Digital Food Education aims to enable teachers to access online training and support in delivering food education in a post-Covid digital arena. Following the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic, lockdown and social distancing measures, our project partners in Austria, Czech Republic, Slovenia and the UK have had to respond quickly to the change to new digital approaches, and offer support to schools and teachers in this transition. Coronavirus has prevented physical training courses from taking place and we have the challenge of redesigning training systems to meet the sudden shift to online training and distance learning. There is increased demand to meet the needs of teachers and stakeholders, supporting them to develop digital competences and access inclusive online and blended learning. Although we were already noticing a greater interest in online training, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the need for the digital transformation of our training systems. As education and training organisations, we are keen to work together transnationally to develop digital tools for food education training. Our project aims to: 1. Support teachers in adapting to online training and education Providing support and activities for learners, teachers and trainers in adapting to online/ distance learning. For many teachers and trainers it has been difficult to adjust to working online, and we are keen to improve their competence with engaging and user-friendly digital options for gaining the learning support and training they require. We aim to give useful advice on how to best use the technology available; top-tips on digital platform etiquette, how to create user-generated films and social media content, together with templates and best practice examples of webinars and online lessons. 2. Provide digital food education training resources Developing blended training, learning and teaching activities using digital tools and methods to deliver quality and inclusive food education through online/virtual means. We envisage this being a combination of online-training modules, webinars, podcasts, films and 121 sessions to offer teachers the support this need. A personal approach is most effective, so virtual conference calls sessions can replace a visit to the school, and then lead to online training platforms for more in-depth training and resources 3. Demonstrate innovation and best practice We will develop and signpost activities to help teachers understand how best to incorporate digital online technology into subject-specific teaching, training and learning. This will include demonstrating good practice case studies in using digital technology for student learning in class - for example a virtual farm visit via FaceTiming a farmer, or virtual cookalong sessions to help with food education sessions. Our Digital Food Education training portal will be an open educational resource, enabling schools with partner networks, participating countries and more widely within the EU access online training and learning resources in food education.
Our project aimed to achieve the following: 1. Support teachers in adapting to online training and education We were keen to improve the competences of teachers on how to best use the digital technology available 2. Provide digital food education training resources We wanted to develop blended learning using practical activities and digital tools to enhance food education for pupils. Providing a combination of online-training modules, films and example sessions to offer teachers the support they need. 3. Demonstrate innovation and best practice We wanted to trial ideas with a partner school to demonstrate how to incorporate digital online technology into teaching and provide case studies incorporating digital technology in class - for example a virtual farm visit or recording a cooking session to help with food education. 4. Share our ideas widely Through our Digital Food Education training portal as an open educational resource, enabling schools throughout the EU to access online training and learning resources in food education.
Our Digital Food Education aimed to enable teachers to access online training and support in delivering food education in a post-Covid digital world. Following the pandemic lockdown, our project partners had to respond quickly to the change to new digital approaches, and offer support to teachers in this transition. Covid prevented physical training and we had to redesign systems to meet the shift to online and distance learning. This shift has persisted since the pandemic and is probably here to stay. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the need for the digital transformation of our training systems and the need to develop digital tools for food education training. Pupils are born into a digital age and teachers have to learn new digital skills to ensure that education keeps pace with technological advances. There is increased demand to support teachers to develop digital competences to deliver blended learning. We were therefore keen to rethink food education, using the digital tools at our disposal that have become mainstream since the pandemic. Livestream visits to interesting food producers, online lessons with cooks and exchanges with other schools can really enrich the classroom experience using modern technology.