Digital Education Action Plan – Action 2
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the sudden and large-scale use of digital learning practices. The range of solutions put in place to ensure the continuity of education and training were wide and included both low and high-tech practices.
Higher levels of digital capacity and experience with alternative and flexible forms of learning have led to faster and more effective responses to the pandemic.
Evidence highlights differences in the effectiveness of responses between education and training levels and sectors. In most cases, higher education institutions continued their lessons virtually, while many schools at both primary and secondary level lacked expertise and struggled to offer distance and online learning opportunities to all their students.
What is blended learning?
‘Blended learning' is the term used in formal education and training to describe when a school, educator or student takes more than one approach to the learning process.
It may combine learning at school and in other environments, such as companies, training centres, distance learning, outdoors, at cultural sites, as well as using different (non-)digital learning tools.
Objectives
Drawing on the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Council Recommendation develops a shared understanding at the European Union (EU) level of blended learning.
The purpose of the Council Recommendation is to support EU countries in addressing on the short term the consequences of COVID-19 on learners, teachers, trainers and schools .
It also outlines a way forward for developing long-term effective, inclusive and engaging approaches to blended learning in primary and secondary education. This will help adapting school education systems to be more flexible and inclusive of a broad range of pedagogical methods, technological tools, learner needs and changing circumstances.
Key activities
- support mutual learning and exchanges among EU countries
- develop resources, including guidance material, available on the European school education platform
- support professional development opportunities, including Erasmus+ Teacher Academies and the SELFIE tool for teachers