The 2016 ‘Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition’ announced as part of the ten key initiatives proposed, reinforces the need of all to help meet the high demand for digital skills in Europe which are essential in today's job market and society. Europe is lacking digitally skilled persons to fill job vacancies in all sectors, missing out on up to 750,000 Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) professional jobs by 2020. Yet unemployment among young people of 15-24 year olds is at almost 20% in the EU. The digital revolution is boosting demand for digital skills and competences, thus requiring investment in infrastructure, organisational change, digital devices and digital competences of educators, and the creation of digital (and open) educational resources and high quality educational software. Education and training should reap the benefits of new ICT developments and adopt innovative and active pedagogies. Learning can't anymore be confined to specific classroom and timetables but take full advantage of technology to break boundaries. The above have been reaffirmed in the 2016 Council’s Communication (COM(2016)381) on ‘A New Skills Agenda for an Inclusive and Competitive Europe’ which reflects a common vision about the role of skills for jobs, growth and competitiveness to secure jobs and enable people to fulfill their potential. In a fast-changing global economy, they determine competitiveness and the capacity to drive innovation. Most important though Europe needs digitally smart young people who are not only able to use but also to innovate and lead in using these technologies. Research has shown that “teachers are the most important in-school factor affecting students’ outcomes” (TALIS'13). This has been emphasised in the EC 2012 Com. titled “Rethinking Education in which trainers and teachers are set as one of its priorities, since they have an important influence on ensuring that students develop the skills and competences demanded by a rapidly changing labour market. The GODIGITAL project comes to promote the above as it aims to design, develop, pilot-test and evaluate a complete tool kit to support primary schools to develop their schools digital development plan in order to upgrade the digital competences of the teachers and as a consequence the digital literacy of the students. It aims to produce 6 Intellectual Outputs which will pilot-tested and reviewed in order to ensure efficiency and effectiveness. The project aims mainly: to develop, implement and evaluate a COMPLETE TOOL KIT which will support primary school teachers to design their DIGITAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN for upgrading current teaching and learning opportunities, through the use of mobile learning and technology (i.e. interactive board, mobile devices etc.), as well as and e-tools (i.e. DOJO, EDMONTO, CODEDOJO) in ensuring better learning outcomes, enabling communication, participation and social inclusion of all children. The direct target group of Primary School Teachers who will upgrade their digital competences and use of technology in their teaching methods. The indirect group of primary students who will benefit from digitally literate teachers. The implementation of the project at a transnational level is essential, therefore the consortium contain 6 partners from 5 different countries.. There is geographical representation, as well as a mixture of expertise and experiences. The above project could not be achieved without the exchange of information, identification of good practices and complementarity of expertise. Students will be involved in the whole process, as several activities will be implemented in the classroom.
The digital revolution is boosting demand for digital skills and competences, thus requiring investment in infrastructure, organisational change, digital devices and digital competences of educators, and the creation of digital (and open) educational resources and high quality educational software. Education and training should reap the benefits of new ICT developments and adopt innovative and active pedagogies. Learning can't anymore be confined to specific classroom and timetables but take full advantage of technology to break boundaries. The GODIGITAL project came to promote the above as it aimed to design, develop, pilot-test and evaluate a complete tool kit to support primary schools to develop their schools digital development plan in order to upgrade the digital competences of the teachers and as a consequence the digital literacy of the students. It aims to produce 6 Intellectual Outputs which were pilot-tested and reviewed in order to ensure efficiency and effectiveness. The project aimed: - to design a complete TOOL KIT that assisted teachers to upgrade their digital skills and to assist schools to develop digitally oriented strategies and plans. - to develop the Digital Competence Framework with benchmarks and indicators against which teachers’ practices, knowledge and skills will be assessed and validated through an assessment system to be designed based on the use of the Open Badge and e- Portfolios as a way to introduce transparency, visibility, transferability and validity for the new digital skills acquired. - to deliver a professional development programme for teachers to be offered both on-line and school-based, accompanied with an Educational Pack with adequate teaching material to support their teaching. The above enabled primary school teachers and schools: - to contribute towards the achievement of the targets of the ET 2020, the Digital Agenda, the e-Skills for Jobs Campaign while meeting the needs of contemporary education - to provide upgrading opportunities for teachers, in order to empower them to deal with the challenges of new digital technologies, provide quality education and potentially support students for better learning outcomes and equip them with essential skills to bridge the gap between education and the world of work. Project intellectual outputs completed: IO1 - GoDIGITAL Competence Framework for primary schools IO2 - GoDIGITAL: The assessment and validation process for digitally literate teachers and schools through the use of Open Badges and e-Portfolios IO3 - GoDIGITAL Educational Pack for Teaching and Implementation IO4 - GoDIGITAL Learning and Management Platform -IO5-Go DIGITAL From theory to practice: Implementation and evaluation -IO6-GODIGITAL PACK for strategic exploitation and endorsement in Primary Schools - Declaration- Memorandum of Commitment for Digital Literacy in Schools Set of webinars were prepared by leader of the project (SAN) about methods and tools of using new technology in teaching in primary schools. C1 and C2 training were conducted in the timelife of the project. All planned multiplayer events were organised by partners. MEs were aimed at informing target group about project results and activities. Final conference was held online on 22th of September with big success. The direct target group of Primary School Teachers who upgraded their digital competences and used of technology in their teaching methods. The indirect group of primary students who benefited from digitally literate teachers. The implementation of the project at a transnational level is essential, therefore the consortium contained 6 partners from 5 different countries.. There is geographical representation, as well as a mixture of expertise and experiences.