BoostClass 2.0, Boosting Classes 2.0 for high-quality teaching in adult education
Promoting the quality and competitiveness of educational offers in the adult education sector through reinforcing digital skills in the teaching and learning process.
According to European statistics (2018), only 20–25 % of students in EU schools are taught by teachers who are confident with using technology, 43 % of Europeans lack basic digital skills, and 71 million students attending European schools need to develop their skills for the digital society.
The target of EU initiatives is students and teachers since lifelong learning is one of the fields where Europe falls behind and one of the key aspects of the Digital Education Action Plan. This plan (EU Commission, 2018) is the focal point of e-learning and intends to support technology use and digital skills in education.
Due to the COVID-19 emergency, many ‘traditional’ teachers have discovered and started using distance learning. However, EU countries are in a different situation in terms of developing e-learning in adult education.
In fact, based on Eurydice’s report (2015) the percentage of adults (25–64 years old) who undertook distance learning (formal or informal), with an EU average rate of 2.2 %, were: 1.5 % (-0.7) in Bulgaria, 4.9 % (+2.7) in Spain, 1.5 % (-0.7) in Italy and 0.7 % (-1.5) in Romania (Eurostat data).
In Spain, the relatively high participation rate seems to reflect the efforts made by the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sports (MECD). They have several complete distance learning programmes funded by public funds.
While the registered data is negative in Bulgaria, Italy, and Romania, there are different large-scale programmes and private initiatives promoting e-learning training for adult education.
Nevertheless, neither teachers nor students are prepared and equipped to produce a teaching and learning process that is effective in engaging adults, who are, in most cases, immigrants.
Therfore, the project aims to:
- Define a common framework for identifying teaching and learning approaches, which can effectively promote and implement the integration of new technologies in adult education by encouraging the use of modern concepts in education, a healthy working environment, and teamwork, creating programmes that are attractive to adults, allowing them to continuously learn and develop throughout their lives.
- Reinforce distance learning assessment and evaluation systems through pedagogical tools and techniques to improve teaching and learning flexibility.
- Design open education resources that define the technical skills for the didactic use through the main devices and use the principles of ‘BYOD’ (bring your own device), the methodological skills for teaching approaches for effectively integrating apps into teaching activities, and the skills for managing, producing, and distributing digital content.
- Utilising the attractiveness of technology to improve social inclusion with a main focus on improving language skills and the responsible use of technology in terms of safety and ethical rules.
- Improving a sense of collaboration among teachers and schools through sharing experiences and good practices to enhance the use of technology in adult schools.
Basic information
- EU-Track, Italy
- Centre for Education, Research and Innovations, Bulgaria
- Profesionalna Gimnazia Po Mehanoelektrotehnika I Elektronika, Bulgaria
- CEPA Casa de la Cultura, Spain
- Liceul Tehnologic "George Bibescu" Craiova, Romania
The research, which is available here (https://www.boostclass.eu/framework-to-integrate-new-technologies-in-adult-education.php), focused on developing a learning framework to integrate new technologies into adult education through project-based learning.
Specifically, the aim was to:
- Map the digital skills required for integrating technology into adult education classes at national level to develop training curricula and learning scenarios/activities that are to be delivered to teachers through the e-learning environment and define the open educational resources that are to be used to implement the project work with the students during the piloting phase.
- Analyse and compare the assessment and evaluation systems in distance learning (formative and summative), considering the current trends in technology used in adult education classes.
The project activities aimed to promote digital skills for 2.0 development in adult education through an online training path focused on:
- How to re-think the classes’ borders by exploiting the potential of ICT;
- How to develop and design an effective assessment and evaluation system for distance learning;
- How to increase adult learners' motivation through technology;
- How to effectively combine pedagogical approaches such as project-based learning and episodes of situated learning.
The training was delivered through the BoostClass 2.0 learning environment, which is available here.
A report will describe all the activities carried out, and the outcomes achieved, underlining the strengths and weaknesses for future implementation of the training path and the methodology that was designed.