Digitalisation of education requires a strong pedagogical approach – CSC gave feedback on the planned EU Recommendation on digital education

Digitalisation of education extends far beyond technological aspects and must be addressed with a strong pedagogical approach. CSC is pleased to note that one of the aims of the Recommendation is indeed to create guidelines for digital pedagogy. The starting point of these guidelines must be learner-centricity. This entails that education systems allow for building individual learning paths and that learners receive the necessary guidance for creating their own paths, preferably supported by their personal learning data.

Data can play a big part in digitalisation of education, both at the level of individual learners and that of education providers and systems. Learning data analysis allows for assessing learning results and suggesting the most suitable learning methods and paths for each learner and also improvements at institutional and/or system level. In some cases, data can also be used as an educational resource.

While increased utilisation of data can bring major improvements to the functioning of education providers and systems as well as individual learning results, it is crucial to ensure that data use is controlled and ethical, paying due attention to privacy and data protection. Students must always have the right to determine how their data is used, according to the MyData principles (mydata.org).

An obvious cornerstone of digital pedagogy are teachers and educators who must be able to navigate the digital world and feel comfortable with using digital solutions in teaching. Education professionals must be offered opportunities and rewarded for updating their competences in digital pedagogy in a continuous manner as a part of their professional growth. There must also be opportunities for mutual learning and sharing of best practices among teachers and education providers, both nationally and internationally.

Strong digital pedagogy must be paired with the necessary technical solutions, i.e. tools, platforms and materials for digital teaching and learning as well as related user support. The solutions must be developed in good cooperation across all levels and fields of education in order to ensure their interoperability and thereby pave the way for the creation of a seamless path of digital services for lifelong learning and cross-border mobility.

Due attention must be paid to the quality and availability of open educational resources. The resources must be diverse and interactive, and they must support learning of theoretical and practical skills alike. Licensing systems must be designed so that learners’ access to learning resources will not be restricted in a way that hampers lifelong learning.

Other issues that must be addressed when creating digital learning opportunities include remote assessment and recognition of competences as well as remote identification of learners. These require safe, reliable and user-friendly digital solutions that are capable of preventing counterfeiting and preferably allow for cross-border use.