The main objective of the DISK project was to strengthen the digital capacities of music teachers through a transnational training programme, adapted and based on real needs previously identified. We aimed to: (1) detect the specific gaps in digital competences within the music education sector through a mixed research phase (survey, interviews, comparative analysis); (2) design and pilot training modules that addressed those gaps while respecting the pedagogical particularities inherent to music teaching; and (3) equip teachers to use digital tools meaningfully in areas such as communication, collaboration, content creation, and online safety. In doing so, the project also sought to foster transnational dialogue between institutions, develop a shared European understanding of digital transformation in the arts, and support institutional strategies for curricular innovation. Ultimately, we hoped to contribute to the professionalisation and adaptation of music education to new technological and educational contexts.
We applied for this project after identifying, through a preliminary survey and based on shared hypotheses among the DISK partners, a significant lack of digital competences among specialised music teachers, particularly in the hybrid and online educational context that followed the pandemic. Although European public administrations were actively promoting the improvement of teachers’ digital skills, these efforts rarely considered the specific needs, teaching formats, and working conditions of music educators. The exceptional nature of this type of teaching—frequently individual, performance-based, and highly sensitive to context—was left outside existing training programmes. DISK was therefore conceived to address this structural omission by conducting a real needs analysis of teachers in different countries, raising awareness of the particular challenges faced by the sector, and designing a digital training programme tailored to the artistic and pedagogical realities of music education.