leave from, but also a place to return to, contribute to, experiment in and create from.

Sannio Valley tries to respond to this need by bringing together schools, universities, professionals, companies, associations and young people. The Masterclasses are one of the tools through which we are trying to do this: practical, open and free meetings, designed to share real skills and to create relationships.

When we talk about artificial intelligence, the risk is often to swing between two extremes: uncritical enthusiasm and vague fear.

Practical learning helps us move beyond both. Seeing how a neural network learns, even through simple and accessible examples, makes it possible to understand that AI is not magic, but neither is it just a banal automatism. It is a set of models, data, parameters, errors, corrections and approximations. In other words, it is a powerful technology that must be understood, not just used.

This is why we chose a deliberately curious title, “What Does a Neural Network Eat?”. We wanted to bring people closer to a complex topic starting from a simple, almost playful question, but one capable of opening up a serious reflection: what do these systems feed on? Data, of course. But also human choices, goals, criteria and contexts.

I have learned once again that the only way to build something valuable is to build networks and that, therefore, digital education cannot be delegated to a single actor.

School is fundamental, but on its own it is not enough and it can sometimes risk remaining closed within its own boundaries. Universities bring research, method and depth. Professionals bring concrete experience and contact with the world of work. Companies help us understand which skills are truly needed in production and organisational processes, even if stable opportunities for dialogue with schools and universities do not always exist. Associations and local communities create trust, continuity and participation, but they need to be connected to wider networks.

Sannio Valley tries to make these worlds talk to one another, and this is where something interesting happens: technology stops being only a subject, a sector or a market, and becomes common ground. It becomes a way to imagine development, inclusion, citizenship, work and the future.

Of course, this is not simple. Bringing different actors together requires time, listening, mediation skills and careful selection. But that is precisely where the value is created.

I would say: do not wait for perfect conditions. Very often we think that, in order to begin, we need large resources, big structures and large numbers. In reality, you can start even with a small group, with your own class, in a library, in a school lab, or in a room made available by someone. In my experience, it is often difficult to involve a significant number of people right away, but starting with something small allows you to gain experience and create useful contacts in order to grow.

1. Start small. Your class, a library, a school lab, a borrowed room — that’s enough.
2. Pick a concrete, accessible topic close to the people you want to involve. A small project, a real problem, a curiosity.
3. Make it practical and interactive. Coding works best when people can use it to do, tell or solve something.
4. Don’t do it alone. Other teachers, older students, local professionals, associations, universities — and European communities like EU Code Week.
5. Promote it. Make good use of social tools so your activity enters into a relationship with a wider network.

The important thing is to choose a concrete and accessible topic, close to the people you want to involve. You do not necessarily have to start with the most complex technology. You can start from a small project, from a real problem, from a curiosity. Coding and digital skills work best when people understand that they can use them to do something, tell something, solve something.

Then I would suggest not doing it alone. Finding people in the local area is essential: other teachers, older students, local professionals, associations, universities, European communities such as EU Code Week, while also making good use of social tools to promote the initiative as much as possible. A small local activity can become much stronger when it enters into a relationship with a wider network.

— Carlo Mazzone