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The Institute of Advanced Studies (IEA-USP), in partnership with the Agence Universitaire de La Francophonie, as funding for pedagogical innovation, launched UAIFAI (Open Universes for Imagination, Fantasy, and the Arts of Invention), a collaborative social network open to faculty, researchers, graduate students, and other interested individuals, aimed at promoting research projects focused on innovation. The project is detailed by its coordinator, professor Gilson Schwartz, from USP’s School of Communications and Arts and the Institute of Advanced Studies (IEA-USP).

For the professor, the platform has emerged as a safe alternative in the midst of the rapid process of modernization and technological expansion. “As every freedom has to come with responsibility, mediation is fundamental, and the network has emerged to offer more opportunities for constructive, responsible, and, above all, creative use because we often enter social media and end up fitting into models of posting content or forming groups and we think it needs to be renewed,” explained the professor, who is also a columnist for Rádio USP.

The project will offer grants to important projects, one of which is Quilombo Inteligente, a pedagogical innovation project with the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie, which aims to merge racial issues with greater technological accessibility. “We thought of combining the issue of black identity with the issue of artificial intelligence. How does artificial intelligence reach the poorest communities in the country with the highest levels of exclusion and violence? How does the Internet reach these communities? What opportunities are black children, youngsters, and teenagers actually having access to in order to overcome a delay, including from an educational point of view, which has been accentuated during the pandemic?”

School participation

UAIFAI will directly involve schools and educational institutions through the creation of new projects, which will encourage students to participate actively in the platform—after all, according to the professor, “we will have projects created by teachers because no one other than the teacher is better at talking to students, at talking to the school community, including families.”

Schwarz emphasizes the importance of a new pedagogical approach under the new technological perspective, especially the gaming culture, which is so present in the daily lives of young people and teenagers. “It is crucial to bring in the culture of electronics, video games, and games. So, we have ideas that are already formatted and will be implemented, such as games aimed at sex education for boys and girls. This idea came from the teachers, with games linked to the language of ecology, the language of the environment,” the coordinator explained.

The project selection project has already begun with a group of around 40 professors working with the Institute of Advanced Studies to produce projects that can be implemented on the platform. For the coordinator, the main point of the project is interdisciplinarity and the contribution of all those involved in achieving its final result. More information about the project, such as a link to registration and public notices, is available on the website of USP’s Institute of Advanced Studies.

English version: Nexus Traduções