Technology and open educational resources to reshape EU education

SUMMARY OF:

Communication (COM(2013) 654 final) on opening up education: innovative teaching and learning for all through new technologies and open educational resource

WHAT IS THE AIM OF THE COMMUNICATION?

It aims to stimulate high-quality, innovative ways of learning and teaching using new technologies and digital content.
It puts forward strategies for open learning environments* to deliver higher-quality education. This contributes to the Europe 2020 goals of boosting EU competitiveness and growth through a more skilled workforce and higher employment.

KEY POINTS

Although EU countries are responsible for education matters, the EU supports their work by:
- promoting and sharing best practice;
- supporting the sharing of information;
- and delivering benefits through economies of scale and exchange and use of information across borders;
- helping the deployment and availability of digital technology and content through financial support, public–private partnerships and recommendations.
EU education is failing to keep pace with the digital society and economy and technology provides the opportunity to increase efficiency and equity in education.
Erasmus+, Horizon 2020 and other EU-funding programmes provide incentives and conditions that encourage partnerships and projects, in particular to address the following issues.
- Open learning environments — opportunities to innovate:
  - education and training institutions need to review their organisational strategies to stimulate innovative learning practices;
  - teachers should be able to acquire good pedagogical digital competences, for instance through strong communities of practice and rewards for new teaching methods;
  - learners expect to acquire digital skills and competences and have their skills easily certified and recognised for further learning or work.
- Open educational resources* — opportunities to use open knowledge for better quality and access:
  - high-quality open educational resources must become more visible and available to all citizens;
  - copyright issues should be more transparent across borders.
- Connectivity and innovation — partnerships for infrastructures, new products and services, and exchanging and making use of information:
  - better internet connection infrastructure is still needed in some EU countries. Open compatibility standards could bring economies of scale in digital apps and content so that the EU’s digital education market can grow.
- A concerted effort to seize the opportunities of the digital revolution:
  - an integrated approach is needed to better grasp the opportunities to come, i.e. securing access to digital content, to information and communications technology infrastructure, to the right level of digital skills and to the right organisational strategies can generate an educational offer able to sustain innovation.

The communication proposes actions at EU and national levels, including:

helping learning institutions, teachers and learners to acquire digital skills and learning methods;
supporting the development and availability of open educational resources, in particular through an open access requirement for Erasmus+;
connecting classrooms by deploying digital devices and content;
mobilising teachers, learners, families and economic and social partners to change the role of digital technologies within education institutions.

BACKGROUND

The communication contributes to EU targets for reducing early school leaving and increasing attainment:
- ‘Education and training in a smart, sustainable and inclusive Europe’ (Joint report of the Council and the Commission).
It builds on the initiatives outlined in the following European Commission communications:
- ‘Rethinking education’;
- ‘European higher education in the world’;
- ‘A digital agenda for Europe’.

KEY TERMS

open learning environments: environments based on self-regulated learning. This is aimed at creating responsible and thinking learners who are able to independently plan their learning process, search for resources and then reflect on process and progress.

open educational resources (OER): freely accessible with permission to the user from the holder. This can be text, media and other digital assets used for teaching, learning, assessment and research.

MAIN DOCUMENT

Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions — Opening up education: innovative teaching and learning for all through new technologies and open educational resources (COM(2013) 654 final, 25.9.2013)