European Trade Union Committee for Education

The European Parliament has published a report on “Innovative Schools, Teacher& Learning in the Digital Era”. The report analyses new ways of social-digital participation and argues that schools need to adapt to new technologies. It evaluates new practices of knowledge creation, asks how to implement new technologies in schools, and assesses what pedagogic creations are required from teachers.

People who are born after 1980 are often called digital natives, although the term is critically analysed, the authors argue that education systems need to recognise that young people use ICT in everyday life. Schools, teachers and education authorities need to accept this and implement new teaching practices. Pupils need to be prepared for the challenges of the 21st century, such as the digitalisation of the working and private life. Hence it is necessary to teach them a responsible use of ICT, which enables them “to regulate their own use of mobile devices inside and outside of schools.”

According to the report, a teacher is required to give “strategic guidance” to pupils, as teachers have an “understanding of the long term objective of learning”. “Technical innovations are not necessarily pedagogical innovations,” which means that teachers have to face the challenge to accompany pupils in their learning process and to sort out techniques that are not useful. To enable teachers to do this, the report proposes to improve teacher training. ETUCE highlights that the challenges to address these topics cannot be solved by teachers alone. The digital revolution relays additional responsibility to everyone involved in the education system.

To read the complete report, please click here.