DIGITECH

The DIGITECH project is about the Development of dIGItal and information TECHnological competences by primary education teachers and takes place in the context of the COVID-19 crisis with the clim...

This project aims to train teachers to work with digital tools after the pandemic, building further on skills and needs developed during the pandemic. We tested and improved the developed toolkits in several existing educational programmes on sustainability, with a focus on the Energy Challenges programme. We firstly focused on facilitating discussions and evaluations of teacher’s experiences with using digital tools in the classroom. The lessons learned we used to improve and strengthen digital educational tools, make them more sustainable, future-proof, and pandemic-proof. Secondly, we are investigated how we can improve the content of our developed toolbox. To do this, we had to testing it in multiple schools executing different existing educational programmes from our international project partners. Tknika, the center promoted by the Deputy Ministry of Vocational Education and Training of the Education Department of the Basque Government, was a central supporting partner in this. Tknika is modeled after some of the world’s most advanced vocational training centers.

The duration of the project was two years. Through digital platforms, we facilitated the exchange of knowledge and monitor regular updating with blogs and vlogs. This platforms stimulate teachers to evaluate their experiences and learn from each other. By action-based research, we explored together with teachers, students and actors from outside the classroom how we the digital tools could and also how these tools serve to connect students to the outside world. In the end students together with teachers did come up with creative solutions to solve the climate crisis with the use of digital tools and skills and subsequently initiate action and mobilize actors around them through digital platforms. During the project, there where three physical, two-day gatherings. The actors from the four countries came together the Netherlands, Spain and Turkey. We have tried to travel mostly by train to contributed to the image of a Green Recovery . Unfatenately this did’nt work out very well; by train trough Spain is very time consuming. We stil stimulates the idea that flying is not necessary anymore in a digital era, so we combined the visits with other projectmeetings, as as result we used it efficiently. In these two-day gatherings, teachers’ experiences with using digital tools during the COVID-19 pandemic we evaluated and discussed. We used a design-thinking-inspired method of diverging and converging problems to come up with solutions. We co-created digital tools and methods that help to teach in an efficient and more sustainable way.

In the project, teachers learned how to adapt their teaching to the needs of the COVID-19 crisis by making optimal use of the digital tools available. The teachers of the sustainability education programs from our international partners were been trained to use digital tools to keep their students involved and enthusiastic, and to stimulate creativity in new, innovative ways. Also, the content of the developed toolbox is improved to optimally stimulate the digital skills of both teachers and students. The lessons learned on how to foster digital skills through sustainability education is disseminated in the four participating EU member states. By integrating our findings into existing educational programmes operating in both primary and secondary schools, the results of this project will remain and evolve in the future.