From March 2020, the COVID-19 crisis has caused educational institutions in Europe to close their doors and quickly switch to distance / online teaching. In a matter of weeks, the educational landscape in Europe and around the world has completely changed. The COVID-19 pandemic has raised awareness of significant gaps and deficiencies in digital skills, connectivity and the use of technology in education.
The adaptation of education systems to the digital age has become a topic of major interest on the European agenda, an aspect reflected in several initiatives.
One of these initiatives is the creation of the European Framework for the Digital Competence of Teachers: DigCompEdu, structured in six areas. The six DigCompEdu domains focus on different aspects of the professional activities of teachers:
Domain 1 – Professional Engagement: Use of digital technologies for communication, collaboration and professional development
Domain 2 – Digital resources: Finding, creating and sharing digital resources
Domain 3 – Teaching and learning: Managing and orchestrating the use of digital technologies in teaching and learning
Domain 4 – Assessment: Using digital technologies and strategies to improve assessment
Domain 5 – Empowering learners: Using digital technologies to improve inclusion, personalization and active engagement of learners
Domain 6 – Facilitating learners’ acquisition of digital competence: Enabling learners to use digital technologies creatively and responsibly for information, communication, content creation, well-being and problem-solving.
Romania aligns itself with the initiatives of the European Union. In terms of legislation, on June 29, 2022, the order for the approval of the digital competence framework of the education professional was promulgated. This Order regulates the digital skills framework of the education professional – DigCompEdu.
The DigCompEdu framework is aimed at teachers at all levels of education, from pre-school to higher education and adult education, including general and vocational education and training, education for people with special needs and education in non-formal learning contexts.
The DigCompEdu framework provides a progression model to help teachers assess and develop their digital skills. It describes six levels, from A1 to C2, through which a teacher’s digital skills are developed. In the first two levels, Beginner – A1 and Explorer – A2, teachers assimilate new information and form basic digital practices. In the next two levels, Integrator – B1 and Expert – B2, they apply, develop and structure their digital practices. In the higher levels, Leader – C1 and Innovator – C2, they can transfer knowledge to other teachers, critically, they can create new practices.
To support the development of digital skills, we remind you that My Smart School is an Erasmus+ project that offers teachers e-learning courses on how to approach online and hybrid teaching and offers concrete digital solutions. One of the results of this project is the creation of the My Smart School platform, where both students and teachers can benefit from learning. Teachers can develop their digital skills by taking e-learning courses, and students can register on the platform and have access to courses created by teachers for them.
Constantly, during the project, the learning platform is improved, both at the suggestions of teachers and students. It has become a useful work tool at school and at home. The pandemic caused by COVID 19 has shown us all that education needs more than ever to keep up with technological and digital evolution. We cannot go back to the old way of teaching. We have to adapt, learn, in fact, keep learning. The MYSS platform is a platform that enables continuous learning. If you haven’t discovered it yet, we invite you to visit the project website and learn more about the project, the platform and how it can contribute to the development of digital skills, both for teachers and students.
