Project Information

Background

The broad context to the project relates to the increased digitisation of schools as reflected in the greater availability and use of smart devices. To support the meaningful adoption of these devices, and to best capitalise on the educational enhancements which they can support requires teachers who are competent in the creation of digital content which is tailored to the particular needs of their own learners, and which is informed and underpinned by an understanding of the academic and digital competencies related to digital content creation.

The recent pivot to online and remote teaching due to the covid pandemic has changed how digital learning is perceived within schools with an enhanced appreciation of the role which teachers play in the provision of accessible digital learning and content for their students. Teachers are now assuming roles as content creators but the competencies which underpin this aspect to their role and the related creation process have been under addressed to-date.

The academic and digital competencies related to digital content creation include aspects related to copyright, legal and ethical dimensions, fair use and re-use of content, use in differentiated instruction as well as the digital literacies to enable content creation. In parallel to this teacher digital content creation is identified and reflected as a current priority at a European level and there is recognition across the academic and policy literature of its significance in the broad context of digital transformation.

Objectives

This project focuses on teacher creation of digital content. It aims to identify the competencies which enable teachers to create digital content and will work with teachers to trial and iterate a related framework which scaffolds teachers in digital content creation. It will produce teacher education materials to support the realisation of the identified competencies by the teachers participating in the project and resources targeted at pre-service teachers to scale the project outcomes.

Implementation

The implementation will involve a range of activities commencing with a systematic review of relevant literature and stakeholder consultation to support the development of the TD3C framework. Training, ideation, co-creation and piloting activities will be conducted with participant teachers to trial the framework, enhance teacher competencies in digital content creation, and devise and pilot pedagogic examples with selected learners.

Results

The results and outcomes will be a literature and stakeholder informed framework which will scaffold teacher creation of digital content; a process of ideation, co-creation and piloting will generate examples of digital content and related learning activities providing exemplars of innovative ways these can be used in practice; teacher engagement and professional learning aspects will result in the development, utilisation and sharing of teacher education resources within and beyond the project.