During the COVID-19 pandemic, shifting rapidly to home-schooling and remote learning made it necessary for educators to adapt to new forms of teaching, new technology and new communication methods to support all their students. The consortium are aware that education will not return to its previous iteration following the pandemic and so the RAPIDE project is a response to the challenge of preparation and support for educators for digital education in a post-COVID world to ensure that all students are provided with education fit for the 21st century. The RAPIDE project is underpinned by a strong belief - in educators’ professional learning capacity, as well as a commitment to the interprofessional collaboration with learners, families and other partners in the community to strengthen educators’ craft knowledge, skills and attitudes. - that many instances of creative digital education have been developed by educators during the pandemic. Rather than starting with a blank slate, the RAPIDE project will acknowledge the innovative practice undertaken by many educators across Europe, seeking instead to surface and develop these practices further resulting in a digital resource providing not just guidance for digital practice, but resources to support changes in thinking, understanding of dilemmas and possible ways to develop solutions within digital practice. - that educators can feel vulnerable when implementing changes to their practice and that one way to support them in this endeavour is through development of co-coaching communities within which educators can find a safe space to explore and share new ideas related to digital education. Informed by pilot co-coaching communities, the project will provide a toolbox containing resources and guidance for school leaders and others to create new co-coaching communities which can be implemented to support future change in the education sector. - that readiness for digital education requires the involvement of not just educators but the wider community including students and their families, other professionals, school leaders and policymakers. The RAPIDE project will include the wider community in co-coaching communities to enrich the perspectives and shared understanding within them. Additionally, a digital resource will provide non-educators with real-life examples to illustrate the benefits and challenges of digital education. The interactive digital resource will support families and others in the ‘what and how’ of creating a suitable learning environment, both physically and psychologically so that all learners are able to achieve their learning goals with the informed support of their families. The three principal results of the RAPIDE project activity will be: - an increase in educators’ ability and confidence to provide effective and inclusive digital learning opportunities. This will include the ability to make informed choices about how various elements of learning might be most effectively achieved – through face to face, blended or online provision – making skilful choices of the most appropriate pedagogical choices for all learners in their specific context. - an increase in educators’ ability to manage change in their working practices. This will be achieved through the development of co-coaching skills and attitudes between a wide range of educational stakeholders. - an increase in the ability of the wider community including parents, carers, other family members and other interested professionals to understand and support both educators and students in digital learning contexts. Three accessible intellectual outputs will be designed to ensure that the impact of the project is sustained beyond the life of the project: o IO1 - an accessible interactive learning resource that allows educators to explore evidence-based resources so that they feel able to teach all learners in the digital environment o IO2 - an interactive online toolbox that supports engagement in multiple modes of co-coaching to strengthen educators’ ability to manage change in their working practices o IO3 - an interactive digital resource which enables the wider community to work with educators and students to support all learners in the digital environment The consortium will implement and evaluate all 3 products in collaboration with the target audience prior to final refinements both in their own working contexts and in Transnational Learning Events. The RAPIDE project will organise 4 multiplier events. These will: • stimulate dialogue around the RAPIDE project • maximise professional interaction with the outputs and • strengthen the project’s overall legacy. As a result of the project, educators from a range of contexts across Europe, will see themselves as active change-agents, rather than passive consumers of pre-prepared professional development. In this sense, they will feel motivated to invest in further developing their readiness for digital education.
The three principal objectives of the RAPIDE project activity were: - an increase in educators’ ability and confidence to provide effective and inclusive digital learning opportunities. This included the ability to make informed choices about how various elements of learning might be most effectively achieved, through face to face, blended or online provision, making skilful choices of the most appropriate pedagogical choices for all learners in their specific context. - an increase in educators’ ability to manage change in their working practices. This was achieved through the development of co-coaching skills and attitudes between a wide range of educational stakeholders. - an increase in the ability of the wider community including parents, carers, other family members and other interested professionals to understand and support both educators and students in digital learning contexts. Three accessible intellectual outputs were designed to ensure that the impact of the project is sustained beyond the life of the project: o IO1 - an accessible interactive learning resource that allows educators to explore evidence-based resources so that they feel able to teach all learners in the digital environment o IO2 - an interactive online toolbox that supports engagement in multiple modes of co-coaching to strengthen educators’ ability to manage change in their working practices o IO3 - an interactive digital resource which enables the wider community to work with educators and students to support all learners in the digital environment The consortium implemented and evaluated all 3 intellectual products in collaboration with the target audience prior to final refinements both in their own working contexts and in Transnational Learning Events. The RAPIDE project organised 4 multiplier events. These provided opportunities to • stimulate dialogue around the RAPIDE project • maximise professional interaction with the outputs and • strengthen the project’s overall legacy. As a result of the project, educators from a range of contexts across Europe, can now see themselves as active change-agents, rather than passive consumers of pre-prepared professional development. In this sense, they are motivated to invest in further developing their readiness for digital education.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, shifting rapidly to home-schooling and remote learning made it necessary for educators to adapt to new forms of teaching, new technology and new communication methods to support all their students. The consortium were aware that education would not return to its previous iteration following the pandemic and so the RAPIDE project was a response to the challenge of preparation and support for educators for digital education in a post-COVID world to ensure that all students are provided with education fit for the 21st century. The RAPIDE project was underpinned by a strong belief in educators’ professional learning capacity, as well as a commitment to the interprofessional collaboration with learners, families and other partners in the community to strengthen educators’ craft knowledge, skills and attitudes and that many instances of creative digital education have been developed by educators during the pandemic. Rather than starting with a blank slate, the RAPIDE project acknowledged the innovative practice undertaken by many educators across Europe, seeking instead to surface and develop these practices further resulting in a digital resource providing not just guidance for digital practice, but resources to support changes in thinking, understanding of dilemmas and possible ways to develop solutions within digital practice. Additionally, the consortium recognised that educators may feel vulnerable when implementing changes to their practice and that one way to support them in this endeavour is through development of co-coaching communities within which educators can find a safe space to explore and share new ideas related to digital education. Informed by pilot co-coaching communities, the project provided a toolbox containing resources and guidance for school leaders and others to create new co-coaching communities which can be implemented to support future change in the education sector. Finally, the consortium recognised that readiness for digital education requires the involvement of not just educators but the wider community including students and their families, other professionals, school leaders and policymakers. The RAPIDE project included the wider community in co-coaching communities to enrich the perspectives and shared understanding within them. Additionally, a digital resource provided non-educators with real-life examples to illustrate the benefits and challenges of digital education. The interactive digital resource supports families and others in the ‘what and how’ of creating a suitable learning environment, both physically and psychologically so that all learners are able to achieve their learning goals with the informed support of their families.