The European Good DEEDS Challenge was created to generate three long-term positive effects: 1. to bring the attention of a large audience to the issue of energy waste deriving from an uneducated use of digital technologies, and to contribute on the one hand to contrasting the dominant "magical" concept of digital that generates desirable results at zero environmental cost, and on the other to stimulate informed and virtuous behavior from the point of view of reducing the environmental footprint. 2. encourage a wide adoption by European VET schools of training activities related to emerging needs in the market prefigured by the "New Green Deal" for skills on the energy efficiency of digital systems, remote assistance in augmented reality and AI-based predictive maintenance, providing a training toolkit for teachers and innovative tools for online student training. 3. to favor the establishment of local ecosystems of socially responsible organizations that support VET educational activities of particular ethical value. The inspiration for the project comes from "The European Green Deal" [COM (2019) 640], where a new growth strategy is proposed to transform "the Union into a modern, resource efficient and competitive economy". Energy efficiency and the digital sector play a central role in this strategy. The latter by virtue of its transformative potential linked to the advent of artificial intelligences for sure, but also as a recipient of particular attention by virtue of its intense use of energy resources, which becomes increasingly clearly not sustainable. Using digital technology in 2018 led to an energy consumption 37% higher than in 2010. The exact opposite of what is generally attributed to digital technology The strategy of "The European Green Deal" considers that "it takes 25 years - a generation - to transform an industrial sector and all its value chains". Therefore, even in the field of energy efficiency and the reduction of the digital environmental footprint "it is necessary to make decisions and take action within the next 5 years" to achieve the objectives set for 2050. A scenario that requires the presence right now of professionals with both full awareness of the depth of the digital environmental footprint and the skills to design technological and behavioral processes that will contribute to its reduction. In this scenario, Good DEEDS was born with the aim of developing a methodology and a learning platform for VET teachers and students, aimed at a strategy of sustainable growth of sectorial skills on reducing the digital environmental footprint, and based on the participation in a annual international competition promoted by a European network of local partnerships between schools, businesses and institutions. This objective translates into the creation of a Knowledge Management System, a training toolkit for VET teachers and students and the "Online Good DEEDS" platform. The project adopts a circular approach to activate a self-feeding process. The creation of the Good DEEDS KMS lays the foundations for the definition of a blended training course for VET teachers and students. The teachers acquire theoretical knowledge by studying the contents of the KMS and then apply it in the construction of a training course for students in collaboration with local public and private organizations, sensitive to social responsibility on the environmental issue. Students follow a theoretical path traced by the teachers thanks to the OER available in the KMS and then apply it in the design of solutions for the energy efficiency of their institutes through activities that involve the development of innovative skills such as remote assistance in augmented reality or management of predictive maintenance systems. In this way VET schools receive direct added value from their teaching activities. Finally, the Good DEEDS Challenge requires students to become champions of their territory and to translate into OER available for all the good practices they have implemented in collaboration with their school and local networks. The competition leads to a selection of the best national and then European OER, which, after being validated by a jury of experts, are acquired within the KMS, guaranteeing constant updating and closing the circle of value. At the end of the project, the pilot’s 60 teachers acquire useful knowledge to strengthen a specific digital key competence of their 1200 students: the digital energy efficiency. Competence that contributes to improving qualifications for the world of work as it will evolve in the coming years based on the directives of the "The European Green Deal" for a Europe with zero impact on the environment.
Project objectives: • gaining expertise on energy efficiency of digital processes • growing awareness of the environmental footprint of digital services/tools and the importance of energy efficiency in partner organizations, schools, public/private facilities • increased awareness of climate change • creation of networks for open schooling • creation of a methodology to organise online training experiences on AR remote assistance and management of an organization's digital systems with a focus on energy efficiency • creation of a Knowledge Management System to support energy efficiency actions • activation of a KMS self-feeding process through the production of OERs by students • defining a professional profile and training path for the Digital Energy Efficiency Designer • training toolkit for teachers to organise training paths • definition of policies and social actions at local/national/European level promoted by schools and stakeholders involved • sustainable operating model for repeating the Good DEEDS Challenge • gathering of best practices for energy-efficient processes and digital systems in VET schools
Good DEEDs stems from two needs that are widespread in Europe and on which VET training can take action: 1. Need to overcome the cultural approach to digital as something that does not generate costs and consequences. Understanding the very nature of digital processes, energy cost, and carbon footprint impact is essential, especially in the context that the European Green Deal is driving. In addition to the direct benefits on environmental and sustainability culture, raising awareness of the energy consumption of digital services helps understand their true nature by providing an example that directly touches the daily experience of students and teachers. 2. Need for the acquisition of new skills related to professional figures that do not exist yet, but may emerge in the next future. The project envisions the professional figure of the Digital Energy Efficiency Designer, without aspiring to a complete and scientific definition. Good DEEDs promotes the integration of the skills of digital service managers in schools and small local organizations so to allow the creation of a simple plan for the energy efficiency of digital services.