The main aim of the Programme for Enhancing Digital Literacy (PEDL) was to address digital transformation through developing the digital readiness, capacity and resilience of school communities associated with each partner. These objectives of our project are linked to Priority 1) of the Erasmus+ programme and they are: 1. To exchange practice with our transnational partners on how they seek to inform, engage and support the school community with digital transformation. 2. To enhance partner organisations capacity to provide digital content which will support to school communities in using their schools learning platform. 3. To collaborate with partner organisations in hosting a shared learning event where key findings and recommendations from our project can be disseminated to a wider network of transnational educational stakeholders 4. To build relationships with participating organisations which will lead to an application for a Cooperation Partnership in 2023.
The impact of the Covid-19 school closures on children, young people and families has been significant and resulted in widening the educational gap for a certain cohort. Specifically, there is a plethora of research suggesting that the pandemic has disproportionately negatively affected students and families from areas of socio-economic disadvantage. The motivation behind our project is to address digital transformation and to narrow the digital divide for our school communities to allow students the equality of opportunity to succeed in education. As lead applicant, Laois Offaly Education and Training Board (LOETB) along with our national partner, Trinity College Dublin (TCD), designed a pilot programme to develop digital literacy and skills for members of school communities in our affiliated schools. This programme is in pilot phase and we feel this could be enhanced by incorporating knowledge gained from an exchange of practice with our transnational partners. Ultimately, we recognised that digital transformation was a need to be addressed for each partner and this project provided us with a platform to build transformative relationships and transnational networks for collaboration.