ETRe Project

During 2019 Covid outbreak, schools around Europe were forced to implement a distance learning or a hybrid learning model. This meant that, under time pressure, the proper digital tools had to be chosen, the educational content had to be digitalised, and most importantly the whole learning process had to be transferred to on-line environments. Although, many researches of the past decade were aiming to increase the educational organisations’ readiness to perform such a swift, it was, most commonly, not expected to occur so rapidly. Thus, leaving little time to educators to research suggested approaches and tools and find the method that would best suit their teaching approach.
Meanwhile, global enterprises, had developed over the years their collaborative platforms and set of tools, several open source for educational use, that have the potential to facilitate the distance learning educational process. During the Covid era, a fast choice had to be made, by EU ministries of education, schools, teachers, etc. on which set of tools would be used. The many available choices, the lack of data and information to enlighten the decision makers, as well as the lack of a platform capable of integrating all those tools led to students using multiple and different tools for different subjects at school, after school classes, when changing schools, etc.
The EU educators’ community, having all those different implementations, approaches and resources (tools and educational content) were unable to efficiently collaborate under the time pressure explained above. This resulted in a feeling of confusion to educators that expected a greater level of guidance

Objectives

The ETRe – Empowering schools’ transition readiness to a distance/hybrid learning model enhanced by cloud technology tools is an ERASMUS KA2 Partnerships for Digital Education Readiness project that aims to:

  • create a framework of digital competences and a set of characteristics that a digital tools repository, used in an educational context, should have,
  • explore the importance and the add-on value of the available open-source tools (cloud: communication, collaboration, storage, planning, etc.) in cases where there is a specific educational or technical need or cases where tools are able to work in parallel, integrated into a common collaborative platform.
  • empower the educators’ community by offering a set of easy-to-read tools information and comparison infographics to assist them in choosing the correct kind of tool
  • develop a guide on how to adapt the suggested framework within a classroom that has to implement a distance or hybrid learning model
  • develop a distance/hybrid learning certification process for a school organisation to set a standard for schools that wish to achieve an adequate level of readiness.
 

Target Groups

The project aims to make an impact by targeting:

(1) educators,

(2) educational organisation decision makers and

(3) school principals

in an effort to empower them to make those decisions, even when under pressure, relating to the set of digital tools to be used, the distance/hybrid learning digital approach to be implemented, and the digital competences of educators and students that will facilitate those changes.

 

More information about the project: https://etre-project.eu/