Envisioning sustainable 6G smart schools with children, by children is a seed-funded initiative from the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture. The project aims to understand and create models for new forms of pedagogy and participatory engagement with novel technology to promote digital citizenship among young learners in education context in India.

What would a sustainable 6G smart school designed with children, by children look like? How can new forms of pedagogy and participatory engagement with AI promote critical, playful and inclusive digital citizenship among young learners? How can smart schools, with smart sensors, IoTs, AI and robots be sustainably designed for rural areas? The project explores these questions through a transnational collaboration between Finnish and Indian research partners.

The project is implemented by Associate Professor Marianne Kinnula (PI), Professor Netta Iivari and postdoctoral researcher Sumita Sharma in INTERACT Research Unit, Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering as part of the 6G Flagship work.

The primary demographic for impact is young learners along with educators and institutional administrators, to influence the overall ecology of learning and civic engagement in their communities. Outcomes will inform recommendations for best practices, novel curricula, and scaled-up programs, envisioning what 6G can bring to the sustainable smart schools of the 21st century.

Envisioning Sustainable 6G Smart Schools with Children, by Children  is seed-funded as part of the India Pilot initiative from the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture. Aalto is coordinating the India Pilot Network FICORE (Finnish Indian Consortia for Research and Education) which involves 38 higher education institutions from Finland and India.