‘While there are many opportunities arising from digital transformation, the biggest risk today is of a society ill-prepared for the future. If education is to be the backbone of growth and inclusion in the EU, a key task is preparing citizens to make the most of the opportunities and meet the challenges of a fast-moving, globalised and interconnected world’. (COM/2018) The 2018 renewed Key Competences Framework for LLL give higher prominence to civic competences highlighting the role of citizenship, democratic values and human rights in today's increasingly connected global society. In doing so the EU, recognises the importance of empowering individuals to act as responsible, active citizens able to contribute to peaceful, tolerant, inclusive and secure societies. In the above context, digital competences are equally referred as essential for the integration of students in the labour market. Although in recent years, MS were urging for bridging the ‘digital gap’ between education and the labour market, since 2015 the emphasis has actually transferred to support students to participate safely, effectively, critically and responsibly in a world filled with social media and digital technologies which create constantly changing demands, risks and challenges. Digital advances have brought new challenges for Europe’s pupils, students and teachers. Algorithms used by social media sites and news portals can be powerful amplifiers of bias or fake news, while data privacy has become a key concern in the digital society. EU citizens, but above all young students are vulnerable to cyber bullying and harassment, predatory behaviour or disturbing online content. Everyday exposure to digital data driven largely by inscrutable algorithms creates clear risks and requires more than ever critical thinking and the ability to engage positively and competently in the digital environment. In the above context, the project comes to promote: - Development of relevant and high quality skills and competences which are not often included in formal education, although evidence suggests that they are really needed as 44% of Europeans lack basic digital skills and digital wellbeing is threatened by misinformation, cyberbullying and data privacy issues (European Commission's "Digital Skills Gap in Europe" report, 2017). - Open education and innovative practices in the digital era by offering open and free access to the tools to be developed both for participation in the MeLDE programme and for online assessment and validation of the skills acquired. - Strengthen the profiles of teachers through the professional development course to be developed, the educational pack to be created to support teaching and learning of digital media skills. This will also be achieved through the introduction of evidence based data, benchmarks and indicators inbuilt in the framework to be developed and constant monitoring procedures for ensuring acquisition of competences and skills. In addition, quality youth work is promote through the new interactive material, as well as the assessment tool which will follow students' progress. The consortium comprises 5 organisations representing a wide range of background and expertise coming from 4 different European Countries. They aim to produce a FRAMEWORK to map out the approaches in schools related to the promotion of media literacy skills for digitial citizenship, an ePLATFORM with accompanying assessment tool to measure media literacy skills acquired; a TOOL BANK of resources and teaching materials, an ACADEMY of teacher training materials, and a TOOLKIT to guide teachers to implement the ePLATFORM and resources in their schools.
‘While there are many opportunities arising from digital transformation, the biggest risk today is of a society ill-prepared for the future. If education is to be the backbone of growth and inclusion in the EU, a key task is preparing citizens to make the most of the opportunities and meet the challenges of a fast-moving, globalised and interconnected world’. (COM/2018) Digital advances have brought new challenges for Europe’s pupils, students and teachers. Algorithms used by social media sites and news portals can be powerful amplifiers of bias or fake news, while data privacy has become a key concern in the digital society. EU citizens, but above all young students are vulnerable to cyber bullying and harassment, predatory behaviour or disturbing online content. Everyday exposure to digital data driven largely by inscrutable algorithms creates clear risks and requires more than ever critical thinking and the ability to engage positively and competently in the digital environment. These issues have been brought even more to the fore by the move to online teaching brought about by the global Covid pandemic. In the above context, the MeLDE project, which started in 2018 and completed in 2021, sought to - Identify, through wide-ranging research, the key digital skills gaps amongst secondary school teachers and students in the target countries of UK, Cyprus, Germany and Greece; - Map professional development opportunities and online resources to support digital literacy in key topics; - Create educational resources (including web-lectures, ebooks, as well as lesson plans and handouts for use with students) in online courses for teachers to strengthen teachers’ digital skills and professional profiles; - Offer open education and innovative practice in the digital era by providing open and free access to the educational tools and materials developed by the MeLDE programme with online assessment and validation of the skill acquired through the option of earning Open Badges; - Strengthen the digital skills and competences amongst secondary school students through the upskilling of their teachers. To this end the MeLDE consortium has produced a FRAMEWORK mapping out the approaches in schools related to the promotion of media literacy skills for digitial citizenship, an ePLATFORM with accompanying assessment tool to measure media literacy skills acquired; a TOOL BANK of resources and teaching materials, an ACADEMY of teacher training materials, and a TOOLKIT to guide teachers to implement the MeLDE skills in their schools. The MeLDE skills cover 17 topics (including social media and classroom collaboration platforms, fake news, managing digital identity, cyberbullying, creating compelling digital content for educational purposes, digital copyright, distance learning, self-promotion, and digital citizenship ) within 4 online modules: 1. Digital Teaching & Learning Skills 2. Online Communication & Collaboration 3. Digital Content Creation and 4. E-Safety The consortium has developed the educational materials within each Module as well as the teacher TOOLKIT in English, Greek and German thereby extending the reach of the project. The materials have been reviewed by experts and piloted by teachers. Feedback has been constructive and positive with an estimated 8000 people having been reached directly or indirectly through project activities at the end of the three year project. This number is set to grow as the MeLDE materials are adopted by more teachers and schools. A follow-on project DigiTEAL examining the lesson learnt by the move to online teaching necessitated by the Covid pandemic is already underway. The MeLDE consortium comprises 5 organisations representing a wide range of background and expertise coming from 4 different European Countries.