The main goal of the Digital Mentor Power Project was to improve the learning process in EU schools by enhancing the digital skills and competences of European Teachers through the development of the Digital Mentor Power Platform: This goal has been reached by: 1) identifying teachers who are skilled in a range of digital skills and different digital tools. 2) identifying teachers who need digital trainin. This teachers can support their colleagues with resources and advice regarding pedagogical methods. Thereby, the platform and its growing network of teachers represents a win-win situation for all participants. 3) reach and engage a massive number of school teachers on both sides of the “Digital Skills divide”. 4) build a rich database of digital tools and pedagogical resources where teachers can select and receive an Individual Master Class from their paired Mentor and vice-versa, or download resources (such as videos or guides) to learn about a certain digital tool. 5) make use of the available EU tools and incorporate them into the project's result or activities. There are: SELFIE for teachers, the European School Education Platform and Europass.
The pandemic and lockdown situation in the school sector resulted in an unplanned and rapid move to online learning with no digital training, insufficient digital skills, and little preparation of many teachers. As a result, the quality and quantity of teaching suffered, and the risk of a continued poor learner experience was making possible the appearance of a COVID generation of young people who misses out on large parts of their education. The Digital Mentor Power need analysis carried out by the consortium where 138 teachers, 156 students and 98 parents participated, showcased that most teachers are not trained to deliver their subject using digital tools while students expressed a need for more interactive and high-quality online classes from teachers and better communication with peers. After conducting deep desktop research, various meetings and talks with EU schools, The Digital Mentor Power project believed that a new hybrid model of education was emerging with substantial benefits, and therefore teachers needed to carry on developing their digital skills to integrate information technology in education as this acceleration of online education will eventually become an integral component of school education.