The project’s main aim is to support school leadership teams to upskill their competences to develop digital strategies. The objectives of the project were to: • Support school leaders and staff to develop a digital strategy • Develop school leadership teams’ competencies for leveraging free digital tools and resources for school improvement. • Develop a practical toolkit aligned with the DigCompEdu, with practical, step-by-step guides on how to design and deploy a strategy. • Adapt and use the SELFIE and TET-SAT tools to support the digital strategy development. • Develop the digital skills of school leadership teams and teachers. All project outcomes aimed to provide comprehensive support for school leaders concerning the digital transformation of their school in Europe, and in the same time to customize them for national and local realities.
After the pandemic, a strong need was identified to reform schools and to support teachers and students to develop digital skills and competences (UNESCO, 2020). In 2020, almost all students in Europe were learning partially or fully from home due to Covid-19, but at the same time, only few schools have written statements on the use of ICT for pedagogical purposes and digital technology in their school development plans (EC, 2019). This crisis made digitization in school education in EU even more urgent than ever. It was identified that school leaders often lack skills and need to be specifically trained to understand the complexities of digital transformation. They need to understand how to implement digital strategies in their schools in a systematic and strategic way. On one side, schools need to be reformed and teachers and students should be supported to develop digital skills and competences. On the other side, many additional problems arise, including digital infrastructure, innovative teaching and learning methods with ICT, continuous development of teachers, privacy, wellbeing and support for students in the digital age and others.