Mobile entertainement company Buongiorno has announced that it has signed up to the TeachToday programme, a pan-European educational initiative to help teachers encourage children and young people to use the Internet and mobile in a responsible way.
TeachToday is the result of a partnership among 14 leading mobile operators, mobile content, social networking companies and Internet service providers. The initiative was launched in Brussels on 23 April in the presence of Commissioner Viviane Reding and with the participation of Buongiorno CEO, Andrea Casalini.
The growth of mobile usage among children is enabling them to access mobile content at a very young age. For this reason, Buongiorno says it is proud to work with European Schoolnet and 13 leading industry partners in educating children on how to use this powerful device and technology to have fun and communicate in a safe and responsible way.
As market leaders, we must take responsibility for the impact of our activities on our youngest customers, says Casalini.
Available in English, Czech, French, German, Italian and Spanish, the TeachToday website provides teachers with a wealth of information. This includes lesson plans, case studies, reporting procedures, as well as outline policies which are designed to keep them abreast of changes in communication technology. The website facilitates teachers to guide their pupils to take advantage of the opportunities and avoid the risks of new technology.
Buongiorno notes that new technologies bring huge benefits to children and young people, but issues such as online safety, cyber-bullying, and privacy are of major concern.
Teachers are telling us they want to have the know-how to deal with these issues in the classroom, and TeachToday will help them to make sense of technology, says Marc Durando, Executive Director of European Schoolnet.   
The industry consortium worked closely with European Schoolnet, a network of 28 Ministries of Education across Europe, to create the materials and ensure that teachers were consulted throughout the development of the site.
Participating companies are AOL, BEBO, Buongiorno, Deutsche Telekom /T-Mobile, Facebook, Google, GSMA Europe, Microsoft, MySpace, Orange, 02/Telefonica, Telecom Italia, Vodafone and Yahoo! Europe.