The following institutions will participate in the planned Erasmus+ project "Digital Competences in Teacher Education" (DiCoTe): Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (Germany), University of Tartu (Estonia) and University of Graz (Austria). All project partners have identified digitisation as a major challenge for all actors in the education system. Especially in the area of school, educational processes must be aligned in such a way that pupils are prepared for a self-determined and responsible life in a digital world. The project DiCoTe focuses on the European exchange of good practice in the area of digitisation in teacher education. The main task of all institutions is to prepare future teachers for the new and changed challenges posed by the digital transformation. Digital media change learning and teaching. The structures of teaching known to teacher students from their own experience are being reassessed and changed. The role of the teacher is also subject to change. The teacher training programme has to meet this new requirement profile and, consequently, be adapted to the changed conditions. The project partners contribute very different experiences in approaching these new challenges and the exchange of good practice between the partner institutions is being sought, as they already have extensive experience and exemplary expertise in the respective field. Despite different levels of research and development status of the respective university, all project partners are faced with the challenge of finding answers to the question: What are the characteristics of good university teacher training in order to prepare graduates in the best possible way for the design of new educational processes under the conditions of digitality? In order to pursue this question and to determine success factors for successful teacher training, the following topics are examined in coordination with the different strengths and needs of the partners: the basic and additional services needed for the digital competence development of student teachers, inclusion of lecturers for media didactics and technical support in the context of teacher training, necessary curricular adaptations that support innovative teaching-learning concepts and links between theory and school practice. For each of these areas, team members can contribute with best practice examples and thus contribute his or her experience in an exemplary manner. The meetings do not only allow for theoretical exchange, but are always accompanied by school visits that illustrate the theory-practice link. The main objective of the project DiCoTe is to compare the core task of teachers - the targeted and scientifically based planning, organisation and reflection of teaching and learning processes as well as their individual assessment and systemic evaluation - with regard to implementation of digital approaches in teacher training in the educational systems of the participating partners and to reflect their effectiveness under different conditions. This exchange will result teaching scenarios that illustrate how each university builds up digital literacy of student teachers and develop new teaching and learning scenarios at the respective universities. Furthermore, derivations of scenarios which are identified as the key features for a successful transfer into practice of their own university and teaching scenarios to support the diversity, autonomy and participation of the students. The project is intended to focus on the exchange of experiences of the actors mutual exchange. Furthermore, the partners want to make their shared experiences and examples available to teachers internationally and will therefore document the project work transparently and publish the results as an OER (Open Educational Resources).
The main objective of this project was to build insights and competences on how to best support and promote digital competence development of student teachers in all three countries. Based on an exchange of experience between the participating universities on the topic of digitisation, the aim was to develop university teaching and thus sharpen our own understanding of how the implementation of digital media in teacher education can be successful. To this end, the pedagogical foundations of digital media use were addressed in great depth. It was of great interest to exchange experiences on how technology is used in schools (focus in Estonia), how innovation research on teaching and learning as well as the digital transformation in teacher education (focus in Austria) is organized and carried out, and how reflective engagement with the topic (focus in Germany) can be accomplished.
For all three university project partners it was clear from the beginning that advancing practices and insights in the area of digitalisation of teacher education at the university level would only succeed at a high level if it was carried out in direct exchange with European colleagues. The main motivation was to network with experts, exchange thoughts and to share ideas, experiences and materials. In the exchange, insights were to be gained on how introductory and higher level courses can be designed differently within university teacher training, how the integration of lecturers for media didactics and technical support can succeed, what curricular adaptations are needed that support innovative teaching-learning concepts and how the linking of theory and school practice can be achieved in the process. There was great interest not only in the exchange of best-practice-examples at university, it was of high relevance to visit schools in each partner country. The school visits provided important insights into the state of implemented digitisation and the handling of didactic concepts after the pandemic.