Digital Teaching Literacy Erasmus Project

Project Title

Digital Teaching Literacy

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Partnerships for Digital Education Readiness

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills; Open and distance learning; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

In March 2020, COVID-19 took the world by surprise, and citizens were forced into a global lockdown with almost no time to prepare, and with no precedent in recent years. Schools moved immediately to online teaching for the duration of the lockdown, and in some countries teachers are offering both in-person and online learning, to support pupils who still have to quarantine.

Having rushed to transfer their teaching online when the spring 2020 lockdown started, teachers across the world have continued to teach under immense pressure. As key workers, teachers have hardly had a chance to take a breath, let alone spend time retraining or developing skills to help with the move to online teaching.

DigiTeaL therefore has four objectives:
• Identify training needs and gaps around teachers’ online teaching capability in the partner countries.
• Create a practical, step-by-step resource that guides teachers through the technical elements of setting up safe online teaching, using identified best practice, and giving them confidence if they have mainly focused on face-to-face teaching in the past.
• Inform teachers about the non-technical classroom management issues associated with online teaching, and provide solutions.
• Make teachers aware of an internationally recognised online assessment system that they can adapt for their students in any subject.

These objectives will be reached through the production of 4 intellectual outputs:
• IO1 – new survey to expand the existing MeLDE framework for teacher digital preparation, specifically around blended learning and online teaching technology.
• IO2 – User guide of the process teachers would need to follow in order to set up an Open Badge for online assessment that can give pupils a recognised and transferrable qualification.
• IO3 – Guidelines and best practice for transforming planned face-to-face teaching into online events (e.g. technological, practical tips, synchronous and asynchronous content creation, breaking up weekly content). This will include information on online safety (e.g. how to prevent online teaching events from being hacked or disrupted)
• IO4 – Recommendations for reducing the challenges of digital teaching for both teachers and students (e.g. looking at more cultural and psychological elements compared to IO3 e.g. online meeting fatigue, maintaining motivation and enhancing student engagement in a digital environment).

They respond directly to the issue of digital preparedness and COVID-19, in that they focus on:
• activities to support learners, teachers and trainers in adapting to online/ distance learning;
• activities to teach and promote safer and more responsible use of digital technology.

The direct target groups addressed by this project are:
• schoolteachers – the main beneficiaries of the objectives and outputs mentioned above;
• pupils – who will benefit from teachers using best practice in online teaching.

Indirect target groups include:
• schools managers and administrators;
• teachers from other fields (e.g. HE, adult education, VET);
• learners from other fields;
• local councils and ministries of education;
• other policyholders in the field of education.

The project will be managed using the Waterfall methodology, which works well with strategic partnerships that have the budget and outputs agreed from the very beginning.

This project addresses the need to gather the best practice discovered under stress during the spring 2020 lockdown, as well as through ongoing online teaching. It further addresses the need for teachers to have quick, practical and clear resources that they can use at their convenience, and without taking time from everything else they are involved in.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 180815 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSITY OF WOLVERHAMPTON & Country: UK

Project Partners

• Arbeitskreis Ostviertel e.V.
• A & A Emphasys Interactive Solutions Ltd
• UNIVERSITATEA DIN BUCURESTI
• NATIONAL CENTER FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH “DEMOKRITOS”