DARE Network

The training in the framework of the DIGIT-AL project was focusing on needs and motivations of educators in order to understand the digital transformation and to include it more as a topic in their pedagogical practices. Hosted by the DARE member Rede Inducar, the participants from Portugal, Romania, Spain, Germany, Bulgaria, the United States and Italy explored the different concepts of digital competence and identified aspects which are in particular relevant for Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education (EDC/HRE).

Today the Grundtvig Arward arrived by mail! The jury of the European Association for the Education of Adults selected this year the DIGIT-AL project in the category “transnational”. The project is coordinated by the DARE member Arbeitskreis deutscher Bildungsstätten and includes the member organisations Rede Inducar, Jan Tonissoni Instituut, EDC Latvia, Partners Bulgaria, CCI Trento and the DARE network.

The award ceremony will take place online at the EAEA Annual Conference 2021: Learning to exercise democracy in a digital world at November 17/18.

The European Association for the Education of Adults awarded the project DIGIT-AL with the Grundtvig Award 2021 in the category “Transnational Project”. The ceremony will take place in the frame of the EAEA Annual Conference 2021: Learning to exercise democracy in a digital world on November 17/18, 2021.

More: EAEA Media Release

“The Grundtvig Award is a great honor for us. It motivates us to continue on our path and work to ensure that more adult Europeans can learn fundamentally about digitisation as a major political and social issue. ”

On 12 and 13 October 2021, EPALE is hosting its annual Community Conference, which will be held entirely online. The conference will provide an opportunity to discuss how adult education and learning can help reshape our society, promoting inclusive and sustainable models.

The pandemic has exposed and exacerbated vulnerabilities in our globalised and interconnected world, with profound and long-lasting effects. Fast-paced changes on multiple levels – digital, demographic, and environmental – have been the norm in recent times. In this context, the conference revolves around the concept of transition. Transitions are full of uncertainty and instability, but being inherently transformative, they also provide an extraordinary opportunity to sketch out new models, paying particular attention to the challenge of not leaving anyone behind.

The project DIGIT-AL identified different aspects of digital transformation that need more awareness from a civic education and Human Rights education perspective. At the same time, there is a potential of civic education for learning about, for and with digitalisation.

The training explored good educational practices linking digitalisation with Education for Democratic Citizenship/Human Rights Education. It discussed paths toward a digital pedagogy dedicated to digital competence also understood as a competence to support learners in understanding and co-creating the social, cultural and economic impact of digitalisation.

Digitalization is an important topic of European policy. Adult Education has a crucial role to play in accompanying the transformation.

By Nils-Eyk Zimmermann (DIGIT-AL project)

The impact of the current policy developments in the field of digital transformation on European level cannot be underestimated. The Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act will determine what platforms are (still) allowed to do and how the rules of the game of digital capitalism will work. The Circular Economy Action Plan suggests a right to repair. With the way rules for Artificial Intelligence are developed and implemented a market for data-sensitive and democratic innovation is emerging, a European way of dealing with AI or a European-dressed American way. How Europe defines and enforces the Next Generation Internet influences how free, decentralized, competitive, accessible the Internet and digital single market in Europe and if not beyond our continent will be.