Digital inclusion has become a buzzword since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, as tens of millions of learners and teachers were forced online for virtual lessons.
“I have been advocating e-learning for 20 years, and within two weeks (of the pandemic), we had schools and universities doing it. It worked. However, it also showed how unequal systems are,” says Fabio Nascimbeni, ETF Human Capital Development Expert.
The ETF took part in the Digital Inclusion Knowledge Fair, a three-day event organised by the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) International Training Centre.
During the fair, there were discussions on better connectivity, digital literacy, and digital services and content.
“Digital inclusion is often neglected, but UNICEF is now developing textbooks that can be read by people with any disability. These strategies need to be put in place, and I hope the ETF will implement them too,” says Fabio.
At the event, the ETF presented two webinars. Filippo Del Ninno, ETF specialist in VET Policies and Systems, spoke about "Experimenting with digital inclusion for vocational excellence: The ENE ETF experience".
The ENE is the ETF’s Network for Excellence, which was launched in 2020 to bring together an international network for Vocational Centres of Excellence (CoVEs) in the EU neighbourhood. There are 144 CoVEs registered in eight EU countries, 15 partner countries and six countries in Africa.
Alessandro Brolpito, ETF’s Senior Human Capital Development Expert - Digital Skills and Learning, gave a presentation,"Reflecting on digital innovation and inclusion at school: The SELFIE experience".
Alessandro focused on how schools and educational institutions can be more digitally competent and inclusive.
“Policies on digital education can be too ambitious, and so remain on paper. My focus is on schools, at the grass roots, to show a tool that can support schools in a collective reflection process, which aims at seeing what is working and what is not.”
SELFIE, a European Commission initiative launched in 2018, aims for more effective use of digital technology for teaching and learning, driven by pedagogy. It has 1.6 million users, in over 30 languages and in over 80 countries.
“It is essentially a questionnaire that involves school leaders, teachers and students. For a topic, with tailored questions, they reflect on eight areas related to digital education. It is about empowering the school,” says Alessandro.
The survey covers leadership, infrastructure and equipment, professional development, implementation in the classroom, assessment practices, students digital competence, network and collaboration, and support and resources.
The SELFIE questionnaires are tailored to three educational levels: primary, lower and upper-secondary general education, and vocational education.
Once the survey is done, schools analyse the results through an online interactive report.
“It allows schools, for instance, to identify areas of priority and to develop an action plan,” he says.
The three key rationales for using SELFIE for digital inclusion are to one, empower schools through collective self-reflection; two, define schools’ infrastructure and resource development; and three, project national policy, anonymously collect school data and share best practice.
“Schools are aware that they need to be digitally competent, but it is harder to find tools that support these exercises,” says Alessandro.
A component of SELFIE is its collaborative nature, building on the back of OpenSpace, the ETF’s community portal to share knowledge on teaching and vocational learning skills.
Alessandro sees digital inclusion as not being about hardware or software. “It is primarily about leveraging a different mindset, which embraces cultural and cognitive diversity to the fullest, and which is a part of a larger digital ecosystem,” he says.
The two main challenges for digital inclusion are accessibility for all, from access to affordability, to implementing initiatives that include vulnerable groups such as disabled learners, hard-to-reach citizens, and the unemployed.
In education itself, the challenge is the capacity of educational actors and of learners to use digital technology in a meaningful way and for equity, taking into account disability, gender, and cultural background.
“I strongly believe we need more capacity within schools. We need to communicate together, and bring students together. And we need to answer specific issues and how they are implemented,” says Alessandro. “The only solution I see to really embrace digital education that ensures inclusion is through empowerment of the school.”
The ETF emphasises three principles for digital inclusion, to be about: “mindware” not hardware or software; that digital inclusion is one component of a larger development ecosystem; and that digital inclusion should be the overall goal of digital technological evolution.
With the European Commission having recently launched its Digital Decade vision for Europe’s digital transformation by 2030, digital inclusion will be a focus for the ETF.
“The ETF is responding to the very high demand for support with digitalisation among ETF countries,” says Fabio. “If you don’t start designing digital inclusivity from the start, it is hard to do that afterwards, so we need to talk to people and think of different audiences.”
The ETF joined the international digital inclusion summit, says Fabio, “as a commitment to its intention to include digital technology in an inclusive way.”
Some 100 subscribers attended the first two days of the event, which included webinars on various topics. The third day, 9 July, was open to the public, attracting some 1,834 booth visits.
Participants were able to virtually visit some 15 booths at the Knowledge Fair, being able to click on links, watch videos and chat ‘live’ with organisations, including the DQ Institute’s vision to empower 1 billion Individuals with Digital Skills by 2030; Gamoteca, a gamified, human-connected learning experience that introduces sign language; ImpalaXR Bénin, which aims to introduce augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) for education in Africa; the 2021 Digital Inclusion Summit; the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation’s (FAO) elearning Academy; and the ETF.
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