The COVID-19 pandemic was remarkable in that unlike previous serious disease outbreaks like Ebola and SARS, COVID-19 had what could be considered a global reach. Almost all European countries closed down schools for varying periods of time, and societies across Europe are still feeling the effects of both the lockdown and the disease itself.
Teachers across the world rushed to transfer their teaching online when the spring 2020 lockdown started. Since then, they have continued to teach under immense pressure, and even when returning to the classroom (sometimes amid concerns for their safety), they have often maintained an online element of teaching for quarantining pupils. As key workers, teachers have hardly had a chance to take a breath, let alone spend time retraining or developing skills to help with the move to online teaching.
DigiTeaL therefore has four objectives:
These objectives will be reached through the production of 4 intellectual outputs, in the form of a framework report, a user guide and two sets of guidelines. They respond directly to this call in that they focus on:
The direct target groups addressed by this project are:
Indirect target groups include:
This project addresses the need to gather the best practice discovered under stress during the spring 2020 lockdown, as well as through ongoing online teaching. It further addresses the need for teachers to have quick, practical and clear resources that they can use at their convenience, and without taking time from everything else they are involved in.