DISEM - Digital impulses and skills for education and management in day-care centres and schools The DISEM project stands for a practice-oriented exchange on digital impulses and competences in educational work and in the management of educational institutions for children (3-10 years), even more so by the experiences during the pandemic. The transnational exchange brings together the different national concepts and working structures on the action level of the institutions in a comparative way and pursues "the better use of digital teaching and learning technologies with special attention to the connectivity at school / the transition in schools" as well as the development of digital skills and competences of the children and the professional staff of these institutions. The objective is in line with Priority 1 of the EU's Digital Literacy Action Plan 2018-2020. DISEM is also based on the EU Council Recommendation on Quality Early Childhood Care, Education and Training (2018). In developing an EU-wide approach to defining quality services in early childhood care, education and training, the EU will focus on the exchange of experience and good practice. The current pandemic situation has driven forward national and European initiatives and measures in the field of digital literacy. It can be assumed that digital education concepts will be of greater importance in the future. The partner institutions are day-care centres / schools for children aged 3-10 years in Estonia, Denmark, the Czech Republic and Germany. In terms of content, the project deals with three thematic areas: 1. concepts and practice of digital education for children at the age of 3-10 years, 2. digital management/organisation/digital communication in the institutions, 3. and the expansion of the media competence of our specialists and employees. The work on the project tasks is mainly done digitally. For the thematic areas "digital education" and "digital management/organisation/communication", working groups are formed with experts from the partner institutions. The central communication instrument is the EPALE platform, which is set up for all project participants, including the associated partners. The topic of media competence is a cross-cutting issue that is being dealt with by both working groups. The associated partners come from the fields of higher education, training (Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences, Bethel Vocational College), education and culture (Goethe Institute Tallinn) and software development (Twigsee, Prague). They will collaborate on the digital working platform and make contributions in terms of content at individual cross-project meetings. In the area of "digital education", the institutions will present their current digital working approaches and concepts and accompany an exemplary implementation in the partner institutions. The entire project is action-oriented, the partner institutions learn from each other in practice and will review and expand their own digital education concept. Finally, the learning experiences will be described in a digital, publicly accessible project handbook and made available to interested institutions. In the second area of the project "Organisation/Management and Communication" the procedure is similar. In terms of content, the working group is working on practical experiences in the areas of IT infrastructure, equipment, legal requirements and their background, and procedures of digital process control. The experts for organisation/management/communication work together for this purpose in a working group digitally via the working platform. During the project phase, the working groups come together for one face-to-face meeting. A total of five comprehensive project meetings of all partner institutions are planned. Each institution is involved with 3 persons. The project - provides a qualitative contribution to the redefinition of digital education/work approaches in child education and training institutions. An important trigger for the redefinition is the experience of the institutions during the pandemic situation. The aim is to show in a practice-oriented way how the balance between traditional and digital education/work concepts has shifted and what positive effects result from this shift. - shows the paths taken in the EU member states. It promotes the exchange of expertise and thus shows the basis for a coordinated approach to child education in the EU. - the project gives impulses for the expansion/reorientation of educational work and organisational development in the partner institutions - makes the results available in digital form to all interested parties in a project manual and initiates a high-profile professional exchange within the respective education network
The project pursues a comparative analysis of the state of digitalisation in early childhood educational institutions in partner countries. The focus is on the identification of promoting and inhibiting factors at different levels, from the respective national education policy to municipal structures, provider-demands, the equipment of the facilities and the pedagogical concepts in the participating institutions and specialists. The aim is a science-related and unprejudiced approach to the topic. To this end, we have deliberately approached providers of early education in countries that have experience with the topic and are successfully implementing it. Estonia: known to be one of the leading European countries in terms of digitalisation; Czech Republic: many private day-care centres with high expectations from parents on issues of digitalisation; Denmark: comprehensive ministerial and school authority requirements and so we assume a social openness to digital modernization; Germany: interesting digital pilot projects initiated by individual providers/institutions in a heterogeneous daycare landscape with a high "digital" need to catch up with.
In connection with the first cases of Covid 19 extensive professional and political debates arose in Germany about the state of digitization in the education system. It became clear that, especially in the elementary sector, the digital infrastructure is not adequately taken into account, both in terms of management and the use of digital learning materials, and that in the specialists´ debates primarily possible dangers and negative effects on early childhood development predominate. The experience in other European countries should help to take a professional and future-oriented view on digital education from the perspective of the EU's agreements. In doing so, the questions of digital infrastructure (learning platforms), didactic concepts of digital educational work and digital communication and organizational issues are to be treated equally. According to our experience as a former headmaster of a vocational college (Mr. Hans) and former board member and managing director of a large youth welfare agency (Mr. Lütkemeier), there is a lot of catching up to do in many European countries. This applies in particular to the Federal Republic of Germany.