File:DigitalLearning ee.pdf

Summary

Estonia is a country with a high level of digital readiness and good student achievement in international comparisons. This increases the responsibility of Estonian educational technology researchers to study the use of digital technologies and to suggest directions for improvements, as the Estonian case could be a valuable example worldwide. In this chapter, the authors aim to provide an overview of the Estonian education system and strategic directions for empowering teachers and students in schools with meaningful digital learning and teaching approaches. The Framework for the Digital Competence for Learning and Teaching developed by the authors highlights the need for transformative digital competence in addition to generic and contextual competences. This highest level of digital competence is necessary to advance from the Digitization of education to the Digital Transformation stage. Currently, the results of the DigiEfekt study show that Estonian teachers focus mainly on the constructive use of digital technologies and do not usually provide students with interactive assignments that would foster collaboration. The study also reveals that technology tends to be used as a substitute for traditional learning processes, that is, those not involving technology, or, less often, for the augmentation of learning. Thus, modification and redefinition of the whole learning process and learning goals does not really seem to be the case in Estonian schools. Teachers’ main goal for using digital technology in the classroom appears to be practical enhancement; qualitative enhancement has received much less attention. Therefore, it is important to focus more on teachers’ professional development activities that have an effect on their mindset and result in a critical revision of their goals and practices. The Educational Technology master’s program introduced in this chapter is one good example of the desired programs. However, to scale such programs up to involve all schools, learning communities should be established and supported in schools.

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