Due to the change to a digital knowledge society together with further social changes a systematic anchoring of learning with and about media is to be constituted as a future task in the education system. According to the KMK, learning in the context of increasing digitization and critical reflection will be an integral part of the educational task of schools in the future. The main focus of the schools' education and training program is to prepare pupils adequately for their lives in the present and future society, and to enable them to participate actively and responsibly in cultural, social, political, professional and economic life. Thus social and economic change processes, such as digitization and new requirements, have to be addressed. Learning no longer happens exclusively in the classroom. Web 2.0 leads to a change in the teacher's role. The teacher turns into a learning companion and learning consultant. In addition to the change of roles, comprehensive knowledge in methodology and didactics is also necessary. Addressing lifelong learning is an important task for teachers to meet the change processes of society and school in gerneral. The teacher thus becomes a change agent, e.g. in dealing with Open Educational Resources (free teaching and learning materials, OER for short) and the responsible use of digital media. There is a clear discrepancy between the existing media pedagogic competences of teachers and the educational policy as well as the (training) practice. Studies show that the acquisition of individual aspects of media pedagogical competence are essentially the result of teachers' self-study, and further education. In addition tho this the assessment of media pedagogical abilities of active teachers show clearly the need for development requirements. The DiGiTeachEUrope project anchors innovative digital forms of learning in European schools to ensure and improve the quality of teaching by integrating the potentials of digital media. The partnership consists of the Learning Lab, affiliated with the University of Duisburg-Essen and the Ludwig-Windhorst-Haus in Lingen as a consortium partner with many years of experience in the organization of teacher training courses and European schools. The common goal is the development of suitable materials, tools, apps and links on a learning platform, which are combined into a TeachKit and made freely available to the public at the end of the project as open educational materials (OER). This TeachKit should enable teachers in Europe to support their students in developing communication skills, creativity and critical thinking. The focus is on the target group of teachers. It is only through the increase in the teaching experience that the dissemination of media expertise and motivation becomes possible with digital learning contents. Schools and parents also benefit from European networking and best practice exchange. In addition to the exchange / modification of well-tested teaching materials, scientific, methodological and didactic input is to be given constantly in order to provide the participants of the project with a broad basis of arguments and information that is necessary for the implementation at the schools. Project groups are defined at the first meeting. The project group "Digital Media" includes media-embedding topics, which deal with all variants of the use of technical media for teaching and learning purposes in schools. The project group "Effective Teaching and Learning" deals with the principles of more effective teaching and learning in schools (see project timetable for details). To facilitate on-the-spot learning, the project meetings take place transnationally. From the existing European know-how, all participants can learn which approaches and methods enrich teaching and learning in times of digitization. According to the heterogeneity of the group, there is a permanent exchange between the meetings, which is reflected in the project structure. In addition, this increases the sensitivity of the local teachers and the participants have the opportunity to involve regional experts, thereby increasing the group's exchange and implementation at the schools. By having 3-4 people participate per institution, the implementation at the school is also facilitated, as project participants can support each other. An important preparatory measure is training for the moderator activity.
In the school sector, the transformation to a digital knowledge society and other social changes mean that learning with and via media must be systematically anchored as a task for the future. The educational mission of schools is essentially to prepare students adequately for life in current and future society and to enable them to participate actively and responsibly in cultural, social, political, professional and economic life. In doing so, social and economic change processes, such as digitization and new requirements, are addressed. Learning no longer takes place exclusively in the classroom. Web 2.0 also leads to a change in the role of teachers: The teacher is increasingly becoming a learning guide and learning advisor. In addition to changing roles, comprehensive knowledge of methodology and didactics is also required: Lifelong learning is also becoming an important task for teachers in order to cope with the change processes in society and schools. There is a clear discrepancy between the existing media-pedagogical competences of teachers and the educational policy demands and (training) practice. Studies show that the acquisition of individual aspects of media-pedagogical competence takes place mainly within the framework of self-study and less in the form of further education and training. The assessment of active teachers' own media-pedagogical skills also shows a clear need for development. The DiGiTeachEUrope project anchors innovative digital forms of learning in European schools in order to ensure and improve the quality of teaching by integrating the potential of digital media. The partnership is made up of the Querenburg Institute affiliated with the University of Bochum, the schools in Dülken, Split, Kavadarci and Sierakowicach and the Ludwig-Windhorst-Haus in Lingen as the applicant, which has many years of experience in organizing teacher training. The common goal was the preparation of tools and apps suitable for teaching purposes, which are available to the public as open educational materials (OER) in the form of a website (https://www.digiteacheurope.eu/). The target group was therefore primarily the group of teachers. Only by increasing the expertise of teachers will it be possible to pass on media expertise and motivation to students to deal with digital learning content. This was made very clear during the homeschooling because of Covid-19: all project participants benefited from the comprehensive knowledge acquired in the project. In addition to the exchange, scientific, methodological and didactic input was repeatedly provided in order to give the participants a broad basis of argumentation and information necessary for implementation in schools. For this purpose, knowledge of adult didactics was also conveyed. These insights were used to communicate the project contents to colleagues. Work packages were defined and visualized at the first project meeting. Two large topic areas form the content-related discussion: "Digital Media", which includes media-didactic topics dealing with all variants of the use of technical media for teaching and learning purposes in schools, and "Effective Teaching and Learning", which deals with the principles of more effective teaching and learning in schools. In order to enable learning on site, the project meetings took place transnationally. All participants were able to learn from the existing European know-how so that they could learn which approaches and methods enrich teaching and learning in times of digitalization. According to the heterogeneity of the group, a permanent exchange between the meetings on the platform SLACK took place, which is reflected in the project structure and was helpful in the time of the pandemic (short-term project redirection, transfer of new findings among each other, etc.). By inviting the project members to all schools, the sensitivity of the local teachers was increased and the participants had the opportunity to involve regional experts, thus increasing the exchange within the group and the implementation at the school. Per institution 3-4 actors participated, which also facilitated the implementation at the school, as the project participants could support each other. Due to the Corona pandemic one learning activities and one transnational project meeting had to be cancelled. Nevertheless, the project members were well prepared for digital teaching and were able to pass on their expertise to colleagues.