Now at school there is a door, inside everything is bigger, there is a space without limits, there is a different time

The experimentation of an online school listening desk created to respond to the Covid19 emergency in the 2019-2020 school year showed us how the use of the most innovative technologies has made it possible to maintain school and relational continuity.

After such an exceptional life experience, we thought it was necessary to reflect on the meaning and methods of consultation services in schools, not being able to think of a return “as before” not only for reasons of health security, but also to preserve new ways of “being together” and “thinking together” experienced in these months.

We therefore thought of creating an ICC service (Information and Consultancy Center better known as a listening desk) exclusively online, exploiting the potential that the use of digital technologies showed during the Covid-19 emergency.

The idea is to transform what was previously a “listening space” into a “listening time”, focusing on the relationship with users regardless of where they are. In fact, offering an online service allows you to follow a more flexible and dynamic intervention model that overcomes obstacles of a health nature (conditions of the individual or the population), cultural (stigma with respect to access to a psychological listening service), environmental (schools in difficult territories) or organizational (spaces used for the service, travel costs).

Through digital communication, which uses young people’s languages, we aim to stimulate students to take a more active role, greater participation in school social life, overcoming the barriers that limit requests for help.

The idea is also to enhance accessibility by parental figures with the online system to strengthen their dialogue with the school world.

The level of accessibility and economic sustainability of online projects, with the same service offered, is advantageous because it is not necessary to physically move the operators with a consequent reduction in the budget required for the intervention. It is also possible to collaborate with highly trained experts similar to what already happens for telemedicine, thus favoring team work. No less important is the lower ecological impact of remote work, from the viewpoint of a changing world that pays greater attention to the environment.

What happens when something unexpected and overwhelming turns into a new possibility? (the ICC in the time of the coronavirus – part 2)

Maria Giubettini

Thanks to Ray Williams for the translation of this article.