Having in mind that all the deliverables of the EUVHS project should meet the needs of schools in partner countries and Europe, each partner reviewed their country’s national literature about the state-of-the-art of virtual schooling while gathering the target group’s (school leaders, teachers, support staff) opinions through an online survey. By collecting such specific data, we produced a Transnational report that outlines the national context related to virtual teaching in the four implementing countries, namely Germany, Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, and Italy. This report will be the backbone and roadmap for the development of all our project’s deliverables. Among others, it became evident that actions need to be taken on three Key Pillars: Leadership – Resources and Support – Teaching and learning.
- In terms of Leadership, it is highlighted that we need to raise awareness on how to harness the digital technologies for improved quality of teaching and learning. For this, a dedicated team of important education stakeholders (leaders, teachers, support staff, and parents) can work together to build a strategic plan to be implemented in the school. This way, the whole learning programs will be aligned with the educational goals we want to achieve. The plan should include actions for collaboration and communication (within school and beyond its walls), measures for data protection and equity, strategies for psychological and emotional support as well as evaluation techniques to continuously monitor the learning process.
- In terms of Resources and Support, it is evident that we need to provide a pool of necessary tools that will facilitate virtual learning: content, materials, devices, software, and applications. For this, evaluation of how to select and integrate the appropriate technologies is crucial. Support should also expand to parents’/guardians’ guidance and training in terms of how to assist their students when learning from homeas well as psychological-wellbeing actions that cultivate a mindset for appropriate usage of technologies. A safe community of practice among all participants needs to be established and sustained.
- In terms of Teaching and Learning, it became prominent that a holistic (re)design of curricula using innovative methods should be prioritised. Space is needed for the integration of inquiry-based learning, interdisciplinarity, personalisation, peer-to-peer feedback (mediated by the teacher, as needed) and self-reflection. Lastly, students’ digital skills need to be developed to help them become better digital citizens in the new technology-mediated, interconnected word.
If you are interested to find out more, you can read the whole report here and explore the country-specific and transnational needs that our team uncovered!