News
EPICA was presented at the Stakeholder Meeting on Digital Education
by Federica Mancini , Open University of Catalonia (UOC)
The EPICA project was presented at the Stakeholder Meeting on Digital Education that convened 10-11 December 2018 in Luxembourg. The event was organized by the European Commission, with the aim to gather information on the ongoing projects on digital education, focusing in particular on the lessons learned and the future vision from the project perspective. The session was chaired by Rehana Schwinninger-Ladak, Head of Unit, Unit G.2, DG CNECT, Interactive Technologies, Digital for Culture and Education. Among the participants were Anne Bajart, Deputy Head of Unit and Project Officers Alina Senn, Stefanie Hille, and Marcel Watelet.
EPICA was presented by Federica Mancini from the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), who explained the project’s successful achievements, challenges, success stories, and promising areas/elements that could be scaled up and deployed after the funding period.
Eighteen other projects were presented by the participants and grouped according to their specific topics:
- technologies for better human learning and teaching (BEACONING, MATHISIS, NEWTON, SlideWiki, TESLA, WEKIT);
- technologies for learning and skills (CRISS, eCraft2Learn, iMuSciCA, Next-Lab, and STORIES, weDRAW);
- international partnership building in low- and middle-income countries (GO-GA, EPICA);
- open knowledge technologies: mapping and validating knowledge (CompLeap, SkillsMatch);
- advanced digital gaming/gamification technologies (RAGE);
- gaming and gamification (GamECAR, SOCIALENERGY).
Some of the participants in the event expressed their interest in the EPICA project and in being informed of its future progress and results. Their expression of interest may also lead to the creation of fruitful synergies and future collaboration with participants of other projects.
The second day, the attendees were involved in a workshop aimed at collecting ideas for the future EU funding programmes. After a round of short pitches, the ideas presented were clustered into topics based on similarities and ranked by the participants. Small working groups were organised to collect reflections on the selected ideas/topics and to produce a flip chart containing a swot analysis.
Several interesting reflexions came up from the groups. Among them was the need to invest extra resources in:
- teachers' professional development for the adoption of new pedagogies
- promoting the uptake of existing tools and platforms bridging between Erasmus and Horizon projects
- identifying best practices in- and outside general curricula
- finding effective ways to develop the key competences
- creating hubs of innovation
- developing inclusive and adaptable learning environments
- other related endeavours.
The two-day event also included several presentations:
- Alina Senn (PO) introduced the upcoming call for proposals for ‘An empowering, inclusive Next Generation Internet’;
- Rehana Schwinninger-Ladak led a session on future programmes under the new MFF (Multiannual Financial Framework) – Digital Europe Programme & Horizon Europe Programme;
- Stefanie Hille discussed the role of the European Union in supporting Member States and educational institutions in the modernisation of their education systems.
