E-Inclusion and digital competences

30 November 2008 to 01 January 2009
Vienna, Austria

Peer Learning Cluster or other group

Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

Background

The 8th ICT Peer Learning Activity (PLA) was hosted by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Art and Culture and organised by the Austrian member of the ICT cluster from said Ministry.

The PLA focused on digital competences and eLearning, and starting with Austrian experiences in eLearning and good practices in teacher training.

It lasted one and a half days and was preceded by the eInclusion Conference, taking place in Vienna from 30 November 2008 to 2 December 2008. It was also thought as a platform to discuss results from the eInclusion Conference and in particularly the recommendations of the Digital Literacy High Level Group (set up by DG INFSO).

Description

Key lessons of the PLA:

The PLA provided a logical continuation to previous PLA discussions. Its conclusions are:
  •  Education has to do more to achieve digital literacy. The recommendations formulated after the PLA in Thessaloniki are an excellent instrument in the hands of the ICT Cluster to raise awareness.
  • Teacher training remains the most significant bottleneck. The experiences and good practice cases compiled by the Cluster group are showing the way.
The PLA together with the 7th PLA meeting in Thessaloniki also resulted in a set of recommendations on Digital Literacy and competences for LLL hightlighting the following messages: 
  • Lifelong learning strategies need to answer to the growing need for advanced digital competence for all jobs and for all learners.
  • Learning digital skills not only needs to be addressed as a separate subject but also embedded within teaching in all subjects.
  • Building digital competence by embedding and learning ICT should start as early as possible.
  • Teachers need to be equipped with the digital competence themselves, in order to support this process.
For further reading, see:
Knowledge System for Lifelong Learning