The EU launched today its Opening up Education initiative, the Commission's response to the opportunities of the digital era in the field of education.
"Digital technology and content has improved, and countries around the world, from the US to Asia, are starting to reap the benefits out of it, Europe is falling behind," Commissioner Neely Kroes, responsible for Europe's Digital Agenda said."It’s not just the way we teach and learn that is changing. It’s also the specific skills people need to get good jobs in the growing digital economy."
More than six out of ten 9 year olds are missing the digital equipment and fast broadband they need at school, not enough teachers are confident about using ICT technology in the classroom and some countries, like Greece and Croatia, fewer than half of pupils have internet at school, Kroes pointed out.
Opening up Education is "about becoming more open and flexible, so that pupils and students get the start in life they need, and adult learners get the chance to join this digital movement," Kroes said.
Opening up Europe aims to strengthen the integration of digital technologies and contents in formal, non-formal and informal education and training, in order to ensure the provision of skills needed by the current and future generations of European students and workers, and increase efficiency of the delivery of education and training in the EU.
"Let's be clear: it is not enough to bring a few computers in our schools. We need to provide a comprehensive response," Androula Vassiliou, Commissioner responsible for Education said.
"We are focusing on 3 drivers of change: teaching methods, digital content, and infrastructures."
The initiative will focus on improving and updating digital infrastructures for education and training, including connectivity, up-scaling the creation, use, re-use and sharing of quality digital education contents, including Open Educational Resources, and modernising learning, teaching and assessment practices through digital technologies and increase equity.
To address the content arm of this equation, the Commissioners launched the first of their Opening up Europe projects, the Open Education Europa web portal.
This will provide an online meeting place where students, practitioners and educational institutions can access and share open educational resources.
"Open Educational Resources will increase the economic efficiency of education and training and lead to the development of new teaching and learning practices, which will improve the quality of education throughout Europe," Vassiliou said.
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